Folia Canonica 8. (2005)
STUDIES - Wojciech Kowal: Norms for Preparing the Process for the Dissolution of the Matrimonial Bon din Favour of the Faith
NORMS FOR PREPARING THE PROCESS FOR THE DISSOLUTION 113 ties.”131 The investigation is to include a question concerning the moral and civil obligations towards the first spouse and to the children which might have been born.132 7. Conversion of the petitioner or the intended spouse The Norms of 1973 explicitly warned the ordinaries that they were “never [to] send a petition to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, unless every reasonable suspicion concerning the sincerity of the conversion has been removed.”133 This reminder is found now in the context of petitions for dissolution of marriages which have been contracted with a dispensation from the impediment of the disparity of worship. Consequently, the bishop is not to send the petition to the Congregation if there is prudent doubt concerning the sincerity of the conversion, even though one or both parties might have received baptism.134 The present discipline demands, nevertheless, that, depending on the situation, the petitioner or the intended spouse - if this person will convert or be baptized - is to be questioned about the time this will happen and about the intention of receiving baptism.135 In such a case, the judge will question the pastor (or other priests who instructed and prepared the person for baptism)136 concerning the reasons which lead the petitioner to be baptized and, particularly, regarding the honesty of the parties.137 Documents testifying to the fact of baptism and/or of profession of faith are to be obtained for the acts.138 The acts of the case should also include an explicit report about the religious practice both of the petitioner and of the intended spouse.139 Earlier, the Congregation had required written evidence from the parish priest regarding the practice of the faith of the Catholic party (parties)140 in order to safeguard prescription no. II, § 7 of Ut notum est that “the Catholic party with whom the new mar131 Potestas Ecclesiœ, art. 20, § 1, 14. 132 See ibid., art. 20, § 2, 14. 133 Ut notum est, art. 9, § 2, in LE, vol. 5, col. 6704 (English translation in WOESTMAN, Special Marriage Cases, 133). 134 See Potestas Ecclesiœ, art. 7, § 3, 9. 135 See ibid., art. 21, § 1, 14. 136 Cf. Ut notum est, art. 9, § 1, in LE, vol. 5, col. 6704 (English translation in Woestman, Special Marriage Cases, 133). 137 Sec Potestas Ecclesiœ, art. 21, § 2, 14. 138 Sec ibid., art. 22, § 2, 14. 139 See ibid., art. 22, § 1, 14. 140Cf. Woestman, Special Marriage Cases, 203, no. 6 and 204, no. 28.
