‘Difficult cases’ on the Pontifical dissolution of non-consummated marriage: substantive and procedural issues

Abstract

A marriage that is ratum et non consummatum can be dissolved by the Roman Pontiff for a just cause. However, there are some cases that have special difficulties of the juridical or moral order. In this cases, the diocesan bishop must consult the Apostolic See before accept the libellous and arrange for the instruction of the process. The so-called difficult cases have reached certain systematization both in the Litterae circulares as at the doctrinal level, and include cases as the generation of offspring by absorption of semen in the vagina as well as by in vitro fertilization, cases of continuous condom use or onanistic intercourse, and cases of lack of human modo in sexual intercourse.

It’s not easy to know the resolutions of these so-called difficult cases, since the Pontifical rescripts granting the dissolution of the marriage are not published, neither the responses of the Apostolic See rejecting these petitions; besides, they are synthetic resolutions, devoid of legal motivation, quite different from judicial judgments. This article aims to fill this gap, providing an approach to these difficult cases, analysing the cases followed in the Spanish dioceses, in order to find out the criteria of the Holy See for their resolution.