Oct 23, 1998

Page 1

WQI 1331103, 0ÂŤ

NEWS

October 23, 1998

Volume

8

t

Number

8

Serving Catholics

& in

HERALD

Western North Carolina

in

the Diocese of Charlotte

Inside Archbishops praise Nobel

Peace

Prize

winners ...Page

3

Living

the Faith Appalachian missionary nun wins Lumen Christi

Award

...Page

12

Local News Education endowment to

Photo by Mike Krokos

l/Jl

assist

MACS students ...Page

St. IVIark

capital

Church

l<icl<s

10

By CINDY

& Columns

WOODEN

News

Service

VATICAN CITY ...Pages

4-5

(CNS)

Catholic couples having serious culties should turn to

Entertainment

— diffi-

church tribunals

annulment only as a last resort, Pope John Paul II said. As moderators of their diocesan for a possible

...Pages

8-9

must ensure that do not have the mistaken idea that a church annulment is "divorce under a different name," the pope said Oct. 17. Pope John Paul focused on the importance of following church law, particularly in marriage cases, in a speech given to bishops from Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico tribunals, bishops

Supplement

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iiic:

is

Pope tells U.S. bishops annulments should be the last resort

11

Catholic

special

l/if

My help is from the hard, who made heaven and earth. "(Psalm 121: 1-2) dominate the Smoky Mountains landscape in this photo taken last weekend. The mountain range adjacent to the Living Waters Catholic Reflection Center in Maggie Valley.

fvcry Week

encyclical

lu'WiirJ

Fall colors

campaign

The new

t'jt J

off

...Page

Editorials

Up

their faithful

making

their "ad limina" visits to

Rome.

The pope told the bishops, who make the visits every five years, that the provisions of canon law are designed to safeguard and foster Christian

life.

"To see the law as spiritually liberating runs against the grain of a certain understanding of law in Western culture, which tends to view law as a necessary evil, a kind of control required to guard fragile human rights and restrain wayward human passions, but which would disappear in the best of all possible worlds," the pope said. Church law, he said, has a different approach which combines pastoral concern and justice.

Canon law, including the rules for protecting the sanctity of marriage, "can only be understood as a means for the development of the Christian life in accordance with the radical demands of the Gospel," the pope said. Following church law makes possible communion with God and among the members of the church, he said. "Consequently, as a basic rule, ecclesiastical laws bind in conscience," the pope

not a mere external submission means of growing in faith, charity and holiness under the guidance and by the grace of the Holy

law

is

to authority, but a

Spirit."

Truth and charity are the basic elements and the guiding principles of church law, he said. Because the purpose of church law is

pastoral, he said, various provisions

made

canon law for dispensawhich temper "the rigor of the law in order to foster a are

in

tions or exemptions

higher good," particularly, the supernatural good of the individual and of the community. In the same way, he said, church censures are not to be seen as "vindictive, but medicinal, inasmuch as they aim at bringing about the conversion of the sinner." While canon law covers every aspect of church life, its pro\'isions deal-

said.

"In other words, obedience to the

See

annulments,

page 7


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