In America, review by a second tribunal can be relatively quick. The LA diocese sends its cases to Orange county for review, and vice versa. Well, it may add a couple weeks to the process, I guess.
It seems to me that, as a legal procedure, it is not all that rigorous. A lot of lee-way is given for testimony that might not be admitted in a state court.
I think all the Pope needs to do is to tell bishops to process people faster and they will hire a couple of extra personnel, or manage the tribunal better, and get it done.
It should be rigorous, but I do believe there are some things that could be done to ease the burden on the couples as well as on the tribunals.
I think some greater weight could be given to subsequent actions as being indicative of what was going on at the time of the wedding. For example, in the case of a spouse who abandoned the marriage and has remarried. From what I understand, that is used to prove the marriage is not salvageable, but not as an indication of the spouse’s state of mind at the time of the wedding. If the former spouse does not participate in the process, it is still very hard to prove that they did not believe the marriage was indissoluble at the time of the wedding.
In these cases and in others such as when there is verified physical abuse, it seems like there should be some streamlining of the process, since it is unlikely that these behaviors and beliefs sprung up suddenly after the marriage when they weren’t present before.
The main problem I see is that there are too many Catholic marriages (mine included) which should have never taken place. The Church doesn’t want to say ‘No’, even when there are obvious problems discovered in the preparation process. I believe/(hope) preparation is getting better, but I believe too many people consider it a formality, just another thing to be done before the wedding. I don’t think you should be able to set a date until it is done.
I also think it should be possible to ‘fail’ Pre-Cana, or at least have to go to summer school ;-). Seriously, though, of all the weddings planned, I wonder what percentage are cancelled or even postponed because the couple is not thought to be ready/compatible during pre-marriage counseling?
O2