Violence and corruption won’t build up Chile, cardinal says at independence prayer service

Vatican City flag waiving over St. Peter’s dome – Bohumil Petrik / CNA

Vatican City, Apr 30, 2021 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Friday amended part of a law issued last year regulating Vatican City’s judicial system, now allowing the court of first instance to rule on criminal trials of bishops and cardinals.

The law previously said that cardinals and bishops could only be judged by the final court of cassation for the civil judicial system, which is the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

The prior law meant that criminal trials of cardinals and bishops were judged by other cardinals. With the April 30 update, Vatican City judges — typically lay people — will be competent to rule on the cases.

The amendments were issued by Pope Francis in an apostolic letter “amending the jurisdiction of the judicial bodies of Vatican City State,” issued motu proprio (“on his own impulse”).

In the preamble, the pope referenced Lumen gentium, the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which says that “there is true equality among all with regard to the dignity and action common to all the faithful in building the Body of Christ.”

He also quoted Gaudium et spes, Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which says that “all men have the same nature and the same origin; all, redeemed by Christ, enjoy the same vocation and the same divine destiny; it is therefore necessary to recognize more and more the fundamental equality of all.”

“The awareness of these values ​​and principles, which has progressively matured in the ecclesial community, today calls for an ever more adequate compliance with them even in the Vatican system,” Francis said.

In the update, Pope Francis repealed article 24 of a law issued on March 16, 2020, which declared that “the court of cassation is the only competent to judge, with consent of the Supreme Pontiff, the Most Eminent Cardinals and the Most Excellent Bishops in criminal cases.”

In the 2020 norms, Law CCCLI, the pope grounded Vatican City civil law in the Church’s canonical legal system, making the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the curia’s highest canonical appeals court, the final court of cassation for the civil judicial system.

The court of cassation consists of the cardinal prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, currently Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, plus two cardinal members of the signatura and two or more judges appointed for three-year terms.

The court of cassation is usually ruled by a bench of cardinal judges but can include other judges if circumstances require.

In the April 30 amendment, Pope Francis added a paragraph to article 6 of the 2020 law, stating that “in cases involving the Most Eminent Cardinals and the Most Excellent Bishops … the tribunal [court of first instance] shall judge with the consent of the Supreme Pontiff.”

The amendment makes note of the exception to this rule contained in canon 1405 of the Code of Canon Law, which says that only the pope can judge cardinals and bishops in penal cases regarding spiritual matters or a violation of Church law involving sin and the imposition of ecclesial penalties.

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CNA Staff, Dec 28, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- Bishop Alberto Rojas succeeded Bishop Gerald R. Barnes Monday as the bishop of San Bernardino, California.

The Holy See press office announced Dec. 28 that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Barnes,… […]

Pope Francis on the morning of June 7, 2023 shortly before heading to the hospital for abdominal surgery greets pilgrims at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Rome, Italy, Jun 11, 2023 / 05:10 am (CNA).

While recovering in the hospital, Pope Francis sent a message to the largest political party in the European Parliament.

In a letter to the European People’s Party published by the Vatican on June 11, the pope urged politicians to be united on “issues where primary ethical values and important points of Christian social doctrine are at stake.”

“The Christian politician should distinguish himself by the seriousness with which he approaches issues, rejecting opportunistic solutions and always holding firm to the criteria of the dignity of the person and the common good,” Pope Francis said.

“In this regard, you have a very rich heritage on which to draw to bring your original contribution to European politics, namely the social doctrine of the Church. Think, for example, of the two principles of solidarity and subsidiarity and their virtuous dynamic.”

Pope Francis signed the letter on June 9, two days after he underwent a three-hour surgery for an incisional hernia. A team of surgeons removed scar tissue and operated on a hernia in the pope’s abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said June 11 that Pope Francis’ “post-operative progress is normal.” He added that the pope watched Sunday Mass on television and received the Eucharist in his hospital room before praying the Angelus in the papal medical suite chapel and eating lunch with some hospital staff.

The 86-year-old pope is expected to remain recovering in Rome’s Gemelli hospital for the next week. The Vatican has canceled all of the pope’s audiences, including his Sunday Angelus address, until June 18.

In his message to the European People’s Party, the pope said that he views human fraternity as “the great inspiring principle” for tackling the challenges of migration and caring for the planet.

“I think that fraternity can also be a source of inspiration for those who want to re-animate Europe today so that it fully responds to the expectations of both its peoples and the whole world. Because a European project today can only be a global project,” Francis said.

The European People’s Party is a center-right political group in the European Union, made up of 40 parties across Europe, including Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, The Republicans of France, Forza Italia of Italy, the People’s Party in Spain, and Fine Gael of Ireland.

The party was founded as the Christian Democrat Group in 1953 and traces its roots back to Venerable Robert Schuman, known as a key “founding father” of the European Union.

“Dear friends, let us remember our origins: let us not forget how united Europe was born; let us not forget the tragedy of the wars of the 20th century,” Pope Francis wrote.

“The gradual and patient work of building a united Europe … what did it have in it as inspiration? What ideal, if not to generate a space where people could live in freedom, justice, and peace, respecting each other in diversity? Today this project is being tested in a globalized world, but it can be revived by drawing on the original inspiration, which is more relevant and fruitful than ever not only for Europe but for the entire human family.”

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