The «salus animarum» and the canonical process matrimonial

Abstract

As indicated in the last words of the Code of Canon Law currently in force in the Latin Church, the «salus animarum» is the supreme law of the Church; so as well it is in the marriage procedural law. Already in the Middle Ages the Clementine decretale, Saepe contingit, suppressed in the marriage trial the «strepitum iudicii». Alfonso de la Vera Cruz sustained in 1599 that in the marriage lawsuits of the natives of the New World one ought to dispense with all the procedural norms which were not strictly necessary; Tomás Sánchez judged thas proposal to be very good. On that line of simplification of the canonical marriage process, it was made up from the XIX century onwards the actual documental process, applicable only in hardly frequent cases; but marriage lawsuits have been excluded from the oral process; and procedural laws have been excluded from the faculty of granting dispensation of the universal laws that Diocesan Bishops possess, since, it was said, they do not directly refer to the good of souls. Yet, does not hurt the good of souls the currently in force procedural laws in Third World countries, where there are not human means to constitute tribunals and keep the procedural norms?