Michael Schiavo Kills Wife Then Marries Mistress In Catholic Church
Terri Schiavo's [estranged] husband, Michael, has married his long-time live-in mistress.
In a Catholic church.
This is extremely problematic for the obvious reason: namely, that the Church seems to be putting its blessing on the marriage of a man who killed his wife in order to marry his mistress.
There ought to be a law against that kind of thing.
And in fact, there is.
Canon law specifically provides an impediment to prevent exactly this thing. It's known as the impediment of crimen (Latin, "crime"). If you bring about the death of your spouse with a view to marrying another person and then you attempt marriage, the impediment of crimen makes that new marriage automatically invalid.
The Code of Canon Law provides the following:
Can. 1090 §1. Anyone who with a view to entering marriage with a certain person has brought about the death of that person’s spouse or of one’s own spouse invalidly attempts this marriage.
§2. Those who have brought about the death of a spouse by mutual physical or moral cooperation also invalidly attempt a marriage together.
Further, only the pope can dispense from the impediment of crimen.
Now, when Michael Schiavo and his long-time mistress (with whom he has had children while his wife was in the hospital) applied to be married in a Catholic church in Safety Harbor, Florida then either the pastor took steps to contact Pope Benedict and have the impediment of crimen dispensed--and B16 did that (fat chance!)--or the pastor authorized an invalid union under Church auspices between Michael Schiavo and his mistress, Jodi Centonze.
Either way, this must be clarified. If the pope dispensed from crimen in this case then, given the gravely scandalous nature of this union, the fact of the dispensation must become public or, to mitigate the grave scandal done by the invalid union, the competent ecclesiastical officials must make clear that the union was invalid and that the Church's law prohibits precisely this kind of thing.
You may be thinking, "Well, there's not a lot that could be done at this point, is there?"
And you'd be wrong. There is a canon law procedure for handling this situation.
CANONIST ED PETERS HAS THE STORY
This situation is simply so outrageous that action must be taken by the competent Church authorities.
First, if a dispensation from crimen was not granted by the pope (as is overwhelmingly likely) then the parties are in an invalid union and they need to be made aware of this fact.
Second, members of the general public who are scandalized (in the popular sense) by the spectacle of the Catholic Church putting its blessing on a kill-your-wife-to-marry-your-mistress marriage must be given the message that the Catholic Church really takes seriously the culture of life and will not put its blessing on this kind of murderous immorality.
Just imagine what many non-Catholics must be thinking at this very moment: "I don't see how the Catholic Church really believes in a culture of life if it's willing to marry people who have killed their spouses in order to marry their mistresses. All its talk about protecting human life is just talk. They don't really mean it. When push comes to shove, they're totally happy uniting wife-killers and their mistresses in the bonds of holy wedlock."
Third, members of the Catholic Church need to have a cause of scandal (in the technical sense) removed. As medicine is now able to dramatically prolong life, many more Catholics will find themselves in the same situation as Michael Schiavo: Their spouse will be unable to advance their own interests for medical reasons, they will have power of attorney for their spouse, they will meet someone who they would like to marry, and then they will be tempted to use that power of attorney to bring about the death of their spouse "with a view to entering marriage with a certain person."
In other words, the Church must clarify this situation in order to avoid more disabled spouses in hospitals getting euthanatized so that the non-disabled spouses can get married to someone they have their eye on.
Lives really are at stake here.
If the competent ecclesiastical officials (possibly involving those in Rome) do not clarify this situation then people will die.
Those wishing to contact relevant individuals to request a public clarification of the matter may contact:
Rev. Stephen Dambrauskas, JCL Promoter of Justice
Diocese of St. Petersburg 905 South Prospect Avenue
Clearwater, Florida 33756-4039
Phone: 727-446-2326 / 442-8884
Fax: 727-446-4287
E-Mail: tribsp@tampabay.rr.com
They may also contact:
His Excellency Pietro Sambi
Apostolic Nuncio
3339 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: (202) 333-7121
Fax: (202) 337-4036
Thank you, that was a very enlightening analysis. But of course, since it was the Diocese of St. Petersburg, all bets are off. I don't know why that man (Lynch) is still a bishop.