Thursday, June 21, 2007

Annuling The Annulment

Well, here is a little late justice: Vatican 'backs ex-Kennedy wife'

The Vatican has reversed the annulment of former US Congressman Joseph P Kennedy II's first marriage, his ex-wife Sheila Rauch says.

They were divorced in 1991 and Mr Kennedy obtained the annulment in secret in 1993, before he married his secretary Anne Elizabeth Kelly.

Ms Rauch had alleged that the Kennedy family had used its influence in the church to obtain the annulment.

Mr Kennedy is the nephew of President John F Kennedy, assassinated in 1963.

His father, Robert Kennedy, was in turn murdered in 1968 as he campaigned for the Democratic Party's nomination for presidential candidate.

"The annulment decision totally overlooked the fact that I felt that we had a very strong marriage in the beginning, we had two wonderful children, and it lasted," said Ms Rauch.

The Vatican reached its decision in 2005 and informed her in May, Ms Rauch said.

She received the notification in Latin and had it translated by the archdiocese of Boston, the Boston Globe newspaper says.

Mr Kennedy has made no comment on the Vatican's decision.

The fact an annulment was granted in the first place was always a black eye to the Church. It was painfully obvious the only reason it was granted was the last name of the husband involved. It always smacked of there being two sets of rules (at least in the Boston diocese), one for the wealthy and powerful & another for the plebs. There was never any doubt in this case that there had been a valid marriage by any and every Catholic standard, but for the well connected a "Catholic divorce" is always a phone call to the bishop away. It was a disgrace, and I'm glad the Vatican is putting their foot down (if belatedly.)

One wonders if the first words on the Latin document were "Nos es rumex." ("We are sorry.")

If not they ought to have been.

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