Pope Leo XIV has warned against “a dangerous relativisation of truth” when it comes to the Church’s teachings on the indissolubility of the sacrament of marriage. Source: Crux.
The Pope made the comments to members of the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota on Monday.
One of the main functions of the Roman Rota is to deal with appeals in marital nullity cases in the Church. Unlike a divorce, which ends a marriage, a declaration of nullity – often called “annulments” – may be granted after a legal process determines a valid marriage did not actually take place.
If one of the parties to a presumed marriage had been previously married and had not obtained an annulment, for example, the Church will declare the second marriage null.
There are many other reasons for which a marriage may be null, all listed in the Church’s Code of Canon Law, and annulment cases can be more or less difficult to prove.
Pope Leo on Monday told the members of the Rota – who are all priests – that he wanted to speak about the close connection between the “truth of justice” and the “virtue of charity”.
“These are not two opposing principles, nor are they values to be balanced according to purely pragmatic criteria, but two intrinsically united dimensions that find their deepest harmony in the very mystery of God, who is Love and Truth,” Pope Leo said.
He said this correlation requires constant and careful critical exegesis, “since, in the exercise of judicial activity, a dialectical tension often arises between the demands of objective truth and the concerns of charity”.
“Sometimes there is a risk that excessive identification with the oft-troubled vicissitudes of the faithful may lead to a dangerous relativisation of truth,” the pontiff said.
“In fact, misunderstood compassion, even if apparently motivated by pastoral zeal, risks obscuring the necessary dimension of ascertaining the truth proper to the judicial office.”
Early in his reign, Pope Francis eased the process of annulments in the local Church: Giving more power to bishops, making the process faster, and trying to make sure the faithful did not have to pay to receive a hearing.
Leo, however, told the judges of the Rota that his predecessor’s purpose in streamlining the nullity process was not to weaken the reality of the indissolubility of sacramental marriage.
FULLS TORY
Pope Leo says the Catholic Church cannot ‘relativise’ its teaching on marriage (By Charles Collins, Crux)
