The Respondent's questions for Tribunal Advocates

Purpose

ONE APPOROACH

1. Do you have any training in Canon law?
2. How? [i.e.. Formal degree program/where? OTJ training? Self-study? Seminary? How many years/months?
3. Have you worked in a Tribunal in any capacity before? Paid position? Consultant? Role?
4. Have you volunteered in a Tribunal in any capacity before?
5. Have you attended any classes on how to act as an advocate? Describe them briefly please?

1. Do you believe that Spouses have a right to receive an annulment when their marriage has died? Explain?
2. Do you think that spouses who are abandoned and/or who fight to preserve their marriages are living in a fantasy world?
3. Why do you think there has been such an explosion of annulment cases in the USA in the past four decades?
4. Sometimes one spouse believes they simply can't go on living with the other and remain happy? Do you agree/disagree? Why?
5. Couples used to stay together in high-stress marriages for the benefit of their children. How do you view spouses who believe their happiness is just-as-important as their children's happiness? Why?

1. Have you ever been engaged to be married?
2. Have you ever been married? Divorced?
3. Is your family-of-origin in-tact? Are both of your biologic parents living together? (If no:) How does that make you feel?
4. Do you know anyone personally [family member/close friend] who has been divorced and/or received an annulment? How do you feel about their decision? About their annulment?
5. C. B. says the following: "A person is more undone by being unfaithful to a hard marriage bond, than by remaining bound by it." Do you agree/disagree with his statement? Why?
6. Are you familiar with c. 1060? Can you explain how it applies to your role as an advocate?
7. Can you describe a "putative" marriage to me? Have you ever known of one?
8. How many times have you served as an advocate before? What was the outcome? Do you think your Respondent was treated fairly by the Tribunal? Do you you feel your representation helped the Tribunal's outcome? How?

The 1983 Code of Canon Law encourages the reconciliation of spouses:

Canon 1152.1 urges a spouse, out of Christian charity, to pardon an adulterous partner.

Canon 1153.2 instructs spouses to restore their common conjugal life when the reason for separation ceases. This canon needs to be reinforced today.

Canon 1155 says that "the innocent spouse may laudably readmit the other spouse to the conjugal life, in which case he or she renounces the right to separation."

Canon 1446.2 In the early stages of litigation, and indeed at any other time as often as he discerns any hope of a successful outcome, the judge is not to fail to exhort and assist the parties to seek an equitable solution to their controversy in discussions with one another.Ê He is to indicate to them suitable means to this end and avail himself of serious-minded persons to mediate.

Canon 1676 says that "before he accepts a case and whenever there appears to be hope of success, the judge is to use pastoral means to persuade the spouses that, if it is possible, they should perhaps validate their marriage and resume their conjugal life.

Canon 1695 says that "before he accepts the case, and whenever there appears to be hope of success, the judge is to use pastoral means to induce the parties to be reconciled and to resume their conjugal life.

1. When spouses separate, they are encouraged by Canon Law to:

a. get a divorce and petition for a decree of nullity,
b. reconcile,
c. look for someone with whom they are more compatible than the person they have left.

2. When a couple has gone through a civil divorce, their marriage is considered hopelessly broken by the Catholic Church.

True or false?

3. Does the post-Vatican II Church take a more permissive view of divorce?

4. Does the post-Vatican II Church take a more permissive view of remarriage after divorce, relaxing its teaching that those who remarry outside the Church are not in good conscience?

Catholic teaching on the separation of spouses is almost totally ignored today in favor of a secular view of divorce and remarriage, sometimes with a decree of nullity, more often without.

Answers: 1, (b) reconcile; 2, false; 3, no; 4, no.

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