VATICAN (CNS): All the Catholic Church’s structures, including tribunals and faculties of canon law, must undergo a “pastoral and missionary conversion” to ensure the church is giving the world “the only thing it needs: the Gospel of the mercy of Jesus,” Pope Francis wrote in a message to the Consociatio Internationalis Studio Iuris Canonici Promovendo [the international association for promoting the study of canon law], which was celebrating its 50th anniversary with a conference in Rome on December 1.
“To be pastoral does not mean that the norms should be set aside, and one sets off in whatever direction one wishes, but that in applying the norms one should make certain that the Christian faithful find in them the presence of the merciful Jesus, who does not condemn but exhorts them to sin no more because he gives grace,” the pope wrote .
When canon law is an instrument of mercy, the pope wrote, “even when a severe sanction is to be applied to one who has committed a very serious crime, the Church, which is mother, will offer him the help and spiritual support that is indispensable so that in repentance he may encounter the merciful face of the Father.”
In its application, he said, each church law must be interpreted in light of the salus animarum [supreme law], which is the salvation of souls.
The application of canon law is something which must be done in prayer and with fidelity to the word of God, the living tradition of the Church and the magisterium or teachings of the popes, he said.
“The wisdom that comes from God, received in prayer and in listening to others,” he said, should guide canonists .
