At Vatican marriage tribunal, Pope Francis extols ‘gift of indissolubility’ of marriage

Vatican City, Jan 31, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Friday extolled the “gift of indissolubility” of marriage, which he said is not a limitation on freedom but something married couples live with God’s grace.

The pontiff addressed the topic of marriage’s indissolubility, or permanence, in a meeting with members of the Roman Rota, one of three courts of the Holy See, on Jan. 31. The audience in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall took place for the opening of the tribunal’s 95th judicial year.

The Roman Rota, the Church’s highest appellate court, handles marriage nullity cases. A declaration of nullity — often referred to as an “annulment” — is a ruling by a tribunal that a marriage did not meet the conditions required to make it valid according to Church law.

“Spouses united in marriage,” Francis said, “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 fidelity makes that of human beings possible.”

Your work of discernment at the Roman Rota “as to whether or not a valid marriage exists,” he continued, “is a service to ‘salus animarum’ [the salvation of souls] in that it enables the faithful to know and accept the truth of their personal reality.”

In 2015, Pope Francis reformed Church law on the declaration of the nullity of marriage with the two motu proprios Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus and Mitis et Misericors Iesus.

The reform, which simplified and shortened the process, was aimed at making the undertaking more pastoral, with “the concern for the salvation of souls” the primary guide, the pope said.

The pontiff explained that the diocesan bishop is an important part of the reformed process, and the bishop must guarantee that the priests and laypeople in the diocesan tribunal are well-trained, suitable, and carry out their work with justice and diligence.

He said “the rules establishing the procedures must guarantee certain fundamental rights and principles, primarily the right of defense and the presumption of validity of the marriage.”

Pope Francis also encouraged anyone involved in annulment cases to approach “the marital and family reality with reverence, because the family is a living reflection of the communion of love that is God the Trinity.”

In his greeting at the audience, dean of the Roman Rota Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo said the tribunal was encouraged by the pope’s words during the opening of the Holy Door and the start of the Jubilee of Hope on Dec. 24, 2024, to “set out ‘without delay’ so as to ‘rediscover lost hope, renew it within us, sow it in the desolations of our time and our world.’”

“Holy Father, we feel directly challenged by the challenges of the present and the future, aware that the Rota Romana, as the tribunal of the Christian family, is only a ‘hem of the cloak’ of the Church,” Arellano said. 

“Nevertheless, it seems to us that it is not foreign to our hope that, from the touch of that cloak, through the administration of justice, wounded people may find peace so as to foster ‘tranquillitas ordinis’ [tranquility of order] in the Church,” he added.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/261931/pope-francis-extols-gift-of-indissolubility-of-marriage-in-speech-to-roman-rota