Procedures for Separation of Spouses

Msgr. Paulo Bianchi, who is a visiting professor at Pontifical Gregorian University and in charge of an Italian Interdiocesan Catholic Tribunal, gave Mary’s Advocates permission to publish his article on the procedure for canonical marital separation cases.  Mary’s Advocates collaborates with faithful spouses who ask the Church to intervene when the other spouse abandoned their marriage by using our template petition for marriage separation case: “Petition to Bishop to Facilitate Reconciliation or for Decree of Abandonment.”

When a diocese receives a petition for a marriage separation case, Bianchi’s article describes what every diocese should do. There would be an exception from the default procedural laws only if a diocese had issued its own particular law for the territory.  I’ve never found particular law about marriage separations cases that excused any diocese from following the universal norms.

Bianchi’s article about canonical separation is in Italian, and we publish an English translation generated with A.I. that I edited.  For example, he shows the following:

(Bianchi, page 148-49) Of greatest interest to us, the following must be noted:” […] “c) It was decided to make the intervention of the Promoter of Justice mandatory, since the matter of separation is of public concern. His intervention is not determinatum ad unum [about certain special process], like that of the Defender of the Bond (the bond is not at issue in separation cases), but rather aims to: ‘ensure […] that matrimonial unions are not separated without cause, and that legitimate causes for separation are not over-looked.’

(p.149) [T]wo general observations deserve further development. First, is the emphasis on the constitutive nature of this kind of procedure—it is not merely declarative, as in the case of marriage nullity. Rather, it involves a modification, by the authority of the Church, of the obligations inherent in the married state, particularly regarding the exercise of those duties that concretely realize conjugal communion, which canon law tradition refers to as: communicatio tori, mensae et habitationis [sharing of bed, table, and dwelling].

(p. 151) [T]he attempt at reconciliation must precede any case of separation and will consist not only of a conciliatory effort on the part of the ordinary or judge, but may also be developed through what the Code refers to as pastoral means (pastoralia media): namely, persons or institutions with particular expertise in family matters, to whom spouses can be referred for assistance as needed. This highlights the need to create—or strengthen where already in place—family assistance services, such as counseling centers or similar institutions, for those faithful experiencing marital difficulties.

(p. 158-159) As for the contents, in analogy also with what is generally prescribed in can. 1611 regarding judicial sentences, the separation decree (in whatever form [judicial or administrative] it is issued) must at minimum include: reference to the attempted but unsuccessful reconciliation; the conceptual identification and factual demonstration of the existence of one of the causes that justify separation; if the causes are not in themselves perpetual—as in the case of those fore-seen by can. 1153—then the indications relevant to the duration of the separation, whether determined or undetermined, [page 159] with due regard for the obligation to resume common life when the cause for separation ceases (causa separationis cessante, cf. can. 1153 §2); also included are the conditions of the separation itself, that is, the rights and obligations of the spouses during the period of separation—both with respect to one another and with reference to any children, particularly regarding their support and education.