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POPE JOHN PAUL II'S HEAVIEST CROSS: THE DISOBEDIENT CLERICS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES

ADDRESS OF POPE JOHN PAUL II TO MEMBERS OF THE TRIBUNAL OF THE ROMAN ROTA Saturday, 29 January 2005 1. This annual appointment with you, dear Prelate Auditors of the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota, highlights the essential connection between your precious work and the judicial aspect of the Petrine ministry. The words of the Dean of your College have expressed your common commitment to full fidelity in your ecclesial service. It is in this perspective that I would like to place certain considerations concerning the moral dimension of the activity of all who work at the ecclesiastical tribunals,...

Vatican updates rules on marriage annulment VATICAN CITY - The Vatican today issued the first revised guidebook on marriage annulments in nearly 70 years, but a senior cardinal could not say whether it would stem the soaring number of annulments around the world. The 111-page guidebook, called Dignitas Connubii (The Dignity of Marriage) is a complex legal code for use by Roman Catholic diocesan tribunals which decide on marriage annulments. Catholic law bans divorce but allows believers to remarry in the Church if they get an annulment declaring a previous union void. More than 50,000 annulments are granted every year...