Even as a small child Cathy Gilligan loved education. When the other kindergarteners were standing in the doorway crying as their moms left, Gilligan was waving goodbye.
At 59, she holds five college degrees from accounting to canon law. She has always been active in church life, but in 1996 Gilligan gave up worldwide travel in the corporate world to attend theology school and do Church work full time. She wanted to be a liturgist, but the bishop of Savannah, Ga. wanted her to be a canon lawyer. The bishop won.
Although she did pursue the other route through the divinity program at Washington Theological Union, the canon law class she took her first semester won her over. She later enrolled in the canon law program at Catholic University of America.
Nearly four years later she earned both a master’s in divinity and a canon law degree from both universities.
From there she served as Tribunal Office director for the Diocese of Savannah. In 2005 she became tribunal case manager for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Gilligan, a single New Jersey native who calls herself a small town girl at heart, joined the Diocese of Little Rock staff in December as director of the Tribunal Office. She is the first lay canon lawyer to hold that position.
“To me Atlanta is just overwhelming,” she said. “I’d been in Arkansas before and I think it’s a beautiful state and it was a tribunal that needed help so I decided to come.”
After three months on the job, Gilligan said she loves her work.
“We had a lot of work to do so I haven’t gotten out and seen very much, but it’s been cold and I’m a warm weather person,” she said. “I hope to get out and start visiting the parishes in the diocese and getting to meet the people.”
The Tribunal Office is where people go if they wish to have their marriages declared invalid. Many call this an annulment, but Gilligan is quick to point out that the word, “annulment” is wrong and misleads people about what the process does. If a marriage is declared invalid that means it was never a sacramental union to start with. Sacramental unions can’t be “annulled.”
Unlike other sacraments, the sacrament of marriage is administered by the couple, not the priest. Therefore, the couple must fully understand and be able to consent to the commitment in order for the sacrament to take place.
Declaring that a marriage wasn’t a sacramental union has no bearing on the civil marriage. That’s a major misconception, she said, because it leads people to the idea that an annulment makes children illegitimate.
“We fully recognize that there was a civil union,” Gilligan said. “The status of children comes from civil law, not from Church law. We’re all God’s children and are deeply loved by God and the last thing the Church wants to do is ever leave an impression that there’s any change in the children’s status because of an annulment.”
Gilligan’s job is to process petitions brought before tribunal judges. When necessary she consults with judicial vicar, Msgr. Royce Thomas. His primary job is as a pastor, so his time is limited. Because she is a canon lawyer, Gilligan’s need to consult with Msgr. Thomas is reduced, which speeds up the tribunal process.
The judicial vicar, or head judge, is in charge of the Tribunal, “I just serve him in processing cases,” she said.
Gilligan also serves as a defender of the bond, which means she is the defense attorney for a marriage. “My role is to say, why I think the marriage shouldn’t be annulled,” she said.
Like the Diocese of Savannah, Arkansas does not have full-time tribunal judges. They primarily serve as pastors or in other ministries in addition to being judges.
“I doubt there are very many dioceses, except the very largest, that can even afford to have full-time canon lawyers unless they’re laypeople, because our priest situation is such that it’s almost impossible for a bishop to break away priests full time,” she said.
To be able to fill in that gap is important to Gilligan.
“I love it,” she said. “It’s a wonderful way to be able to serve the people of the diocese directly.”
“It’s a world where marriage is undervalued,” she said. “And there are folks who want to become Catholic or want to marry Catholics who just don’t understand our belief concerning the sanctity of marriage and it gives us an opportunity to help them, reach out to them; make it possible for them to enter marriages in the Catholic Church.”
