Pope
Francis: Church Tribunals must serve justice in marriage cases
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday spoke about the
importance of fairness and accessibility in the proceedings of Church Tribunals
trying to adjudicate the validity of marriages.
He made his remarks
before his General Audience, when he briefly greeted participants of a course
offered by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota on “Instructing a Case for the
Dispensation of a Marriage ‘Super rato et non consumato’” -valid, but
unconsummated marriages - which can be dissolved under certain conditions
according to Church law.
“In the Extraordinary
Synod [on the Family], There was talk about procedures, processes, and there
was a preoccupation for streamlining the procedures, in the interest of
Justice,” Pope Francis said. “Justice: For decisions must be just, and because
there must be justice for the people who are waiting.”
He also spoke about
the Commission for the study of the reform of the matrimonial processes
in canon law, which was announced in September, which he said is designed to
hope streamline the process: “A path of justice, and also charity, because
there are so many people who need a word from the Church about the marriage
situation – be it a yes or a no – because this is just.”
He said some processes
are “so long and so weighty” that people become “discouraged” and leave.
He then provided an
example.
“The inter-Diocesan
Tribunal of Buenos Aires had – I do not remember, but I believe –15 dioceses in
the first instance. I think the furthest was 240 kilometers away! …It is
impossible to imagine that ordinary people…can go to the Tribunal: They would
need to go on a trip, missing days of work, and there is also the cost…so many
things…They say: ‘God understands me, and I go on like this, with this weight
on my soul.’ And Mother Church must judge and say ‘Yes, it is true, your
marriage is null’ or ‘No, your marriage is valid’. But [she must] make a
judgment and tell them, so that it is possible to go forward without this
doubt, this darkness in the soul,” said the Holy Father.
Pope Francis also
warned about treating the Church’s annulment process like a business, again
providing an example.
“There have been
public scandals,” the Pope said. “I had to dismiss a person from a Tribunal
some time ago, who said ‘Give me $10,000 and I’ll take care of both processes:
the civil and the ecclesiastical’. Please, not this!”
He said the Synod also
had proposals about the costs of the process, adding “when you attach economic
interests to spiritual interests, it is not of God.”
He concluded by
reminding the students to always look to the “salus animarum” [the salvation of
souls], adding this is not necessarily found outside of justice, but “indeed,
with justice.”
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