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Church: Civil law always takes precedence

Dismissing a three-year-old matter filed by an advocate from Karnataka, the Supreme Court had stated that divorce decrees granted by ecclesiastical tribunal or church courts but not through civil courts, will be considered illegal.

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The Catholic Church on Friday maintained that the Supreme Court ruling on divorce decrees by the canon law will not affect their functioning as such. A recent SC ruling said a divorce decree by the Chruch court cannot be considered valid since the power for dissolution of marriage is vested in the court of law.

“The church has always been very clear. It has never viewed this as an issue because nothing has changed with the SC ruling. Civil law always takes precedence over church laws. We have always maintained that church dissolution or annulment has no civil affect, and therefore, a person will have to get a divorce in the court too. That is what we also convey to the persons seeking divorce,” said Fr Nigel Barrett, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Bombay.  

“But there are two aspects of the marriage. One is the civil and the other is sacramental. The SC order is only with respect to civil aspect,” Fr Barrett added.

Dismissing a three-year-old matter filed by an advocate from Karnataka, the Supreme Court had stated that divorce decrees granted by ecclesiastical tribunal or church courts but not through civil courts, will be considered illegal.

If a person marries someone else without a court divorce, it would be counted as bigamy. “The court order is fine. It will be important to annul the marriage so that the commandments of the religion are followed,” said Clarence Gomes, a member of the community.

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