Pope Francis on Wednesday revised parts of the penal law of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
The changes follow the 2021 reform of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law, which covers penal law in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church.
The April 5 motu proprio on the law of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Vocare Peccatores, takes effect June 29. It was issued in Latin without translations.
“Call sinners into repentance; […] those who are healthy do not need a doctor, but those who are sick (cf Luke 5:31-32), is the mission of our Lord Jesus, which he himself handed over to the pastors of his people,” Pope Francis wrote in the document’s introduction.
“In the Church the purposes of punishment are the restoration of justice, the correction of the matter, and the reparation of the offense and damage,” he said.
Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, told Vatican News “the new norms determine much more clearly when ecclesiastical authority must intervene in the case of crimes.”
“They are more precise and the penalties that must be imposed are also clearer, better determined,” Arrieta added. “In addition, the Eastern discipline has also been harmonized with the Latin discipline in so many aspects, such as the abuse of minors and the protection of the sacraments.”
A total of 23 canons were modified, many of them with the addition of new paragraphs. Canons 1443 and 1449 were replaced in their entirety.
Pope Francis wrote that “the pastors, therefore, reveal their concern when they see to it that the portion of God’s people entrusted to them is preserved within the ways of the Lord; when, out of fraternal correction, admonition, or other appropriate means, they endeavor to correct the behavior of the faithful Christians who err; and finally they use canonical punishments where offenses have been committed.”
“When the pastor acts in this way to avoid crimes and to properly punish the guilty,” he continued, “he shows that he is aware of his duty to love the faithful committed to him.”
“Punishment is primarily the remedy for his healing” for the Christian who has committed an offense, the pope said.
The following canons of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches have been changed and/or added to: 1402, 1406, 1407, 1409, 1410, 1414, 1416, 1424, 1429, 1430, 1436, 1442, 1443, 1446, 1449, 1453, 1456, 1459, 1463, 1464, 1466, 1467, and 1152.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Pope Francis addresses international diplomats to the Holy See on Jan. 9, 2023, in the Vatican’s Blessing Hall. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jan 9, 2023 / 06:28 am (CNA).
The global community is engaged in a “third world war” marked by heightened fear, conflict, and risk of nuclear violence, but a recommitment to “truth, justice, solidarity and freedom” can provide a pathway to peace, Pope Francis told international diplomats Monday.
Citing the ongoing war in Ukraine, but also drawing on conflicts in places such as Syria, West Africa, Ethiopia, Israel, Myanmar, and the Korean Peninsula, the Holy Father said this global struggle is being “fought piecemeal,” but is nonetheless interconnected.
“Today the third world war is taking place in a globalized world where conflicts involve only certain areas of the planet direct, but in fact involve them all,” said Pope Francis, speaking in the Vatican’s apostolic palace.
The pope made these remarks as part of his annual address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. Pope Francis characterized this speech as “a call for peace in a world that is witnessing heightened divisions and war.”
As part of this heightening of tensions, the Pope warned about the increased threat of nuclear warfare, drawing particular concern to the stall in negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal. He told the gathered diplomats that the possession of nuclear weapons is “immoral” and called for an end to a mentality that pursues conflict deterrence through the development of ever-more lethal means of warfare.
“There is a need to change this way of thinking and move toward an integral disarmament, since no peace is possible when instruments of death are proliferating,” the pope said.
In proposing a path towards global peace, the Holy Father drew heavily from Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth”), the papal encyclical promulgated by St. John XXIII in 1962. Pope Francis said the conditions which prompted the “good Pope” to issue Pacem in Terris 60 years ago bear a striking similarity to the state of the world today.
In particular, the Holy Father drew from what John XXIII described as the “four fundamental goods” necessary for peace: truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom, values that “serve as the pillars that regulate relationships between individuals and political communities alike.”
Regarding “peace in truth,” the Holy Father underscored the “primary duty” of governments to protect the right to life at every stage of human life.
“Peace requires before all else the defense of life, a good that today is jeopardized not only by conflicts, hunger, and diseases, but all too often in the mother’s womb, through promotion of an alleged ‘right to abortion,’” said Pope Francis, also calling for an end to the death penalty and violence against women.
Speaking of the necessity of religious freedom for peace, the Holy Father noted widespread religious persecution against Christian minorities, but also discrimination in countries where Christianity is a majority religion.
“Religious freedom is also endangered wherever believers see their ability to express their convictions in the life of society restricted in the name of a misguided understanding of inclusiveness,” he said.
Regarding justice, the Holy Father called for a “profound rethinking” of multilateral systems such as the United Nations to make them more effective at responding to conflicts like the war in Ukraine. But he also criticized international bodies for “imposing forms of ideological colonization, especially on poorer countries” and warned of the growing risk of “ideological totalitarianism” that promotes intolerance towards those who dissent from certain positions claimed to represent ‘progress.’”
The Holy Father also spoke of the need to deepen a sense of global solidarity, citing four areas of interconnectedness: immigration, the economy and work, and care for creation,
“The paths of peace are paths of solidarity, for no one can be saved alone. We live in a world interconnected that, in the end, the actions of each have consequences for all.”
Finally, regarding “peace in freedom,” Pope Francis warned of the “weakening of democracy” in many parts of the world, and an increase in political polarization. He said peace is only possible if “in every single community, there does not prevail that culture of oppression and aggression in which our neighbor is regarded as an enemy to attack, rather than a brother or sister to welcome and embrace.”
The Holy Father’s address to the diplomatic corps, which includes representatives of the 91 countries and entities with an embassy chancellery accredited to the Holy See, also served as an opportunity to review diplomatic highlights of the past year and expectations for the year to come.
Milestones included the signing of new bilateral accords with both the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe and with the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Holy Father also briefly mentioned the provisional agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, first agreed to in 2018 and renewed in 2022 for an additional two years.
“It is my hope that this collaborative relationship can increase, for the benefit of the life of the Catholic Church and that of the Chinese people.”
The next significant marker on the pope’s diplomatic docket: His trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of the month as a “pilgrim of peace,” followed by a joint visit to South Sudan with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Vatican City, Nov 13, 2017 / 06:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After an earthquake along the border of Iraqi-Iranian border left some 340 people dead and another 4,000 injured, Pope Francis voiced his sorrow for the loss of life and offered prayer for the dead and for rescue efforts.
In identical telegrams signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and sent to leaders in both Iran and Iraq, Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” by news of the quake, and assured all those affected of his “prayerful solidarity.”
Voicing sorrow to the families of the victims, the Pope offered prayer for the deceased and entrusted them to God’s mercy. He also prayed for the injured and the emergency personnel and civil authorities engaged in rescue efforts.
He closed the telegram asking God for the “divine blessings of consolation and strength.”
The Pope’s telegram came just one day after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the border region between Iran and Iraq, with aftershocks felt in Pakistan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Turkey.
According to CNN, most of the deaths are from Iran. The agency reports that so far 336 deaths have been confirmed in Iran, with another 3,950 injured, while in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq seven deaths have been reported along with 300 injuries.
Rescue operations are underway in both countries, and Iran has already declared a 3-day period of mourning.
The quake is the strongest to hit the region in recent years, though not the most deadly. Iran, which sits along a major fault line between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, has experienced a number of earthquakes, with the most deadly being a 6.6 quake in 2003 that struck the city of Bam and killed some 26,000 people.
A decade earlier, in June 1990, roughly 37,000 people were killed in a major quake that leveled the cities of Rudbar, Manjil and Lushan.
Leave a Reply