VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 017   
   DATE 23-01-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - To the Tribunal of the Roman Rota: do not ensnare salvation in the   
   constraints of legalism   
   - Pope's Message for 49th World Communications Day   
   - The wisdom of parents must guide children in the digital world   
   - Decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints   
   - Audiences   
      
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    To the Tribunal of the Roman Rota: do not ensnare salvation in the   
   constraints of legalism   
    Vatican City, 23 January 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis today received in audience   
   the dean, prelate auditors, officials and collaborators of the Tribunal of the   
   Roman Rota, in order to inaugurate the legal year. In his address, the Holy   
   Father focused on the human and cultural context in which matrimonial intent   
   is formed. He emphasised that the crisis of values in society is not a recent   
   phenomenon, and recalled that forty years ago Pope Paul VI had already   
   denounced the ailments of modern man, "at times wounded by a systematic   
   relativism, that bends to the easiest choices of circumstance, of demagogy, of   
   fashion, of passion, of hedonism, of selfishness, so that externally he   
   attempts to dispute the mastery of the law, and internally, almost without   
   realising, substitutes the empire of moral conscience with the whim of   
   psychological consciousness".   
    The Pope highlighted the role of the judge, who is require to perform his   
   judicial analysis where there is doubt regarding the validity of marriage, to   
   ascertain whether there was an original shortcoming in consent, either   
   directly in terms of a defect in the validity of intention or a grave deficit   
   in the understanding of marriage itself to the extent of determining will. The   
   crisis in marriage, indeed, not infrequently has at its root the crisis in   
   knowledge enlightened by faith, or rather by adhesion to God and His plan of   
   love realised in Jesus Christ".   
    "Pastoral experience teaches us that today there is a great number of   
   faithful in irregular situations, whose histories have been strongly   
   influenced by the widespread worldly mentality", he continued. "There exists,   
   indeed, a sort of spiritual worldliness, which hides behind the appearance of   
   piety and even love for the Church, and which leads to the pursuit not of the   
   glory of God, but rather of personal well-being. One of the consequences of   
   this attitude is a faith hemmed in by subjectivism, interested solely in a   
   given experience or a series of arguments and areas of knowledge believed to   
   console or enlighten, but in which the subject in reality remains imprisoned   
   by the immanence of his or her own reason or emotions. ... Therefore, the   
   judge, in evaluating the validity of the consent given, must take into account   
   the context of values and faith".   
    Pope Francis urged greater commitment and passion in the ministry of the   
   judge, whose role is "to protect the unity of the jurisprudence of the   
   Church", and "pastoral work for the good of many couples, and many children,   
   who are often the victims of these situations. Here too there is a need for   
   pastoral conversion on the part of ecclesiastical structures to be able to   
   offer the opus iustitiae to all those who turn to the Church to shed light on   
   their matrimonial situation. This is your difficult mission: ... do not   
   ensnare salvation in the constrictions of legalism. The function of law is   
   guided towards the salus animarum on the condition that, avoiding sophisms   
   distant from the living flesh of people in difficulty, it may help to   
   establish the truth of the moment of consent".   
    The Pope stressed the importance of the presence at every ecclesiastical   
   Tribunal of persons competent to offer sound advice on the possibility of   
   initiating a suit for the annulment of marriage. "In the hope that in every   
   Tribunal these figures may be present to encourage real access to the justice   
   of the Church for all the faithful, I would like to underline that a   
   significant number of cases dealt with before the Roman Rota are enabled by   
   legal aid granted to those whose economic situation would not otherwise allow   
   them to engage the services of lawyer".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pope's Message for 49th World Communications Day   
    Vatican City, 23 January 2015 (VIS) - The Pope's message for the 49th annual   
   World Communications Day was published today, the vigil of the feast day of   
   St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists. The Day will be celebrated   
   on Sunday 17 May 2015, and this year's theme is "Communicating the family: a   
   privileged place of encounter with the gift of love". The message was   
   published in English, French ,German, Portuguese and Spanish.   
    The full text of the message is reproduced below:   
    "The family is a subject of profound reflection by the Church and of a   
   process involving two Synods: the recent extraordinary assembly and the   
   ordinary assembly scheduled for next October. So I thought it appropriate that   
   the theme for the next World Communications Day should have the family as its   
   point of reference. After all, it is in the context of the family that we   
   first learn how to communicate. Focusing on this context can help to make our   
   communication more authentic and humane, while helping us to view the family   
   in a new perspective.   
    "We can draw inspiration from the Gospel passage which relates the visit of   
   Mary to Elizabeth. 'When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in   
   her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit cried out in a loud voice   
   and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your   
   womb"'. This episode first shows us how communication is a dialogue   
   intertwined with the language of the body. The first response to Mary's   
   greeting is given by the child, who leaps for joy in the womb of Elizabeth.   
   Joy at meeting others, which is something we learn even before being born, is,   
   in one sense, the archetype and symbol of every other form of communication.   
   The womb which hosts us is the first 'school' of communication, a place of   
   listening and physical contact where we begin to familiarise ourselves with   
   the outside world within a protected environment, with the reassuring sound of   
   the mother's heartbeat. This encounter between two persons, so intimately   
   related while still distinct from each other, an encounter so full of promise,   
   is our first experience of communication. It is an experience which we all   
   share, since each of us was born of a mother.   
    "Even after we have come into the world, in some sense we are still in a   
   'womb', which is the family. A womb made up of various interrelated persons:   
   the family is 'where we learn to live with others despite our differences'.   
   Notwithstanding the differences of gender and age between them, family members   
   accept one another because there is a bond between them. The wider the range   
   of these relationships and the greater the differences of age, the richer will   
   be our living environment. It is this bond which is at the root of language,   
   which in turn strengthens the bond. We do not create our language; we can use   
   it because we have received it. It is in the family that we learn to speak our   
   'mother tongue', the language of those who have gone before us. In the family   
   we realise that others have preceded us, they made it possible for us to exist   
   and in our turn to generate life and to do something good and beautiful. We   
   can give because we have received. This virtuous circle is at the heart of the   
   family's ability to communicate among its members and with others. More   
   generally, it is the model for all communication.   
    "The experience of this relationship which 'precedes' us enables the family   
   to become the setting in which the most basic form of communication, which is   
   prayer, is handed down. When parents put their newborn children to sleep, they   
   frequently entrust them to God, asking that he watch over them. When the   
   children are a little older, parents help them to recite some simple prayers,   
   thinking with affection of other people, such as grandparents, relatives, the   
   sick and suffering, and all those in need of God's help. It was in our   
   families that the majority of us learned the religious dimension of   
   communication, which in the case of Christianity is permeated with love, the   
   love that God bestows upon us and which we then offer to others.   
    "In the family, we learn to embrace and support one another, to discern the   
   meaning of facial expressions and moments of silence, to laugh and cry   
   together with people who did not choose one other yet are so important to each   
   other. This greatly helps us to understand the meaning of communication as   
   recognising and creating closeness. When we lessen distances by growing closer   
   and accepting one another, we experience gratitude and joy. Mary's greeting   
   and the stirring of her child are a blessing for Elizabeth; they are followed   
   by the beautiful canticle of the Magnificat, in which Mary praises God's   
   loving plan for her and for her people. A 'yes' spoken with faith can have   
   effects that go well beyond ourselves and our place in the world. To 'visit'   
   is to open doors, not remaining closed in our little world, but rather going   
   out to others. So too the family comes alive as it reaches beyond itself;   
   families who do so communicate their message of life and communion, giving   
   comfort and hope to more fragile families, and thus build up the Church   
   herself, which is the family of families.   
    "More than anywhere else, the family is where we daily experience our own   
   limits and those of others, the problems great and small entailed in living   
   peacefully with others. A perfect family does not exist. We should not be   
   fearful of imperfections, weakness or even conflict, but rather learn how to   
   deal with them constructively. The family, where we keep loving one another   
   despite our limits and sins, thus becomes a school of forgiveness. Forgiveness   
   is itself a process of communication. When contrition is expressed and   
   accepted, it becomes possible to restore and rebuild the communication which   
   broke down. A child who has learned in the family to listen to others, to   
   speak respectfully and to express his or her view without negating that of   
   others, will be a force for dialogue and reconciliation in society.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)