Pope changes responsibility of worship congregation
(Sept. 27, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI has transferred responsibility for two very precise
administrative procedures from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline
of the Sacraments to the Roman Rota, a church court. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore
Romano, published the papal directive on Tuesday (Sept. 27), giving the Rota responsibility
for handling procedures involving a marriage that was celebrated validly but not consummated,
and for cases involving the nullity of an ordination. Pope Benedict said he made
the change, so that the congregation for worship could "dedicate itself principally
to giving a new impulse to the promotion of the sacred liturgy in the church, according
to the renewal willed by the Second Vatican Council." In the document, dated Aug.
30, the Pope said a new office would be established within the Roman Rota to handle
the two specific types of cases. He also said the new norms would go into effect Oct.
1. The change was reported as a rumour in February and, at the time, Vatican spokesman
- Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said the change would give the Roman Rota responsibility
for technical administrative procedures, such as those involved in releasing a couple
from the obligations of marriage, when they have not consummated their bond. Canon
law also allows for a declaration of the nullity of an ordination to the priesthood,
when it can be demonstrated that there was a defect in the rite used, or that the
person being ordained did not, or could not understand what ordination meant.