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Vatican lawyers rake in cash as 'widow wars' go beyond the grave
By John Phillips in Rome
The Independent
18 January 2005
Roman Catholic Italy is witnessing a boom in demand for posthumous marriage
annulments with many unions hitting the rocks as soon as one of the partners
is lowered into the ground.
The surge in annulments, which is proving lucrative for ecclesiastical
lawyers at the Holy Rota court in Rome, is largely down to applications by
widowers who want to annul their first marriage to a dead wife so that they
can favour children of a second marriage in their wills. Conversely,
children of a first marriage who want to annul their dead father's second
marriage so as not to lose an inheritance are also flooding the court.
As recently as 1982 Rome's opposition to divorce meant that only 287
requests for annulments were examined by the Holy Rota.By 2002, however, the
bishops and cardinals presided over 1,280 cases, issuing verdicts on 135 of
those of which 73 were granted, the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, said.
Under Canon law, annulments may only be granted if it is proved that a
marriage was not valid when contracted, with 98 per cent of annulments based
on psychiatric evidence that one or both partners were too "immature" to
appreciate the seriousness of their vows, according to statistics released
by the Holy See yesterday. The Pope has repeatedly admonished the Rota
judges against granting annulments too easily and is expected to reiterate
his conservative stance when he opens the Holy Rota's judicial year next
week.
"The Holy Rota is bursting with cases because of a new tendency by those who
believe they have the right to 'posthumous' annulments," La Stampa said.
As a result of the growing number of dead people whose marriages are being
disputed, the 20 judges of the Rota are struggling with a backlog. The
official average cost of a lawyer qualified to work in the Rota is EUR 2,500
(GBP 1,600) but a top brief will often charge many times that figure.
Church sources say boredom between well-off partners and the "culture of
divorce" are more common motives for applications. Americans, Italians and
Poles have the most cases examined by the Rota followed by Spaniards,
Canadians and Mexicans with British Catholics the 10th most likely to have
their annulment request examined. After immaturity, procedural
irregularities and impotence are among the main reasons cited.
MPs from Italy's former communist Democratic Party, meanwhile, are trying to
close a legal loophole under which husbands who obtain an annulment in a
church court are not obliged to pay alimony to their former wives.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=601950
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Sufaud,
An interesting article but surely such a Vatican annulment would have
little legal significance in the US, UK, et c.
Dave M.
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On 18/1/05 8:33 am, in article BE127A41.42A06%sufaud@hotmail.com, "sufaud"
<sufaud@hotmail.com> wrote:
Vatican lawyers rake in cash as 'widow wars' go beyond the grave
By John Phillips in Rome
The Independent
18 January 2005
Roman Catholic Italy is witnessing a boom in demand for posthumous marriage
annulments with many unions hitting the rocks as soon as one of the partners
is lowered into the ground.
The significance for this in the USA is that more and more wealthy Europeans
have US assets and thus ancillary probate. In Italy, nationality determines
what law applies; in the USA it's domicile. "Renvoi" can muddle up the
issue.
I think in the USA legitimacy is scarcely any longer an issue; the offspring
of an annulled marriage are always legitimate. And Louisiana has virtually
abolished forced heirship (there's an exception for minor children) -- it
was the only state to have it.
Still, this is an interesting article on an arcane intersection between
Canon and civil law.
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