Folia Canonica 8. (2005)

STUDIES - Wojciech Kowal: Norms for Preparing the Process for the Dissolution of the Matrimonial Bon din Favour of the Faith

FOLIA CANONICA 8 (2005) 89-118.

WOJCIECH KOWAL OMI

NORMS FOR PREPARING THE PROCESS FOR THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MATRIMONIAL BOND IN FAVOUR OF THE FAITH*

I. Substantive Principles Underlying the Process for Dissolution of Marriage in Favourofthe Faith; II. Procedure for the Instruction of Dissolution in Favour of THE FAITH Cases at the Diocesan Level; 1. Competence in favour of the faith cases; 2. Appointment of the officers for the case; 3. Proofs; 4. Proofofnon-baptism; 5. Break-down ofthe previous marriage; 6. Satisfaction of obligations toward the party and children in the previous marriage; 7. Conversion of the petitioner or the intended spouse; 8. Report ofthe Instructor; 9. Intervention of the defender of the bond; 10. Votum of the bishop; 11. Preparation of the dossier; CONCLUSION.

On April 30, 2001, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released new Norms for Completing the Process for the Dissolution of the Matrimonial Bond in Favour of the Faith Potestas Ecclesiæ, approved by Pope John Paul II on February 16,2001.1 These new provisions abrogate the previous norms, namely the Instruction for the Dissolution of Marriage in Favour of the Faith Ut notum est and the attached Procedural Norms, issued by the same Congregation on December 6, 1973 and approved by Pope Paul VI.2 As the Preface to the Norms of 2001 notes, the promulgation of the Code of Canon Lawfor the Latin Church and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches necessitated the accommodation of some of their prescripts into the new legislation.3

'This article is a revised and extended version of the presentation made during the XXXVIIth Convention of the Canadian Canon Law Society, 21-24 October 2002, in Halifax, NS, Canada.

1 See Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Normæ de conficiendo processu pro solutione vinculi matrimonialis in favorem fidei Potestas Ecclesiæ, 30 April 2001, E civitate Vaticana, 2001 (the English quotations are taken from an unofficial translation by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2001).

2 See Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instructio pro solutione matrimonii in favorem fidei et normæ procédurales pro conficiendo processu dissolutionis vinculi matrimonialis in favorem fidei Ut notum est, 6 December 1973, in Leges Ecclesiæ post Codicem iuris canonici editœ, collegit, digessit notisque ornavit Xaverius Ochoa (=LE), vol. 5, Leges annis 1973-1978 editae, Roma, Commentarium pro Religiosis, 1980, no. 4244, coi. 6701-6705 (unofficial English translation in W.H. Woestman, Special Marriage Cases: Non-Consummation, Pauline Privilege, Favour of the Faith, Separation of Spouses, Validation-Sanation, Presumed Death, 3™ ed., Ottawa, Faculty of Canon Law, Saint Paul University, 1994, 129-134).

3 See Preface, in Potestas Ecclesiæ, 3.