It has always been said the Kennedy family is the closest thing America will get to the British monarchy. That is just as well, because some of them certainly act like Henry the Eighth.
The weight-challenged Tudor monarch had several run-ins with Rome when he found the Pope unsympathetic to his desire to be shot of members of his marital sextet. Thus was the Church of England born.
Good Catholics to a man, the Kennedys have always found it weighing on their conscience when they have to resort now and then to divorcing their spouses. There is one way out - asking for an annulment, which is supposed to restore the divorcee to good standing in the Church, allowing him to keep taking the sacrament and ensuring a one-way ticket to heaven.
However, when figures as famous as Congressman Joseph Kennedy ask for an annulment, it puts America's Catholic establishment into the uncomfortable position of appearing to favour not the meek and the blessed, but the rich and powerful.
A book just published by Mr Kennedy's ex-wife Sheila reveals he asked for and received an annulment in 1993, the same year he went on to marry - what a surprise - one of his young congressional staffers.
Sheila is now appealing the annulment, because she is angry it was granted to Mr Kennedy on the grounds that the couple were not 'psychologically prepared for the marriage' in the first place.
