Overview
- Pope Leo XIV addressed the prelate auditors at the Vatican to open the Roman Rota’s Judicial Year, urging them to safeguard truth with rigor without rigidity and to exercise charity without omission.
- He taught that truth and charity are intrinsically united, invoking St. Paul’s exhortation to “do the truth in charity” as the guiding principle for ecclesiastical justice.
- The pope warned that excessive identification with petitioners risks relativizing truth in cases such as matrimonial nullity, while a cold affirmation of truth can neglect respect and mercy.
- He called for scientific seriousness and fidelity to the Magisterium in applying canonical matrimonial law and said any use of the shorter process before a bishop must be judged very carefully by a duly conducted procedure.
- The Roman Rota was highlighted as the Apostolic See’s appellate tribunal that safeguards rights and jurisprudential unity, and the pope entrusted the auditors’ work to the Blessed Virgin Mary as Speculum iustitiae.