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  • Editor’s Introduction
  • Kurt Martens, Associate Professor

Our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, has decided to convoke an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2014, only the third of its kind, and an Ordinary General Assembly in 2015, on the pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelization. In preparation for the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Most Reverend Gerhard L. Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote an article, entitled “Testimony to the power of grace. On the indissolubility of marriage and the debate concerning the civilly remarried and the sacraments.” The piece was first published in the various editions of L’Osservatore Romano in various languages, and is now reprinted in The Jurist. The problem concerning members of the faithful who have entered into a new civil union after a divorce is not new. Today, many ask: can the Church not admit the divorced and remarried to the sacraments under certain conditions? Archbishop Müller writes on this issue and explores the possibilities and challenges, and, above all, explains the teaching of the Church on this subject-matter.

Canon 1095, 2º provides that “those who suffer from a grave defect of discretion of judgment concerning the essential matrimonial rights and duties mutually to be handed over and accepted” are incapable of marriage because of a lack of capacity to give matrimonial consent. This norm is both new and old. It has no explicit predecessor in the 1917 Code of Canon [End Page 321] Law, and yet the concept of “discretion of judgment” has roots in natural law, Roman law, scholastic philosophy, and ecclesiastical law. In his contribution, Richard Reidy seeks a proper understanding of a grave defect of discretion of judgment under canon 1095, 2º.

In his article, Sean Doyle explores the rejection of the libellus. The libellus is a fundamental element for the institution of an ecclesiastical trial. Its rejection by a judge can restrict the rights of the faithful to obtain justice from ecclesiastical courts. What are the requirements of a libellus, why can a judge reject a libellus, and how can recourse be made against such rejection? Also this article combines academic research with practical application.

On June 11, 2012, the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations (CCLV) at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sponsored a symposium for bishops on the diocesan bishops and the diocesan forms of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life. Permission was granted to publish the works of the presenters in The Jurist. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Msgr. Ronny E. Jenkins, general secretary of the USCCB, for granting this permission. Three contributions in this current volume are the direct fruit of that symposium. Sister Rose McDermott, S.S.J., deals with associations of the faithful on their way to become religious institutes and the responsibilities of diocesan bishops during this process. Father Phillip Brown, S.S. focuses on diocesan institutes and societies of apostolic life and the formation of members to holy orders. Father Sean Sheridan, T.O.R. explores two types of individual persons— consecrated virgins and hermits—who live consecrated life set apart from those who live a common life.

Edward N. Peters examines an issue that has not really been dealt with thus far: the possibility that deaf Catholics may use modern video communications technology to approach remote confessors, accuse themselves of sin, and receive absolution validly and licitly, notwithstanding considerable sacramental and canonical scholarship that holds against the use of communications technology in the sacrament of penance.

This issue also contains two articles that deal with aspects of religious liberty. Father John Coughlin, O.F.M. explores the Catholic understanding of the proper relation between church and state and how it has developed in light of three interrelated principles: the separation principle, the cooperation principle, and the principle of human dignity. Phillip Lacovara examines [End Page 322] in depth an element of the “free exercise” of religion aspect of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the “ministerial exemption” under which civil courts are denied jurisdiction to second-guess the decision...

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