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“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband."
Jesus
said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to Him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true”
(from the
Gospel for the Third
Sunday of Lent - Year A Scrutinies)
Addresses of the Holy Fathers to the Roman Rota
"Dear Brothers,
"I give you my cordial welcome and thank the Dean for the words with which he introduced our meeting.
"The ministry of the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota has always
been to help the Successor of Peter, so that the Church, inseparably
connected with the family, will continue to proclaim the plan of God the
Creator and Redeemer on the sacredness and beauty of the family
institute — a mission that is always timely, but which acquires
particular importance in our time.
"In addition to the definition of the Roman Rota as Tribunal of the family,[1]
I would like to highlight another prerogative, namely, that it is the
Tribunal of the truth of the sacred bond. And these two aspects are
complementary.
"The Church, in fact, can show the indefectible merciful love of God
to families, in particular those wounded by sin and by the trials of
life and, at the same time, proclaim the inalienable truth of marriage
according to God’s plan. This service is entrusted primarily to the Pope
and to the Bishops.
"In the Synodal sessions on the subject of the family, which the Lord
granted us to carry out in the last two years, we were able to acquire,
in a spirit and style of effective collegiality, a profound and wise
discernment, thanks to which the Church has — among other things —
indicated to the world that there cannot be confusion between the family
willed by God and all other types of union.
"With this same spiritual and pastoral attitude, your activity — be it
in judging be it in contributing to permanent formation –, assists and
promotes the opus veritatis. When the Church, through your
service, decides to declare the truth about marriage in a concrete case,
for the good of the faithful, she has present at the same time those
who by free choice and unhappy circumstances of life,[2]
live in an objective state of error, continue to be the
object of the merciful love of Christ and therefore of the Church
herself.
"The family, founded on indissoluble, unitive and procreative
marriage, belongs to God’s 'dream' and that of His Church for the
salvation of humanity.[3]
"As Blessed Paul VI affirmed, the Church has always addressed 'a
particular look, full of solicitude and love, to the family and its
problems. Through the means of marriage and the family, God has wisely
united two of the greatest human realities: the mission to transmit life
and the mutual and legitimate love of man and woman, by which they are
called to complete one another in a mutual donation which is not only
physical but above all spiritual. Or to say it better: God willed to
render spouses participants of His love: of the personal love that He
has for each one of them and by which He calls them to help one another
and to give themselves to each other to reach the fullness of their
personal life; and of the love that He brings to humanity and to all His
children, by which He desires to multiply the children of men to render
them participants of His Life and His eternal felicity.'[4]
"The family and the Church, concur on different planes, to support the
human being to the end of his existence. And they do so, certainly,
with the teachings they transmit, but also with their nature itself as
community of love and life. In fact, if one can well say that the family
is the 'domestic Church,' applied to the Church rightly is the title
'family of God.' Therefore, 'the family spirit' is a constitutional
charter for the Church: Christianity must appear so and be so. It is
written in clear letters: 'you are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household
of God' (Ephesians 2:19). 'The Church is and must be the family of God.'[5]
"It is precisely because she is Mother and Teacher that the Church
knows that, among Christians, some have a strong faith, formed by
charity and reinforced by good catechesis and nourished by prayer and
the sacramental life, while others have a weak faith, neglected, not
formed, little educated or forgotten.
"It is good to state clearly that the quality of the faith is not an
essential condition for marital consensus, which, according to the
everlasting doctrine, can be undermined only at the natural level (Cf.
CIC, can. 1055, paragraphs 1 and 2). In fact, the habitus fidei is
infused at the moment of Baptism and continues to have a mysterious
influence on the soul, even when the faith has not been developed and,
psychologically, seems to be absent. It is not rare that the parties
contracting marriage, driven to true marriage by the instinctus naturae, have,
at the moment of the celebration, a limited awareness of the fullness
of God’s plan, and only later, in family life, they discover all that
God the Creator and Redeemer has established for them. The lack of
formation in the faith and also the error about unity, indissolubility
and the sacramental dignity of marriage vitiate the marital consensus
only if they determine the will (Cf. CIC, can 1099). Precisely because
of this, errors that regard the sacredness of marriage must be assessed
very carefully. Therefore, with a renewed sense of responsibility, the
Church continues to propose marriage in its essential elements –
offspring, the good of the spouses, unity, indissolubility, sacredness[6]
–, not as an ideal for a few, despite modern models centered on the
ephemeral and the transitory, but as a reality that, with the grace of
Christ, can be lived by all the baptized faithful. And therefore, there
is greater reason for the pastoral urgency, which involves all the
structures of the Church, drives to converge towards a common attempt
ordered to appropriate preparation for marriage, in a sort of new
catechumenate — I stress this: in a sort of new catechumenate — so
desired by some Synodal Fathers.[7]
"Dear Brothers, the time we are living is very demanding, be it for
the families, be it for us Pastors who are called to support them. With
this awareness, I wish you good work for the New Year that the Lord
gives us. I assure you of my prayer and I also count on yours. May Our
Lady and Saint Joseph obtain for the Church to grow in the spirit of the
family and to families to feel increasingly a living and active part of
the People of God. Thank you."
"....the many, many families
that, supported and nourished by sincere faith, realize in the effort
and joy of the everyday the goods of marriage, assumed with sincerity at
the moment of the wedding and pursued with fidelity and tenacity.
However, the Church also knows the suffering of many family nuclei that
disintegrate, leaving behind them the ruins of affective relations,
plans, and common expectations....today there is a great number of
faithful in irregular situations, whose histories have been strongly
influenced by the widespread worldly mentality...."
“the conviction that the pastoral good
of the person in an irregular marital situation requires a sort of
canonical regularization, independently of the validity or nullity of
his/her marriage...has also spread in certain ecclesiastical milieus" (1/27/07)
He seemed to evidence growing and grave concern about possible misuse
of
marriage tribunals, even focusing on a misguided "pastoral" perspective that
would destabilize marriage and family. It would appear that his concerns led to Dignitas Connubii (1/25/2005).
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