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
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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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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