Pope Addresses Fear of “Imposing” Morality
VATICAN, January 29, 2002 (LSN.ca) – In an address to the Roman Rota (Vatican tribunal that handles annulment appeals) yesterday, Pope John Paul II said the church must work to combat divorce and uphold the indissolubility of marriage.
“It is important to present in a positive way the indissoluble union, in order to rediscover the good and the beauty of it,” said the Pope. “Above all,” he continued, we “must overcome” the perception of the “indissolubility of marriage as a limit to the liberty of spouses and as a burden sometimes unbearable.” He also stressed that Christians need to overcome the widespread notion that indissoluble marriage belongs only to believers, therefore they cannot ‘impose’ it on the civil society as a whole”.
“It would almost seem,” the Pope went on, “that divorce is so much rooted in certain circles of society, that it is not worthwhile to go on opposing by advocating a mentality of indissolubility in social customs and civil legislation. Indeed it is worthwhile!”.
The Pope called for “strong opposition to all legal and administrative measures introducing divorce or that make equal to marriage defacto unions, even homosexual union.” Rather, he said juridical measures should improve the “social recognition of true matrimony.”
Addressing lawyers, he said, they “must always decline to use their profession to an end contrary to justice, such as divorce,” noting that “they can only collaborate in such an activity when it, in the client’s intent, is not aimed at the breaking of the marriage, but to other legitimate effects” such as care for the children. Judges, said the Pope, while having less discretion as to what cases they are called on to adjudicate, “must find effective means to favour the marriage union.”
See the coverage of the Vatican Information Service (available today only) and the Catholic News Service: https://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/20020128.htm https://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/vis/dinamiche/d2_en.htm