A parenthesis: the marriage worked and not consumed.

Marriage is for the Catholic Church indissoluble. That is, if the marriage is valid both in substance and in form, it can not be dissolved by any human power. The cause of invalidity is not intended to dissolve a valid marriage, but to find and declare that the marriage never existed. However, there is a special case in which a valid marriage  has not been consummated, that is the couple have not done the copula, or in other terms if the spouses did not “have behaved between them in a humane way, with the act which is  itself suitable to the generation of offspring, to whom marriage is ordained by nature, and for which the spouses become one flesh “(can.1061 CIC). In this case, by virtue of its power vicar of Christ, the Roman Pontiff may dispense the couple from the bond of a marriage which, although theoretically valid, is not perfected with the consummation. There must then exist a just cause to obtain a dispensation. The procedure is different from that of the grounds for revocation. And in fact an administrative procedure is instituted by the bishop of the diocese, which takes advantage of his Court, to conduct the necessary research to assess whether there was or not consummation of marriage, send the documents to the Roman Pontiff for the pantry , through the Congregation of the Sacraments. The procedure is covered by the confidentiality of investigations and evidence of a lack of consumption is given by argomentum phisicum (medical examination), the moral argomentum (the testimony of the parties and by witnesses) or by showing that the spouses after the celebration have never been alone (for coacta tempora). Also to ensure that the person, the medical establishment may be omitted when it appears in an incontrovertible fact that marriage was not consummated (cfr.lettera circular Congregzione of the Sacraments of 20 December 1986).

Marriage dispensed because not consumed is a proper and exclusive action of the Roman Pontiff, a grace that is considered by the Italian government an administrative act and therefore has no chance of being raised in the Italian legal system. Moreover, the Act 1 December 1970, n.898, (Discipline of the cases of dissolution of marriage) the divorce law, in Article 3 n.2 f, provides that “The dissolution or termination of all civil effects of marriage may be requested by either spouse … in cases where the marriage was not consummated. ” Tharefore it can be obtained a ruling for the civil dissolution of marriage or the termination of civil effects for the Italian state, for not consumind, and a separate case of dispensation for marriage worked and not consumed by the Roman Pontiff.