Vatican Bank Fires Employees Who Got Married. Find Out Why

The couple announced their intention to marry in February, months after a new regulation came into force banning marriages in the Vatican Bank workplace.

The Institute for Religious Works, known as the Vatican Bank, revealed on Wednesday that it has fired a couple of employees for violating a new ban on marriages in the workplace by getting married recently. 

According to The Associated Press (AP), the institute said it had taken the “difficult decision” to fire the couple, who have three children. At issue was the fact that neither of them had voluntarily agreed to resign so that the other could continue working. 

The couple met while working in different departments of the Vatican Bank and informed each other in February that they wanted to get married. A few months later, in May, a new regulation came into force banning marriages in the workplace.

The aim, according to the institute, is to avoid any possible conflicts of interest in a small bank with only 100 employees and to guarantee impartiality in its operations.

“The formation of a couple among employees is, in fact, blatantly contradictory to the regulations in force at the institute, whose main objective is to avoid the reputational risk of accusations of familism and, consequently, to guarantee impartial treatment among employees,” said the Institute for Religious Works, quoted by AP. 

The dismissal was contested by the couple's lawyer, Laura Sgro, who warned the bank that she would take the case to the Vatican's civil court, since the notification was “null, illegitimate and gravely damaging to the fundamental rights of individuals and workers and therefore devoid of any effect”.

The couple also appealed to Pope Francis and asked for an exemption from the new regulation, which only came into force after they had announced their intention to marry. However, they received no response. 

The lawyer explained that the couple got married in August and that on Tuesday, October 1, they were notified that they no longer met the requirements to be bank employees. They were then asked to hand in their Vatican ID cards and return their IOR bank cards.