Pope Francis arrives in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace Feb. 18, 2023, to speak to participants in a canon law course sponsored by the Roman Rota, a Vatican tribunal dealing primarily with marriage cases. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
If the purpose of the Catholic Church's canon law really is to promote people's salvation, as the law itself asserts, then its application must be primarily pastoral and aimed at promoting evangelization, Pope Francis said.
"Your work deals with rules, processes and sanctions," but since people and their salvation are the "subjects and objects" of the church's law, their rights and concrete needs must be "at the center of your work," the pope told participants in a course sponsored by the Roman Rota, a Vatican tribunal that deals primarily with marriage cases.
The course Feb. 14-18 focused on the "ministry of justice in the synodal action of the church." The participants included canon lawyers, students of canon law, parish priests and members of parish and diocesan offices for the family.
"We are accustomed to thinking that canon law and the mission of spreading the Good News of Christ are two separate realities," the pope said. But there is an intrinsic link. "One might say, schematically: there is no law without evangelization, nor evangelization without law."
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