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Pio Vito Pinto (1941, Noci, Italy). Prelate and canonist, for seven years he has been the dean of the Apostolic Court of the Roman Rota, famous for carrying out the marriage annulment proceedings. Recently he has passed through the Pontifical University of San Dámaso in Madrid.

A few months after his election as Pope, Francisco asked the Tribunal de la Rota to speed up the marriage annulment proceedings. Are they doing it? The Church cannot make the processes faster. Speed ​​is not a criterion of canon law, making processes faster could be confused with making them easier. And no, it is not that. What it is about is that the processes are more diligent. What I can tell you is that before a process could take seven, ten years. Now, in a year and a half, the process can be concluded, and the sentence can take a few months at the most to be published. Francisco also asked the Tribunal de la Rota that the marriage annulment proceedings be free ... The Pope, in effect, made a reform , but put as a condition that it does not jeopardize the solemn and eternal doctrine of marriage. And, always with that objective in mind, he wanted to facilitate the access of people without financial resources to the processes of marriage annulment. For Pope Francis the poor are the central category, as they were for Christ, and as they are for the Gospel. Now, many poor people can initiate a marriage annulment process because they are free. Before the lawyers came to ask for up to 2,500 euros to bring a case of marriage annulment, isn't it? I wish it were 2,500 euros, hopefully. They charged even more, in Rome we have seen very high figures. Now, thank God I can say that in the seven years, way of eight, that I have been as Dean of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, that has changed completely. The lawyers are obviously not happy. Currently 82% of the causes of marriage annulment in the Roman Rota are free. Have marriage annulments become a luxury only available only to the rich? It is true that the marriage annulment process had become synonymous with spending . The Holy Father, rightly, has expressed that this was not fair. Christian marriage is an immutable natural pact, Francisco follows the doctrine and teaching marked by Pius X and Cardinal Gasparri. That doctrine is not touched.However, within the Church itself, more and more voices are heard that advocate changes in the indissolubility of marriage ... Francis has celebrated two synods on the family, one of them extraordinary. Marriage, the indissolubility of marriage has effectively been one of the issues most debated by parents and that has raised a deep discussion. The Synod Fathers realized that it was not necessary to give a new statement to the doctrine about marriage. The Holy Father Francis was comforted with the second synod, the ordinary synod, where he obtained the backing of two thirds of the bishops. But changing the doctrine could not attract some young people to marriage? The doctrine cannot be changed. What must be offered to the faithful are new ways of approaching the Church. The unions that young people establish today are not even civilians. Young people do not know the faith. It is true that there is a lack of knowledge of young people by bishops. It is necessary to put on humility, as Francis says, and serve the poor, the discarded, as the Holy Father calls them. The Church must go in search of the poor, and those young people who have no faith and are lost, who do not know Christ and do not contract the sacrament of marriage in the Church are also poor. What do you propose about it? Bishops must leave to the streets and squares and look for these young people. You have to go to meet them wherever they are, including nightclubs. I would not be shocked if a bishop went to a disco to look for young people, you have to look for them wherever they are. The Church today cannot set limits on the search for young people. The Tribunal de la Rota has been the subject of numerous controversies for having accepted as causes of marriage annulment, say a little extravagant. I remember, for example, the case of a man who obtained the annulment of his marriage on the grounds that when he married his wife promised him that he would quit smoking and did not do so. If he allows me, that is the typical journalistic accusation. Those were arguments that were said in the past, and aired the media. In a certain sense it has acted as medicine, it has served as a catharsis. It is true that in the past some cases of somewhat absurd marriage annulments have been raised; certainly for many years these assumptions are not contemplated. Many said that with the reform of Pope Francis, which establishes a single affirmative sentence to obtain a marriage annulment, La Rota - an appeals court - would be forced to close due to lack of work. Hasn't it been like that? No. In fact, appeals have increased.If the marriage is in crisis, are the marriage annulments too? Young people today do not marry, and there are no marriages, obviously there are no requests for marriage annulment either. The Church has known about this crisis for 20 years. On the other hand, think that only 10% of marital failures reach the ecclesiastical courts. It is a very small percentage. The others divorce but do not go to church courts, or to the Church, maybe they remarry but only civilly. How do you imagine the Church in 100 years? I don't know, how will I know, I'm just a humble operator in the vineyard of the Lord that I want to serve the Church and the Pope faithfully. You would have to question yourself in front of the crucifix. What I can tell you is that we should all stand before the crucified Christ and work for the Church so that the Gospel of Christ shines in it. What are the most important challenges? Look, this year I have been invited to the opening of the academic year at the Law School of the Pontifical University of Santo Tomás de Aquino, in Rome, commonly known as the Angelicum, one of the most important Universities. It was the feast of San Raimundo de Peñafort, a Catalan Dominican monk, third successor of Santo Domingo de Guzmán. Did you know that Saint Dominic asked the Pope to relieve him of his duties and let him go? I wanted to found a great seminar in Catalonia where to train missionaries to, above all, save faith in the North African countries. You, Spaniards, have done great things in your history: recovering Christian roots with the expulsion of Muslims after seven centuries of domination. Now they are difficult and hard times in which this issue arises again, and we must prepare future generations for epochal challenges. Today we are at the same point, the president of Turkey constantly says in public that Muslims will conquer Europe through the womb of their women. Obviously, we cannot and should not hate, not even our enemies, as the Pope always repeats and as the Gospel says. Now, Europe is Christian and we must work to the end so that it remains.

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