Provida Mater, 1936, malitiose deserta

Provida Mater shows various descriptions of the status of parties prior to nullity proceedings. Some parties have “maliciously deserted” the other party. There are those that are “legitimately separated” and those that are “not legitimately separated.”

From this, it is clear that the church must have had a process that occurred for individual couples prior to nullity proceedings where the status of parties was defined with a decree.  “Legitimate” separation is a separation that is recognized by a decree.

Excerpts

Art. 6.

1. “malitiose deserta” (translation: maliciously deserted)

2. “separata legitime” (legitimately separated)

3. “etsi a viro non legitime separata” (not legitimately separated)

Note

The Vatican’s Pontifical Council of Legislative Text emphasized 70 years later that Provida Mater is still valid:

“It must be stated that the observation which Provida Mater made is still valid today and is even more urgent now than when that Instruction was issued, namely, ‘However it must be observed that such rules will be insufficient to achieve their stated purpose unless diocesan judges know the sacred canons thoroughly and are well prepared through an experience of tribunal work”(14).
(Source: Dignitas Connubii, 2005, Introduction, citing Provida Mater)