A Conversation with Francesca Therese Ramos

Your Holiness, We Have a Problem! Who Gets an Annulment and Who Gets Ignored: Global Disparities in the Catholic Marriage Annulment Process and Prospective Reforms

Meet Francesca, a junior double major in theology and global studies (with a concentration in Chinese). She’s navigated a canon law tribunal in Pennsylvania, paints icons, writes fiction, and plays the harp—all while dreaming of publishing her theological work. She’s worked for the Holy See’s mission, interned with a diplomat, served as a canon law tribunal in Pennsylvania, and has even met the Pope! 

For Francesca, all of this drives her to her calling and purpose.  “I want to study canon law to help Christians and Catholics in China,” she explains. During her studies, Francesca noticed that nearly ⅓ of her classmates back home were Chinese students who were interested in Christianity or Catholicism but felt unable to convert or express interest due to family pressure or government restrictions. That experience really stuck with her- and has continued to inspire her academic and personal goals. 

During her time working with a diocesan tribunal, Francesca realized that many people assume annulments are inaccessible or expensive, even though her experience showed her otherwise. “A lot of people think they can’t afford an annulment,” she says, “but our tribunal offered them for free.” This, she learned, is becoming increasingly common across the United States, especially since Pope Francis’s push to make annulments more accessible.

Still, the system has its flaws, and when in her Global Studies 101 class with Dr. Julia Young, she was assigned to identify a global issue and propose a policy solution, Francesca decided to focus on the global Church- specifically the shortage in canon lawyers and tribunal workers. “There are so few canon lawyers,” she explained. “Places like San Francisco and Arlington disproportionately have more than enough, whereas everywhere else, many tribunals and canon lawyers are also local priests who are stretched too thin.” Many of the judges she worked with were part-time or retired priests who were still running parishes, highlighting just how strained their system is.  When asked, she said her favorite line in the piece was “the Church is not a multinational corporation, nor should it be—but it is a global body of people, and when one part suffers from lack, the whole body feels the weight.”