Help purify, restore relationships, pope tells judges at Vatican tribunal

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Concern for the salvation of souls is what guides the work of church tribunals and the implementation of reforms regarding the marriage annulment process, Pope Francis said.

“We are called upon by the pain and hope of so many faithful who seek clarity regarding the truth about their personal situation and, consequently, regarding the possibility of full participation in sacramental life,” the pope told members of the Roman Rota, a Vatican-based tribunal that deals mainly with marriage cases and requests for marriage annulments.

“Your work in discerning whether or not a valid marriage exists is a service to ‘salus animarum’ (the salvation of souls), in that it allows the faithful to know and accept the truth of their own personal situation,” he told the tribunal members during an audience at the Vatican Jan. 31, inaugurating the tribunal’s judicial year.

This year’s annual papal audience coincided with the 10th anniversary of two papal documents explaining reforms to the annulment process, “Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus” (“The Lord Jesus, the Gentle Judge”) for the Latin-rite church and “Mitis et misericors Iesus” (“The Meek and Merciful Jesus”) for the Eastern Catholic churches.

With these reforms, the pope revised a section of canon law with the aim of making the Catholic Church’s marriage annulment process quicker, cheaper and more pastoral. The changes went into effect Dec. 8, 2015, the opening day of the Year of Mercy.

A juridical process is always necessary for making accurate judgments, the pope had said in the papal documents, and the new rules were not about promoting annulments, but rather about helping Catholic couples with the process so they would not be “oppressed by the shadow of doubt” for prolonged periods.

In his talk to members of the Vatican tribunal, Pope Francis said, “The church entrusts a task of great responsibility to you, but first of all of great beauty: to help purify and restore interpersonal relationships.”

“The family is a living reflection of the communion of love that is the triune God,” he said. “Moreover, spouses united in marriage have received the gift of indissolubility, which is not a goal to be achieved by their own effort, nor even a limitation on their freedom, but a promise from God,” whose own fidelity makes each person’s fidelity possible.

In fact, he said, “the norms that establish the procedures must guarantee some fundamental rights and principles, primarily the right of defense and the presumption of the validity of the marriage.”

The purpose of the annulment process is “not to complicate the life of the faithful uselessly, nor far less to exacerbate their litigation, but rather to render a service to the truth,” he said, quoting Pope Benedict XVI’s speech to the tribunal in 2006.

“The reform was guided — and its application must be guided — by the concern for the salvation of souls,” Pope Francis said.