VATICAN - Benedict XVI tells the Roman Rota: “Above all, there is a need for a positive rediscovery of the capacity that normally every person has to be married, by virtue of their very nature as man or woman. We run the risk of falling into a sort of anthropological pessimism that, in light of the present cultural situation, considers it practically impossible to be married.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Above all, there is a need for a positive rediscovery of the capacity that normally every person has to be married, by virtue of their very nature as man or woman. We run the risk of falling into a sort of anthropological pessimism that, in light of the present cultural situation, considers it practically impossible to be married.” These were the words of the Holy Father, in addressing the dean, judges, promoters of justice, defenders of the bond, officials and lawyers of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, in an audience on January 29, for the occasion of the inauguration of the judicial year, focusing on “the fundamental principals that should guide agents of the law.”
On the theme of contracting a marriage, the Pope affirmed: “Apart from the fact that this situation is not the same in every part of the world, we cannot mistake the real difficulties in which many – especially the youth – find themselves with authentic consensual incapacity, reaching the point of declaring marital union something unimaginable and impossible in the practice. On the contrary. The reaffirmation of the innate human capacity for marriage is precisely the starting point for helping couples to discover the natural reality of marriage and the relevance it has in the plan of salvation. What is at stake, in the end, is the very truth of marriage and its intrinsic juridical nature.”
At the beginning of the Audience, the Pope recalled that “twenty years after the speeches of John Paul II on the psychological incapacity in causes of nullity of marriage...it seems necessary that we question to what point these addresses have received an adequate response in ecclesiastical tribunals. This is not the time to make an assessment, however it is clearly evident that the problem continues to be an issue even today.” In relation to this matter, Benedict XVI added: “it is necessary that I call to mind the attention of those working in law, on the need to treat the causes with the necessary depth demanded by the ministry of truth and charity that characterizes the Roman Rota,” and recalling the addresses given by John Paul II, “based on the principles of Christian anthropology, are the basic criteria, not only for studying the psychiatric and psychological examinations, but also for the judicial definition of the causes,” he made reference to some of these principles.
“In the reductionist view, which ignores the truth about marriage,” the Holy Father said, “the effective realization of an authentic communion of life and love, idealized in terms of a merely human well-being, becomes essentially dependent only on accidental factors, and not on the use of human freedom sustained by grace. It is true that this freedom of the human nature...is limited and imperfect, however with that, it does not cease to be authentic and sufficient in realizing this act of self-determination of the contractors which is the conjugal pact, which gives life to marriage and the family based upon it. Obviously, certain 'humanistic' schools of anthropology, which tend towards self-realization and egocentric self-transcendence, idealize human beings and marriage to such an extent that they end up denying the mental capacity of many people, basing this on elements that do not correspond to the essential requirements of the conjugal bond. In response to these ideas, the experts in ecclesial law must take into account the healthy realism which my venerable Predecesor referred to, because the capacity makes reference to the minimum necessary so that the couple can surrender themselves, as a masculine or feminine person in order to establish this bond to which the great majority of human beings are called. Thus, it follows that causes of nullity through mental incapacity require the judge to employ the services of experts to ascertain the existence of a real incapacity, which is in any case an exception to the natural principle of the capacity necessary to understand, decide and accomplish that giving of self upon which the conjugal bond is founded.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 30/1/2009)