Having their first marriages annulled was not an easy process, but now that Jennifer and Luke are again in full communion in the Church, they both say it was worthwhile.

“Our faith is a big part of who we are as a couple, and every Sunday at Mass I felt like I had a hole in my heart,” Jennifer said about not being able to receive the Holy Eucharist following their civil union.

One year after Bishop David Zubik announced the decision to eliminate all fees for those seeking a marriage annulment in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the number of cases is up dramatically. Sacrificial gifts to Our Campaign for The Church Alive! enabled the costs to be waived, removing potential obstacles to sacramental participation in the life of the Church.

Father Dennis Yurochko, Judicial Vicar of the diocesan Tribunal, expects they will handle 300 cases in 2016, nearly twice as many as the previous year.

“In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Holy Father has asked us to make the annulment process as accessible as possible and bring more people into an ever deeper relationship with Christ and His Church,” Father Yurochko said.

In his apostolic exhortation released last week, Pope Francis was clear that marriage is indissoluble and should be seen as a gift. He called on the Church to speak up for the value of permanent commitment in a culture in which many people have lost respect for marriage and are delaying the union or deciding to simply live together.

But the Holy Father also stressed that not all failed marriages or remarriages are the same. He urged pastors to consider all the circumstances of those who had divorced and remarried, and to work with them to repair their relationship with the Church.

Jennifer and Luke said they received that kind of spiritual care from their pastor.

“We had felt like outsiders but wanted to be fully practicing Catholics along with having a loving marriage,” Luke said. “Father was very helpful and supportive. He made our validation so special in a private Mass with him.”

Divorced Catholics who wish to remarry need an official finding by a church tribunal that their first marriage, although entered in good faith, was not spiritually binding. An annulment opens the door to marriage in the Church and full participation in Catholic sacramental life.

 “There are many misconceptions about a declaration of nullity,” Father Yurochko said. “Some people are concerned that it means any children born during the marriage are illegitimate. That is a civil matter. We examine canonical aspects—whether this was a valid sacrament of matrimony.

“Annulment conditions include any intention against having children, against permanence or against perpetual fidelity,” Father Yurochko said. “We examine whether a marriage was truly open to the goods of marriage, including whether they understood it to be a permanent, lifelong bond.”

Father Yurochko said the annulment process usually takes about a year, but it depends on how complicated the case is or whether the respondent spouse opposes the annulment.

Fees charged to individual petitioners were about $650, representing about one-third of the entire cost of the process. The diocese had subsidized the balance for many years.

Two-thirds of the fee income is now covered by a campaign grant, with the remainder funded from the Parish Share program. Over four years, campaign funding will diminish, so that by the fifth year, Parish Share will cover the full cost.

The waiving of the fees is a “good first step the Church is making to welcome more people back into full communion,” Luke said.

“The sacraments are a gift,” Jennifer said. “We’ve learned not to take that for granted.”