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Thirteen years after overcoming ecclesiastical objections to the Reproductive Health Bill, the Philippines Congress is now trying to get a bill passed which would legalise divorce, something else the church disagrees with.

He is one of three ecclesiastical staff allowed to stay in the Sistine Chapel despite not being a cardinal elector, even though they will have to leave the premises during the counting of the votes.

Since that time, she said she had "remained consistent" in her pursuit of "proper ecclesiastical judicial process".

Only ecclesiastical authorities sanction marriage, and do so with additional patriarchal commitments.

Across the decades, there were many cases of ecclesiastical civil disobedience — clergy doing ordinations and marriages that defied church bans, some of whom were tried for heresy or other infractions.