VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Theology, law and pastoral concern always go together in the work of Catholic tribunals considering marriage cases, Pope Leo XIV said. The three approaches are not “watertight compartments,” the pope said, nor can they be seen as being in opposition to each other “as if the more theological or the more pastoral (approach) necessarily implied the less juridical” focus. The pope met Nov. 21 with students attending a course offered by the Roman Rota, a Vatican court that deals primarily with marriage cases. The four-day course looked specifically at developments in the 10 years since Pope Francis simplified the processes for determining the validity or nullity of a marriage. Pope Leo said it was “superficial” to view “the juridical reality of matrimonial nullity processes as a merely technical field, of interest exclusively to specialists, or as a means aimed only at obtaining a person’s freedom to marry.” The aim of judicial proceedings, he said, is “the diakonia” or ministry and service of truth.
Marriage tribunals do not pit law against pastoral care, pope says
