Rota Revolt

For a Roman Catholic couple who want to end a rocky marriage, there has been only one avenue within the church: a decree of nullity. As critics have repeatedly pointed out, that avenue has been tortuous and expensive, often leading from local hearings all the way up to the Sacred Rota, the church's supreme marriage tribunal. In recent years, Pope Paul VI has streamlined the cumbersome process, allowing more decisions on the local level and eliminating the legal delays that could drag a case out for as long as 20 years. But despite Vatican attempts to limit legal fees, costs at the Rota remained high, sometimes running into thousands of dollars and making annulments available mainly to the prosperous.

Last week the Vatican sought again to correct that problem by clamping a firm ceiling on fees for Rota trials--and promptly found itself under fire from both the press and the Rota lawyers. In a circular letter to bishops, Dino Cardinal Staffa, the curial prefect whose jurisdiction includes the Rota, explained that lawyers' fees for annulment cases would henceforth be permitted to range only from $255 to $510. Trial costs would range from $425 to $595. To ensure compliance with the ceilings, all costs would be paid to the court, which would then pay the lawyers.

Anticlerical newspapers immediately jumped on the Vatican, charging that it was using the lower rates to compete with the new Italian civil-divorce procedures. The Rota lawyers--an elite body of 86 lay and clerical canon lawyers allowed to argue before the Holy Court--were even more incensed. Fifty of them went on strike, saying they would handle no further cases until the new rules are changed. Many consider it humiliating that the new system no longer permits them to negotiate directly with a client. Worse, say some, the changes will make it far too easy for the tax collector to find out what they are earning.

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