Word: rota
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...intercourse with him, but nevertheless presented him with a child. So is Nick, a Manhattan Sicilian, who claims the Mafia frightened him into marrying 14-year-old Tonina. Their marital fates-and those of many other Roman Catholics throughout the world-are being decided by Rome's Sacred Rota, one of Christendom's oldest and least understood courts...
Declarations of Nullity. The Sacred Roman Rota is 700 years old and probably takes its name from the circular hall in which its priestly judges, who are called auditors, used to convene. It is, with rare exceptions, the court of last appeal as to whether or not a marriage is valid in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church. Its wheels grind slowly: the average case drags on for four to five years, and some may last for 20. When one woman complained to a churchman that her beauty might suffer, he replied: "Madame, the church has observed that...
...Rota does not, properly speaking, annul marriages-it declares them never to have existed. Most such "declarations of nullity," can be disposed of by the tribunals at diocesan level: in Italy no case is considered by the Rota unless it has gone through two such lower courts, and cases outside Italy must have been judged by at least one. Even so, the Rota's load has grown with the times. In 1937 it handled 70 cases. Last year there were 198, in 88 of which declarations of nullity were granted...