Indian Monsignor appointed Head of Office at Vatican’s Roman Rota

(July 27, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday appointed an Indian Catholic priest as head of office at the Tribunal of the Roman Rota in the Vatican that deals mainly with marriage annulment cases. Msgr. Paul Pallath, a priest of Palai diocese in Kerala state, has been working in the Vatican since 1995. On Thursday he was made Head of Office at the Tribunal of the Roman Rota for dealing with the cases of ratified and non-consummated marriage and the declaration of nullity of sacred Ordination.
The 53-year old priest, who has a doctorate in Eastern Canon Law from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where he later taught, and in Western Canon Law from the Pontifical Lateran University, has worked at the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. In 1999 Pope John Paul II granted him the title of Monsignor and in 2011 Pope Benedict XVI made him a Prelate of Honour. Since October 2011 he has been an official of the Roman Rota, the ordinary court of appeal for marriage annulment cases referred to the Holy See. The Catholic Church does not recognize divorce for Catholics, only annulments, and does so only under specific circumstances.
Msgr. Pallath is the second Indian appointed to the Roman Rota. In 2007 Pope Benedict appointed Msgr. Michael Xavier Leo Arokiaraj of Tiruchirapalli diocese of Tamil Nadu one of the auditors or judges of the Roman Rota.