DOPE PAUL this week warned Vatican judges against condoning the "trickeries of unscrupulous professional men" who, he said, might falsify the facts in matrimonial and other cases brought before the Court of the Sacred Roman Rota.
But he also warned that unjustified sternness denying a person his rights, or the imposition of court costs higher than the parties could afford, would he just as serious injustices, harming the Church and the souls of the people involved.
The Pope issued his call for extreme care in the administration of justice in an annual audience to judges, officials and clerks of the Rota and to Consistorial Advocates, marking the opening of the Vatican judicial year. The Rota is one of the Church's leading tribunals and is best known as a court of appeals in matrimonial cases.
Pope Paul, replying to a brief address by the Dean of the Rota, Mgr. Francis Brennan, emphasised that he was pleased with the Court's operation and that the dangers against which he was warning were hypothetical. lie gave Rota officials what he called a solemn, dutiful and most deserved acknowledgement of their good work.
The Pope said the work of a Church court must be far removed from even a mere suspicion or shadow of injustice.
"Yet you are well aware that in the administration of justice painful and deplorable injustices could sometimes occur, which would be very harmful to the proper functioning of your tribunal. We are saying so only hypothetically.
"Injustices can occur in the . preparation of the case, if through