Can you name the two countries on planet earth where you can’t get a divorce? The first one you might know, but the second may be a surprise.
Country with no divorce — #1
Here’s a hint. It’s an autonomous state (not actually a country). Got it? Not yet…okay, it’s actually located in Italy, but is not Italy. Still not sure… many priests and nuns live there (along with civilians). That’s right– it’s Vatican City. Divorce shouldn’t be a problem for the priests and nuns, since they don’t get married anyway. But the civilians who live there and want to get divorce must go to the Italian courts for their divorce.
Country with no divorce — #2
The next country is going to be harder to guess. I’ll give you a hint — Divorce is not legal in this overwhelmingly Catholic country. Got it? No… okay, well…it’s both a country and an Island. Still don’t know. At the end of WWII, General Douglas Mcarthur promised the people that “I shall return.” Yes, it’s the Philippines. Under Philippine law, two people who want to end their marriage have two limited options.
Option #1 — They can file for legal separation. Legal separation allows them to live apart and to divide their property and debt, impose support and custody orders, but they retain their status as married persons and cannot remarry. This is similar to California’s legal separation option.
Option #2 — They can get an annulment. An annulment — a long and costly process — erases a marriage, as if it never existed (the Catholic Church also recognizes this). In some cases, children are asked to testify against one parent and a battery of psychiatrists are summoned to prove the psychological incapacity of a spouse for an annulment to be granted. The grounds for annulment are very narrow — the parties have to prove that their marriage was never valid in the first place. Two reasons might include:
- One or both parties had to have been under the age of 18 when they got married
- Either party has an incurable sexually transmitted disease
- They were practicing polygamy
- A case of mistaken identity
- If the couple happens to be Muslim (since they are not Catholic, they can get divorce under the Code of Muslim Laws.)
As recently as May of 2015, there were three countries in the world where divorce was illegal. However, the citizens of Malta, a Mediterranean nation, voted in favor of divorce legalization.
However, divorce is widely recognized around the world as a legitimate option for couples who feel trapped in a difficult relationship.
Making Getting Married Hard and Divorce Easy
Many people believe that it should be harder to get married than divorce — and that would help to lower the divorce rate. It’s too easy for anyone to get married — not just the movie stars of the world, but also the 30 percent of women who say they knew they were making a mistake on their wedding day.
For many, the decision to get married is accompanied by a lovely proposal, a wedding shower, the pomp and circumstance of a wedding ceremony (with all sorts of gifts) — and then it’s all followed by a lovely honeymoon. Fun, romance, and more. Now wasn’t that easy?
What if there was a “cooling-off period” of 12 – 18 months after the proposal and before one could get married. Time to consider all the legal and financial entanglements. Maybe even go through a mandatory premarital counseling. It might result in better marriages and less divorce.
