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Pope Francis’ address to the gathering promoted by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota
Clementine Hall – Saturday, 23 November 2024
The Tribunal of the Roman Rota ordinarily acts as an appellate court of higher instance at the Apostolic See,
with the purpose of safeguarding rights within the Church;
it fosters unity of jurisprudence and, by virtue of its decisions, provides assistance to lower tribunals.
Theme: Ministry of Justice and ‘Charity in Truth’
Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force in the field of justice and peace
Your Eminence, Your Excellencies, Dear brothers and sisters,
I am pleased to meet you at the end of the formation course organized by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota on the theme: The Ministry of Justice and ‘Charity in Truth’
I greet each of you cordially and I thank the Dean of the Rota and all those who have collaborated on these days of study and reflection. They have given you the opportunity to examine the legal and pastoral challenges relating to marriage and the family. This is very important.
It is a vast apostolic field, but also complex and delicate, to which it is necessary to devote energy and enthusiasm, with the intention of promoting the Gospel of the family and life.
“Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force for the authentic development of each person and of humanity as a whole.
Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force that leads people to choose a courageous and generous commitment to justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, in Eternal Love and Absolute Truth”.
With these words, Benedict XVI began his encyclical Caritas in veritate, in which he presents the Church’s social doctrine from the perspective of the relationship between charity and justice, and between both and truth.
These are words that apply to the whole of civil society, but they are particularly relevant when we consider the relationships between the faithful and between them and their Pastors within the People of God.
It is therefore very appropriate to qualify the mission of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota as ministerium iustitiae et caritas in veritate – ‘ministry of justice and charity in truth’ – and this description can be extended to all ecclesiastical tribunals; indeed, t embraces the whole pastoral activity of the Church, which is the subject of this Conference.
The essence of the message I want to leave you today is this: you are called to love justice, charity and truth, and to strive daily to put them into practice in your work as canonists and in all the tasks you carry out in the service of the faithful.
It is a question of loving all three at the same time, because they belong together – these three?
Justice, charity and truth belong together – and if you neglect one, the others lose their authenticity.
In fact, our model is Jesus Christ, who is the truth and who is just and who is merciful.
Neither justice without charity, nor charity without justice.
Charity without justice is not charity at all!
Justice is a very important cardinal virtue, which leads to giving the recognition of the rights of every person. And this virtue must certainly be lived in the Church: the rights of the faithful and the rights of the Church herself demand it.
However, in no human community, and even less so in the Church, is it enough to respect rights;
it is necessary to go beyond rights, with the zeal of charity, to seek the good of others through the generous gift of one’s own existence.
It is necessary to live the service of love, because “justice is understood only in the light of … love” [2]. Even in your legal duties you must always remember that human beings not only to be treated with justice, which is inescapable, but also and above all with charity.
Never forget that those who come to you to exercise your ecclesial office must always encounter the face of our mother, the Holy Church, who loves all her children with tenderness.
It is therefore necessary to avoid a cold justice that is merely distributive without going beyond it, that is, without mercy.
One can apply to justice what the Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti states:
“People develop certain habits which may appear to be moral values: fortitude, sobriety, hard work and similar virtues. However, in order to properly direct the practice of the various moral virtues, it is necessary to consider the extent to which they promote openness and unity with others.
And this is made possible by the charity that God imparts.
Without charity, we may have apparent virtues that are incapable of sustaining a common life” [3].
But neither can one hypothesize charity without justice.
In fact, Pope Benedict goes on to explain, “Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer the other person what is ‘mine’; but it never lacks justice, which leads us to give the other person what is ‘his’, what belongs to him by virtue of his being or his actions. I cannot ‘give’ the other what is mine, without first giving him what is justly his. If we love others with charity, we are first of all just towards them” [4].
Precisely because you love each and every one of the faithful, cultivate your juridical sensitivity, not understood, as is so often thought, as the mere fulfilment of formalities which are nevertheless due, but as a sensitive recognition of what constitutes a true right of the person in the Church.
His infinite dignity must be respected in an exemplary manner in ecclesial relations.
Unnecessary fears must be overcome.
First of all, the fear of justice, as if it could undermine or diminish charity.
On closer inspection, this fear stems from a misconception of justice as a selfish and potentially conflictual entitlement.
The nature of justice is quite different: it is an exquisitely altruistic virtue, directed towards the good of the other person.
If that other person can and sometimes must demand that his or her right be respected, this presupposes the objectivity of what is due.
As jurists, you have the very important task of helping to determine what the rights and duties of the faithful are and how they should be safeguarded, also through the processes of trials, which are so necessary when they are for the good of the Church and all her members.
Nor can one be afraid of love of neighbor, and of mercy as its characteristic expression.
Charity does not abolish justice; it does not relativize rights.
In the name of love, one cannot neglect the duty of justice.
For example, one cannot interpret the current rules on matrimonial proceedings as if, in the dutiful pursuit of proximity and speed meant a weakening of the demands of justice.
Mercy, or its part, does not cancel out justice, on the contrary, it urges us to live it more gently as the fruit of compassion for the suffering of our neighbor.
In fact, “mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life”.
“All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness which she makes present to the faithful”.
What are the three attitudes of the Lord? Closeness, mercy and tenderness.
The Lord is close. He is merciful. He is tender.
There can be no lack of mercy in her preaching and in her witness to the world.
The very credibility of the Church is seen in the way she shows merciful and compassionate love” [5].
The harmony between charity and justice is illuminated by their common reference to truth.
True charity and true justice: this is the fascinating prospect and the alluring challenge of your ecclesial ministry.
This was recalled in the very incipit of Benedict XVI’s encyclical letter. Caritas in veritate.
He taught that: “Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in the truth can charity be lived authentically.
Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. This light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect reaches the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, love degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell to be filled arbitrarily. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal danger that love faces” [6].
Brothers and sisters, the Church places great trust in you, as practitioners of justice and charity in truth. May the atmosphere of your work be that of hope, which is right at the heart of the Holy Year which is about to begin.
My exhortation in the Bull of Indiction can be applied to you: “Let us be drawn to this hope even now!
Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it.
May the way we live our lives say to them in so many words: ‘Hope in the Lord!
Be strong, take heart and hope in the Lord!’ (Ps 27:14).
May the strength of hope fill our days, as we confidently await the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory, now and forever” [7].
For your mission and for your sanctification in it, I cordially impart my blessing to you.
And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you very much!
__________________________
[ [1] 29 June 2009, 1.
[2] Encyclical Letter Dilexit nos (24 October 2024), 197.
[3] 3 October 2020, 91.
[4] Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate (29 June 2009), 6; cf St. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum progressio (26 March 1967), 22.
[5] Bull Misericordiae vultus (11 April 2015), 10.
[6] Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate (29 June 2009), 3.
[7] Bull Spes non confundit (9 May 2024), 25.
