Vatican City, 11 December 2015 (VIS) –
Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto, dean of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota,
explained the Holy Father's Rescriptum ex audientia on the new law
for marriage annulment procedures in an article published this
afternoon in “L'Osservatore Romano”.
“In the introductory report at the
opening of the Ordinary Synod, Cardinal Erdo outlined one of the
chief aims of the synodal meeting. Indeed, the general rapporteur
stated that by virtue of the sacrament of marriage, the Christian
family becomes an asset for the Church, but its inclusion in the
context of the Church is also beneficial to the family, which is
helped spiritually and community even in difficulties, and it helps
to protect the marriage union and discern the respective obligations
or eventual shortcomings.
The reality and the mission of the
Church as defined by her divine founder, Jesus, therefore become
clear to the Synod Fathers. The Church in via is not the Church of
the perfect, but the community of the faithful who acknowledge
themselves daily as sinners and therefore in need of conversion,
which is the strength of Pope Francis' ecclesiology.
The Synod thus showed that the large
number of faithful who are wounded or in an uneasy relationship in
terms of their adherence – in the practice of the faith – with
the truth of the Gospel, are not a burden, but an opportunity, that
may drive many of these 'wounded' to become, once reconciled and
healed, true missionaries of the beauty of the sacrament of marriage
and the Christian family. Again, with reference to Cardinal Erdo's
report, the organic integration of the marriage and the family of
Christians in the reality of the Church also requires that the
ecclesial community pay merciful and realistic attention to the
faithful who live together or live in civil marriage only since they
do not feel prepared to celebrate the sacrament, given the
difficulties that such a choice may result in today. If the community
can prove itself to be welcoming to these people, in various
situations of life, and clearly present the truth about marriage, it
will help these faithful to come to a decision in favour of
sacramental marriage.
The Rescriptum signed by Pope Francis
on the reform process, introduced by the two Apostolic Letters issued
Motu Proprio on 15 August 2015, clearly shows that legal reform is
perfectly consistent with the ecclesiological vision characteristic
of his papacy as gradually outlined in his teaching from the
beginning, and which he himself has clearly confirmed in the acts of
these recent weeks.
In the homily of Mass for the opening
of the Jubilee year on 8 December, the Pontiff described the
fulfilment of Vatican Council II: 'A genuine encounter between the
Church and the men and women of our time. An encounter marked by the
power of the Spirit, who impelled the Church to emerge from the
shoals which for years had kept her self-enclosed so as to set out
once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey. It was the
resumption of a journey of encountering people where they live: in
their cities and homes, in their workplaces. Wherever there are
people, the Church is called to reach out to them and to bring the
joy of the Gospel'.
Earlier still, in his important
discourse commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the institution
of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis offered a summary of conciliar
ecclesiology, showing how the hierarchical role of the Roman Pontiff
is dedicated to service, presenting him as the supreme witness of the
fides totius Ecclesiae, guarantor of the obedience to and compliance
of the Church with the will of God, Christ's Gospel and the Tradition
of the Church.
The papal Rescript published today
rests on these ecclesiological bases. It is divided into two parts,
for the interpretation and integration of the two Motu Proprio.
In the first, because every
epoch-making law, such as the law to reform the procedures for
marriage annulment, meets understandable resistance, the Pope wished
to emphasise, as St. John Paul II did with the promulgation of the
Code of Canon Law of 1983, that the law has been promulgated and must
be complied with (see the apostolic constitution 'Sacrae disciplinae
leges'). The rescript of Pope Francis today, like the promulgation of
the Code of St. John Paul II, obeys the lex suprema, the salus
animarum, of which the successor of Peter is the first teacher and
servant.
The second part of the Rescript
specifically relates to the Roman Rota as the apostolic Tribunal,
which has always been distinguished by wisdom in its legal decisions,
of which it is an expression of the generic doubt (whereas in the
lower courts there remains the obligation of the specific doubt, such
as for example the exclusion of offspring); expressing, from the
perspective of ecclesial diakonia, the concern for justice in its
dual sacredness: on the one hand, the defence of the truth itself of
the marriage bond, and on the other the right of the baptised to
receive from the Church the prompt and free declaration of this truth
of the bond itself”.
No comments:
Post a Comment