Marriage Defender
A marriage bond defender ( Latin : defensor vinculi ) is a lawyer in the ecclesiastical marriage process according to Catholic canon law , who acts as a “defender” or “guardian” of the defendant marriage bond. He does not represent the parties to the litigation, but the interests of the marriage in question. Its mission is, above all, in marriage nullity - and to find marriage dissolution process reasons or speak the preservation of the marriage bond for the stock.
The defender of the marriage bond is a party on an equal footing with both spouses in the marriage process and fights ex officio for the marriage bond. He can request additional evidence and take part in the hearing of witnesses. At the end of the procedure, he summarizes his assessment of the matter in a written statement, which is presented to the spouses involved and which they can object to. The court decides independently of the defender of the marriage bond and does not have to follow his assessments.
qualification
Marriage defender is not a profession, but one of the procedural functions that a church-approved lawyer can hold in proceedings before the church court. Similar to a judge , only those who have completed a degree in canon law with a licentiate or doctoral degree can be appointed as a marriage bond defender . However, a spiritual office or ordination is not required . Rather, the office of defender of marriage bonds at the ecclesiastical courts of most German dioceses is exercised by lay people . However, a completed degree in theology is usually a prerequisite for the (postgraduate) licentiate degree in canon law. In some cases, a completed secular law degree is alternatively recognized as sufficient. In 2018, a woman was appointed to the Roman Rota for the first time as a marriage defender .
Investigations
The activity of the defender of marriage usually includes investigations that directly affect the personal private life of the spouse. If, for example, a non-enforcement procedure is carried out in which the spouses claim that they never consummated the marriage sexually, it is the task of the defender of the bond to find evidence that sexual contact has taken place in order to refute the evidence presented by those concerned or to make their arguments appear implausible. In proceedings in which a lack of will in marriage is alleged, psychological aspects often have to be investigated.
These investigations are sometimes perceived as burdensome by those concerned, especially if one of the spouses is distant from the Church or is not Catholic and / or does not see the need for such a procedure.
literature
- Hubert Patrick: De praesumptionibus iurisprudentiae. On the development of constant judicial presumptions in the more recent Rota jurisprudence and their application in subordinate courts (= Tesi Gregoriana. Diritto Canonico series. Vol. 82). Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Rome 2009, ISBN 978-88-7839-144-4 , p. 157 ff. (At the same time: Rome, Pontificia Università Gregoriana, dissertation, 2006).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Defender of the marriage bond website of the Diocese of Münster, Episcopal Official Office, accessed on July 30, 2017
- ^ Website of the ecclesiastical court of the diocese of Aachen. Retrieved December 7, 2017 .
- ↑ kathisch.de : Pope appoints woman to high church court for the first time (November 8, 2018)