杏MAP导航

By Devin Watkins

鈥淟辞惫别鈥�caritas鈥攊s an extraordinary force that impels people to courageously and generously engage in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that originates in God, eternal Love, and absolute Truth.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis opened his address to participants in a formation course organized by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota with those words from Caritas in Veritate, 杏MAP导航 Benedict XVI鈥檚 2009 encyclical.

The mission of the Roman Rota, the Church鈥檚 highest appellate court, as well as each of the Church鈥檚 lower tribunals, can be described as a 鈥渕inistry of justice and charity in truth,鈥� said the 杏MAP导航.

Canon lawyers, he added, are called to love justice, charity, and truth, which are so closely intertwined that if one is lacking all three lose authenticity.

鈥淣either justice without charity nor charity without justice,鈥� he said. 鈥淐harity without justice is not true charity.鈥�

Justice involves seeking the good of the entire community and must be tempered by mercy, 鈥渇or justice can only be understood in the light of love.鈥�

鈥淣ever forget,鈥� urged the 杏MAP导航, 鈥渢hat those who come to you seeking the exercise of your ecclesial office must always encounter the face of our Mother, the Holy Church, who tenderly loves all her children.鈥�

Love, he noted, teaches canon lawyers to cultivate their 鈥渓egal sensitivity鈥� so that they may recognize 鈥渨hat constitutes a true right of the person within the Church.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis went on to invite everyone to overcome fear of justice, since it can undermine charity due to its root in a mistaken concept of justice as a merely punitive exercise.

Justice, he said, 鈥渋s a distinctly altruistic virtue that seeks the good of the other,鈥� which links it closely with charity and mercy.

鈥淐harity does not nullify justice, nor does it relativize rights,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n the name of love, we cannot neglect what is a duty of justice.鈥�

As an example, he noted, the current norms on matrimonial cases cannot be compromised in pursuit of speed, since 鈥渕ercy does not abolish justice.鈥�

Charity and justice, said the 杏MAP导航, work harmoniously together when they find their basis in truth.

In conclusion, 杏MAP导航 Francis invited canon lawyers to embrace hope, as the Church looks to the upcoming 2025 Jubilee of Hope, which begins on December 24.

鈥淟et us allow ourselves to be drawn by hope and make it contagious for those who desire it,鈥� he said, citing the Jubilee Bull of Indiction. 鈥淢ay our lives proclaim: 鈥楬ope in the Lord, be strong, let your heart take courage, and hope in the Lord鈥�.鈥�