NOTES ON THE LEGAL-PASTORAL INTEGRATION OF ECCLESIASTICAL MATRIMONIAL VERDICT

Abstract

The mission of the Church cannot do without justice, truth, and mercy. These are the guiding values of the daily activity carried out in the courts where marriage annulment proceedings are heard. In addition to technical competence, a correct understanding of the pastoral munus is necessary, which links the service provided in the tribunals with other pastoral activities in the Church. The integration between canonical judicial pastoral care and family pastoral care provides systematic accompaniment on the issue of marriage. Unfortunately, some agents who work in this context use procedural form to serve the application of justice in the Church. Magistrates are invited to develop their technical munus by treating each case validly and lawfully, in full harmony with the pastoral munus intrinsic to the ecclesiastical office they exercise, with a view to a sentence that respects both the formal dimension of the procedural rite and the particularity of each situation brought before the court.