THE FACULTY of Canon Law should be an “instrument of mercy” following Pope Francis’ call for a quicker judicial process on the declaration of the nullity of Christian marriages, canon law experts said during a symposium at the UST Martyrs’ Hall on Thursday.
Fr. Danilo Flores, who has a doctorate in canon law, said “pastoral conversion” was needed to empower local bishops in providing a shortened nullity process.
“[This is] not only for a better change but for the superior good of the structures of the Church,” he said in his talk titled, “Establishment of a Pastoral and Prejudicial Counselling in Every Diocese – A Must.”
In his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the Pope called for “pastoral sensitivity” toward divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. In 2015, the Holy Father allowed bishops to make their own judgements in cases that warrant nullity.
Upholding the indissolubility of the sacrament of matrimony, Flores reminded canon lawyers that canonical procedures aim to “discern the truth” not nullify the marriage.
“We should not create a wrong impression among the faithful and public opinion that the simplification of the canonical procedures newly introduced will bring about an improper implementation of Christian justice,” he said.
Fr. Arnold Semilla, a tribunal judge from the Diocese of Rome, called on participants to be open to Church legal reform as an act of mercy, in his talk on the “Essential Innovations and Tribunal Praxis of the Reform Law of Pope Francis on the Declaration of Nullity of Marriage.”
“We [judges] are instruments of God’s mercy. And we have to think always that in front of us, there is a human person suffering. That’s why the Pope wants us to be merciful, especially in these cases,” Semilla said.
Semilla said there had been an increase in the number of couples seeking declarations of nullity after Francis’ reform of the Church process.
