Vatican City, Jan 29, 2018 / 11:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a speech to the Roman Rota Monday, Pope Francis said there is a need to develop better means of forming the consciences of the faithful in the Church, especially those preparing for marriage and family life.
“How precious and urgent is the pastoral activity of the entire Church for the recovery, safeguarding and protection of Christian conscience, illuminated by Gospel values!” the Pope said Jan. 29.
This “long and difficult task” requires bishops and priests to work untiringly “to enlighten, defend and sustain the Christian conscience of our people,” the Pope said.
The Pope explained that conscience “assumes a decisive role” in choices that couples must make to “welcome and build their conjugal union and family according to God’s design.”
Pope Francis spoke during his annual audience with members of the Roman Rota, at the inauguration of the court’s judicial year. The Roman Rota is one of the three courts of the Holy See, the other two being the Apostolic Penitentiary and the Apostolic Signatura.
The Rota is the Vatican’s court of higher instance, usually at the appellate stage, charged by its governing document, Pastor bonus, with “safeguarding rights within the Church; it fosters unity of jurisprudence, and, by virtue of its own decisions, provides assistance to lower tribunals.”
Among the Rota’s primary responsibilities is to consider appeals in marriage nullity, or annulment, cases. The nullity process was streamlined by Pope Francis in December 2015, strengthening the role of local bishops and cutting the requirement that initial affirmative judgments be reviewed by a higher court.
In his speech, the Pope said the activity of the Rota is expressed “as a ministry of the ‘peace of consciousness’ and requires being exercised with the ‘whole conscience.’”
The Pope told Rotal auditors, or judges, that “you place yourselves, in a certain sense, as experts on the conscience of Christian faithful,” he said, adding that judges are constantly required to ask for divine help in order to “carry out with humility and measure the serious task entrusted to you by the Church.”
He said conscience was an important theme during the 2014-2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family and the 2015 post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.
The synods, he said, placed a strong emphasis on the relationship between the “’regula fidei,’ (rule of faith), which is the fidelity of the Church to the untouchable teaching on marriage” and the Eucharist, as well as the “urgent attention of the Church itself to the psychological and religious processes of all people called to the choice of marriage and family.”
The synods and Amoris Laetitia also emphasized the “urgent need” for pastors of the Church to listen to the “requests and expectations of those faithful who have rendered their own consciences mute and absent for many years,” but who through grace have come back to the Church to “have peace in their conscience,” he said.
Francis then referred to the suggestions he gave in Amoris Laetitia for marriage preparation, which include a longer process, with the involvement of more couples.
Careful preparation and “a continuous experience of faith, hope and charity is needed now more than ever so that young people may decide, with a secure and serene conscience, that conjugal union open to the gift of children is a great joy for God, for the Church and for humanity,” he said.
While this task is primarily the concern of pastors, Francis stressed that the care of consciences “cannot be the exclusive commitment of pastors.” Rather, “with responsibility and in different ways, it is the mission of all, ministers and baptized faithful.”
Marriage and family, he said, “are the future of the Church and of society.” Because of this, he said it’s necessary to have a “permanent catechumenate” so that the consciences of those who have been baptized are constantly open to the Holy Spirit.
“The sacramental intention is never the fruit of an automatism, but always of a conscience illuminated by faith, as the result of a combination between human and divine,” he said, explaining that in this sense, “the spousal union can be said to be true only if the human intention of the spouses is oriented to what Christ and the Church want.”
In order to help future spouses, the Church needs the contribution of bishops and priests, and also of other people involved in pastoral care, such as religious and lay faithful “who are jointly responsible in the mission of the Church.”
Pope Francis closed his speech cautioning members of the Rota not to allow their work in the exercise of justice to be reduced “to a mere bureaucratic task.”
“If the ecclesial tribunals were to fall into this temptation, it would betray Christian conscience,” he said.
“We must prevent the conscience of the faithful in difficulty as regards their marriage from closing to the path of grace,” he said, adding that this can be accomplished through pastoral accompaniment, the discernment of conscience and the work of the Church’s tribunals.
“This work must be carried out in wisdom and in the search for the truth,” he said. “Only in this way can the declaration of nullity produce a liberation of consciences.”
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With the lead-in picture of the ring hand, reminds me of the “diamonds are forever” jingle; often seems more of a fantasy with earthly marriages.
“We cannot reduce a human situation to a prescriptive one” [Francis] translates the Roman Pontiff does not want the Church to be constricted by [to adhere to] doctrine. Whether Benedict XVI expressed an opinion [neither is an opinion a proscription] that a given number of marriages are invalid due to lack of faith that cannot be made an assumption that every divorced and remarried outside the Church falls into that category. If we accept that assumption on invalidity [Benedict’s alleged opinion] as a standard for judgment then that doubt must be presumed for all.
Pope Francis immediately after publication of Amoris Laetitia announced that most presumed sacramental marriages are invalid. Then walked it back following the expected uproar. That has been his gradual process of seeking to modify doctrine. Timing is essential.
A person unless retarded knows what an affirmation is [when exchanging vows]. If they don’t [due to lack of faith] they will likely remain as oblivious even if after a similar process of instruction they’re conferred the Holy Eucharist. Based on these premises this new document on divorced and remarried may well be footnote 351 on steroids.
Card Kevin Farrell, McCarrick associate when assigned to DC is one of the fast rising stars selected by His Holiness to complete the large tent Church renovation. Numbers versus quality, secular religiosity versus adherence to revelation. Unless I’m wrong and happily surprised.
“…without an annulment.” The easy-annulment mentality of the last fifty years has in effect amounted to being a Church endorsement for divorce. Oh, but annulments are NOT Catholic divorce, said Bishop James Conley in the Denver Catholic newspaper a decade ago or so. Sorry, bishop. they really are, in every way but officially. And every time the Church grants an annulment, it guarantees that there will be many more — the annulment mentality is part of the Church now. Thank you, New Springtime of Vatican II.
Yes!
This document like so many others emanating from this pontificate are DOA.
Excerpt: Pope Francis said. “When young people say ‘forever,’ who knows what they mean [by] ‘forever.’”
It is not just YOUNG people. My new wife and her maniacal first husband were divorced since she could no longer deal with his bipolar disorder. He died before I met Gail. I am a widower who lost my first wife at age 42. For 13 years I was single and alone. Then I met Gail and after a year we decided to get married. We were deeply in love and planned a lifetime together. That was when we experienced the harshness Catholic Church. Our parish priest would not marry us because Gail was divorced without an annulment. The fact that her first husband was now dead meant little. Across from St. Josephs was the Old Dutch Church where my friend Rev Paul Bennis was rector. After several “pre-cana” sessions he married us. We returned to St. Josephs, but were not given the Host. We have settled in and look forward to a long life.
When people get married, they are no longer free to take another partner, in other words, they are “reserved”. When Gail’s husband died, she was no longer “reserved”, and was free to marry for a second man. As for her civil divorce, I don’t know if she incurred any censure or canonical penalty. The remedy would have been a good confession with a knowledgeable priest. How could her parish priest refuse to marry her to a single man, and then refuse her Communion? As recounted by morganD, it seems altogether a bad decision. Another question: where was her bishop?
Marriage ends at death. It is unbelievable that a priest would claim a woman is not free to marry after for the sole reason that she is already married to a dead man.
“Practice continence within their marriage”??? Really?? Excuse me while i roll on the floor laughing. Who on earth does that?? There are a few anecdotal stories of some saintly couples in the long past supposedly doing that. But certainly that is beyond rare. Expect the report to approve of more secular practices for the divorced and remarried. To be kind and merciful of course, which appears to now trump standards if amy kind. And if the Pope assumes most catholic marriages are invalid, dispense with marriage as a sacrament and call in a govt justice of the peace. People are not improved when LESS is expected of them. Is the request for this report the popes way of distracting attention from the results of the recent German synod??? I think the tesults of this report will be sadly predictable.
Marriage is about the procreation and education of children for heaven. But in 1969, Rotal Judge Lucian Anne (accent over the “e”) proclaimed that from then on it was about much more as in a partnership of the whole of life.
But there is no list of how this partnership is defined. Couples can violate it in ignorance; only tribunal judges know how to find evidence that invalidates their marriage under, almost always, canon 1095.2 and 1095.3.
American diocesan marriage tribunals are corrupt. Ask those children who cried themselves to sleep for years, only wanting Mom and Dad back together. And the ” church” let them down again and again.
Using marriage as an indicator of anything relevant to the Church is useless. Casual sex, cohabiting, exploitation of children are rampant, and the wedding ceremony itself is given far more effort than the actual marriage. The truth is that the only one who can police Communion is Christ Himself.
I look forward to the day the Church implements our existing canon law and doctrine about those “having a failed marriage behind them.” The Church, not the government, has competence to decide spouses’ obligations toward each other and their children. No-fault divorce is virtually illegal for Catholics who are bound to follow canon law. For every so-called failed marriage there is one person (or two) who chose to break marriage promises by abandonment, abuse, or adultery. See my blog https://marysadvocates.org/please-stop-saying-those-who-experience-divorce/
Thank you for that post. My wife walked out of our marriage with no effort, no care, no apology, no remorse. She had committed adultery for several years and left for the other man. I would have done anything to save my marriage and took my vows seriously. She did not. Now I suffer as do my adult children.
70 testimonies of adult children of divorce is a must read in Primal Loss by Leila Miller for all clergy and lay Catholic counselors
I have so many questions about this. I was Catholic for almost 20 years, a convert as an adult. My first marriage was not in the church and he was abusive. My priest basically told me to leave him or I might die and he didn’t want to preach my funeral mass. I did, and we divorced. I got married again, once again not in the Church and we were married for 10 years. I had left the Church due to the marriage thing. After the 10 years, he announced he never loved me and he was in love with another woman and basically threw me out. I moved 800 miles away to my sister’s and went to the local church to talk about this and what to do about coming back. That priest told me to go home, throw her out, and tell my husband he had to stay with me. Uh, not happening, and I walked away from the church again.
A year and a half later I met a man who was perfect for me. We were in a whirlwind romance and after doing a handfasting with friends, got the JP ceremony. That was 30 years ago and we’re happier than we’ve ever been. He was divorced too, just getting over it. We worked through the baggage from our pasts and we have grown into a really comfortable, loving marriage.
Now I’m feeling the call to go home to the Church. I keep reading I have to get annulments, I have to live like “brother and sister” with my beloved husband while that’s going on. My first husband is dead, I’ve not had contact with the other one in about six years (at a wedding for our daughter). I don’t know what to do about this whole thing. If I can’t have sacraments, why go back? I can pray at home, I can read on my own. I can watch mass online.
My husband wouldn’t be adverse to conversion, depending on how he finds things. He grew up Methodist, very active since he played piano for the church and his father was a deacon and a lay minister. He has said he will accompany me to mass if I wanted to go.
So, when the Church talks about having to annul a marriage, if you’ve never been married in the Church, is that still valid? I’m very convused.