On his Archdiocesan stationary dated June 25th 2004, the Cardinal

Dear Mr. F,

Thank you for your letter of June 9. Elsie Radtke is a pastoral lay minister, not a theologian or a canon lawyer. Any work she does is reviewed and approved by Canonical Services before it is published. This is the process we use here in the Archdiocese of Chicago to try to assure accuracy. The purpose of our Divorce and Annulment Support Ministry is to provide pastoral approach to people that will allow them to have a deeper conversation on these issues with their priest or deacon.

The reason for requiring a civil divorce before granting an annulment is to prevent a clash between the status of the person in civil law and in Church law. Our Tribunal's practices are annually reviewed by the Signatura in Rome, the Church's canonical supervisory dicastery.

An annulment says a sacramental marriage never existed. It doesn't make any declaration about the relationship or union other than that, and the code of canon law explicitly says children of an annulled marriage are not to be considered illegitimate.

Divorce, as you say, is a terrible tragedy for all concerned and a scourge in our land. The Church opposed no-fault divorce in civil law, but the Church doesn't write civil law, although we have to deal with its consequences.

Again, thank you for writing. You and your loved ones are in my prayers; please keep me in yours.

                                  Sincerely yours in Christ,

                                  Francis Cardinal George,OMI
                                  Archbishop of Chicago