Vatican’s Secret City: The Mysterious Ban on Marriage at the Institute for Works of Religion

Two newlyweds challenge Pope Bergoglio. The case explodes in the IOR, the Vatican’s safe, and brings to light the clash between the regulations of the Institute for the Works of Religion and the principles of the Church itself, and in detail those expressed in the Magisterium of the family. Let’s go in order. The new internal regulation of the IOR prohibits marriages between employees, under penalty of dismissal. Two officials, still employed by the Vatican bank, have voluntarily disobeyed the rule and got married in Fregene. The affair risks becoming a dispute in court, even if the two are hoping for an act by the French Pope in their favor. The newlyweds had also scheduled the wedding before the new regulation came into force.

The Association of Lay Vatican Employees is on the side of the two employees, who explained to Il Messaggero that they “attempted mediation with the IOR, brought arguments to highlight how the birth of a new family cannot be endangered by bureaucratic rules, we also consulted experts in canon law, but it was of no use”. The IOR was categorical, also stating that the regulation is valid even if they had already set the wedding date.

This is not an isolated story. The lay employees of the Vatican have long been asking for a more free attitude, so much so that in the past a class action was even promoted. And the spouses of the Vatican bank? In October, if nothing happens, they will lose their jobs. The IOR for its part limits itself to saying that the regulation is part of a process of modernization of the institution and that it is up to the couple to “choose freely” which of the two spouses should leave their job…