Pope Francis Quotes St. John Paul II "true justice in the Church, animated by charity and tempered by equity, always deserves..." to Roman Rota FULL TEXT
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SPEECH OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE TRAINING COURSE FOR LAW OPERATORS,
PROMOTED BY THE COURT OF THE ROMAN ROTA
Clementine Hall
Saturday, February 18, 2023
________________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!
I thank the Dean for his words; I greet you all: after what he said, I don't know what to say, because he said it all right: thank you! This initiative of the Course for practitioners of canon law and family pastoral care is part of the multifaceted service of the Roman Curia to the evangelising mission of the Church, according to the spirit of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium.
We can ask ourselves: in what sense is a law course connected with evangelization? We are used to thinking that canon law and the mission of spreading the Good News of Christ are two separate realities. Instead, it is crucial to discover the link that unites them within the one mission of the Church. One could say schematically: neither law without evangelization, nor evangelization without law. Indeed, the nucleus of canon law concerns the goods of communion, above all the Word of God and the sacraments. Every person and every community has the right - has the right - to an encounter with Christ, and all norms and juridical acts tend to favor the authenticity and fruitfulness of this right, that is, of this encounter. Therefore the supreme law is the salvation of souls, as affirmed by the last canon of the Code of Canon Law (see can. 1752). Therefore ecclesial law appears intimately linked to the life of the Church, as one of its necessary aspects, that of justice in preserving and transmitting the saving goods. In this sense, evangelizing is the primordial juridical commitment, both of the Pastors and of all the faithful. It is what makes the difference, for example, between priests, between a pastor and a state cleric. The first, the Shepherd of the people, goes to evangelize and fulfills this primary right; the state cleric, a sort of court curate, performs a function but does not satisfy the right that peoples have to be evangelized.
Dear legal practitioners in the Church, you probably know the words that Pope Benedict XVI wrote to seminarians. He said this: «Learn also to understand and - I dare say - to love canon law in its intrinsic necessity and in the forms of its practical application: a society without law would be a society without rights. Law is the condition of love" (Letter to seminarians, 18 October 2010, n. 5). Your work deals with regulations, processes and sanctions, but must never lose sight of rights, placing people, who are subjects and "objects" of the law, at the center of your work. These rights are not arbitrary claims, but objective goods, aimed at salvation, to be recognized and protected, without forgetting the respect for natural goods within the ecclesial community. You, as legal practitioners, have a particular responsibility to make the truth of justice shine forth in the life of the particular Churches: this task is a great contribution to evangelization.
In this perspective, you are called to know and faithfully observe the canonical norms, always bearing in mind the goods that are at stake, as is indispensable for interpreting and applying those norms with justice. The canonist's mission is not a positivistic use of the canons to seek convenient solutions to juridical problems or to attempt certain "equilibrisms". Understood in this way, his actions would be at the service of any interest, or would try to trap life in rigid formalistic and bureaucratic schemes that neglect true rights. We must not forget the greatest principle, that of evangelization: reality is superior to the idea, the "concrete" of life is always superior to the formal; reality is superior to any idea, and this reality must be served with the law. The greatness of your task emerges from a vision in which the canonical norms, without forgetting the equity of the individual case, are implemented through the virtues of juridical prudence which discerns the concrete right. To arrive from the universal to the concrete universal and to the concrete: here is a path of judicial wisdom. A judgment or judicial aid are not made with balances or imbalances, they are made through this wisdom. It takes science, it takes listening skills; above all, brothers and sisters, it takes prayer to judge well. In this way neither the common needs of the common good inherent in the laws nor the due formalities of the acts are neglected, but everything falls within a true ministry of justice.
You have appropriately placed the administration of justice in the context of the synodal activity of the Church. Last year I spoke about the synodality which is intrinsic to the process of matrimonial nullity (see Address to the Roman Rota, 27 January 2022). The same consideration also applies to all those who participate in the procedure for granting a dispensation from a ratified and unconsummated marriage. And the synodal spirit must be lived in all your juridical tasks. Walking together, listening to one another and invoking the Holy Spirit, is an indispensable condition for being right operators. A concrete manifestation of this is the need to ask for advice, to have recourse to the opinion of those who have more knowledge and experience, with that humble and constant desire to always learn in order to better serve the Church in this area. And the one who gives you the advice is the Holy Spirit: you have to ask for advice not only for a specific legal interpretation, to have balance; no, ask for advice to receive the creativity that the Holy Spirit, with the gift of advice, gives you every time you have to make a judgement. This is important.
Dear operators of family pastoral care, I am also addressing you, and I am happy with your participation in this Course. Starting from the two motu proprio Mitis Iudex and Mitis et misericors Iesus, awareness has been growing about the interaction between family pastoral care and ecclesiastical tribunals, also seen in their specificity as pastoral bodies. On the one hand, an integral pastoral care of the family cannot ignore the juridical questions concerning marriage. It suffices to think, for example, of the task of preventing marriage nullity during the phase preceding the celebration, and also accompanying couples in crisis situations, including orientation towards the courts of the Church when the existence of a head of nullity, or the advice to start the procedure for the dispensation for non-consumption. On the other hand, the operators of the courts can never forget that they are dealing with issues that have a strong pastoral relevance, for which the needs of truth, accessibility and prudent speed must always guide their work; and the duty to do everything possible for reconciliation between the parties or the validation of their union should not be overlooked, as I recalled again in last year's Address to the Rota. As Saint John Paul II said, "true justice in the Church, animated by charity and tempered by equity, always deserves the qualifying attribute of pastoral care" (Address to the Roman Rota, 18 January 1990, n. 4): in the midst of flock, with the smell of the flock and looking for the progress of the flock.
These are, dear brothers and sisters, the considerations that I entrust to you, knowing the spirit of fidelity that animates you and the commitment you place in fully implementing the norms of the Church, in the search for the true good of the People of God. I entrust to Our Lady , Mirror of justice, each of you, I entrust your daily work. I bless you from my heart; please don't forget to pray for me. Thank you!
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE TRAINING COURSE FOR LAW OPERATORS,
PROMOTED BY THE COURT OF THE ROMAN ROTA
Clementine Hall
Saturday, February 18, 2023
________________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!
I thank the Dean for his words; I greet you all: after what he said, I don't know what to say, because he said it all right: thank you! This initiative of the Course for practitioners of canon law and family pastoral care is part of the multifaceted service of the Roman Curia to the evangelising mission of the Church, according to the spirit of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium.
We can ask ourselves: in what sense is a law course connected with evangelization? We are used to thinking that canon law and the mission of spreading the Good News of Christ are two separate realities. Instead, it is crucial to discover the link that unites them within the one mission of the Church. One could say schematically: neither law without evangelization, nor evangelization without law. Indeed, the nucleus of canon law concerns the goods of communion, above all the Word of God and the sacraments. Every person and every community has the right - has the right - to an encounter with Christ, and all norms and juridical acts tend to favor the authenticity and fruitfulness of this right, that is, of this encounter. Therefore the supreme law is the salvation of souls, as affirmed by the last canon of the Code of Canon Law (see can. 1752). Therefore ecclesial law appears intimately linked to the life of the Church, as one of its necessary aspects, that of justice in preserving and transmitting the saving goods. In this sense, evangelizing is the primordial juridical commitment, both of the Pastors and of all the faithful. It is what makes the difference, for example, between priests, between a pastor and a state cleric. The first, the Shepherd of the people, goes to evangelize and fulfills this primary right; the state cleric, a sort of court curate, performs a function but does not satisfy the right that peoples have to be evangelized.
Dear legal practitioners in the Church, you probably know the words that Pope Benedict XVI wrote to seminarians. He said this: «Learn also to understand and - I dare say - to love canon law in its intrinsic necessity and in the forms of its practical application: a society without law would be a society without rights. Law is the condition of love" (Letter to seminarians, 18 October 2010, n. 5). Your work deals with regulations, processes and sanctions, but must never lose sight of rights, placing people, who are subjects and "objects" of the law, at the center of your work. These rights are not arbitrary claims, but objective goods, aimed at salvation, to be recognized and protected, without forgetting the respect for natural goods within the ecclesial community. You, as legal practitioners, have a particular responsibility to make the truth of justice shine forth in the life of the particular Churches: this task is a great contribution to evangelization.
In this perspective, you are called to know and faithfully observe the canonical norms, always bearing in mind the goods that are at stake, as is indispensable for interpreting and applying those norms with justice. The canonist's mission is not a positivistic use of the canons to seek convenient solutions to juridical problems or to attempt certain "equilibrisms". Understood in this way, his actions would be at the service of any interest, or would try to trap life in rigid formalistic and bureaucratic schemes that neglect true rights. We must not forget the greatest principle, that of evangelization: reality is superior to the idea, the "concrete" of life is always superior to the formal; reality is superior to any idea, and this reality must be served with the law. The greatness of your task emerges from a vision in which the canonical norms, without forgetting the equity of the individual case, are implemented through the virtues of juridical prudence which discerns the concrete right. To arrive from the universal to the concrete universal and to the concrete: here is a path of judicial wisdom. A judgment or judicial aid are not made with balances or imbalances, they are made through this wisdom. It takes science, it takes listening skills; above all, brothers and sisters, it takes prayer to judge well. In this way neither the common needs of the common good inherent in the laws nor the due formalities of the acts are neglected, but everything falls within a true ministry of justice.
You have appropriately placed the administration of justice in the context of the synodal activity of the Church. Last year I spoke about the synodality which is intrinsic to the process of matrimonial nullity (see Address to the Roman Rota, 27 January 2022). The same consideration also applies to all those who participate in the procedure for granting a dispensation from a ratified and unconsummated marriage. And the synodal spirit must be lived in all your juridical tasks. Walking together, listening to one another and invoking the Holy Spirit, is an indispensable condition for being right operators. A concrete manifestation of this is the need to ask for advice, to have recourse to the opinion of those who have more knowledge and experience, with that humble and constant desire to always learn in order to better serve the Church in this area. And the one who gives you the advice is the Holy Spirit: you have to ask for advice not only for a specific legal interpretation, to have balance; no, ask for advice to receive the creativity that the Holy Spirit, with the gift of advice, gives you every time you have to make a judgement. This is important.
Dear operators of family pastoral care, I am also addressing you, and I am happy with your participation in this Course. Starting from the two motu proprio Mitis Iudex and Mitis et misericors Iesus, awareness has been growing about the interaction between family pastoral care and ecclesiastical tribunals, also seen in their specificity as pastoral bodies. On the one hand, an integral pastoral care of the family cannot ignore the juridical questions concerning marriage. It suffices to think, for example, of the task of preventing marriage nullity during the phase preceding the celebration, and also accompanying couples in crisis situations, including orientation towards the courts of the Church when the existence of a head of nullity, or the advice to start the procedure for the dispensation for non-consumption. On the other hand, the operators of the courts can never forget that they are dealing with issues that have a strong pastoral relevance, for which the needs of truth, accessibility and prudent speed must always guide their work; and the duty to do everything possible for reconciliation between the parties or the validation of their union should not be overlooked, as I recalled again in last year's Address to the Rota. As Saint John Paul II said, "true justice in the Church, animated by charity and tempered by equity, always deserves the qualifying attribute of pastoral care" (Address to the Roman Rota, 18 January 1990, n. 4): in the midst of flock, with the smell of the flock and looking for the progress of the flock.
These are, dear brothers and sisters, the considerations that I entrust to you, knowing the spirit of fidelity that animates you and the commitment you place in fully implementing the norms of the Church, in the search for the true good of the People of God. I entrust to Our Lady , Mirror of justice, each of you, I entrust your daily work. I bless you from my heart; please don't forget to pray for me. Thank you!
Source: Vatican.va
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