Would such an understanding make the church look differently at annulment requests for long-standing unions?

That court has now returned a lengthy decision rejecting all of Intel's arguments, annulment requests, and pleas for financial relief.

The Vatican does not permit divorcees to remarry in church and a growing number of annulment requests are winding their way from lower ecclesiastical courts to the appeals court in Rome, with the majority Italian, followed by requests from America and Poland.

Because Catherine was opposed to the annulment and a return to her previous status as Dowager Princess of Wales, the annulment request became a matter of international diplomacy, with Catherine's nephew, Charles V, pressuring the Pope to not annul his aunt's marriage.