Roman Rota

For the papal symbol, see Rota (papal signature).

The Roman Rota, formally the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota (Latin: Tribunal Apostolicum Rotae Romanae), and anciently the Apostolic Court of Audience, is the highest appellate tribunal of the Catholic Church, with respect to both Latin Church members^[1] and the Eastern Catholic members^[2] and is the highest ecclesiastical court constituted by the Holy See related to judicial trials conducted in the Catholic Church.^[3] An appeal may be had to the pope himself, who is the supreme ecclesiastical judge.^[4] The Catholic Church has a complete legal system, which is the oldest in the West still in use.^[5] The court is named Rota (wheel) because the judges, called auditors, originally met in a round room to hear cases.^[6] The Rota emerged from the Apostolic Chancery starting in the 12th century.^[7]

Constitution

The pope appoints the auditors of the Rota and designates one of them the dean.^[8] On September 22, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation, for reasons of age, of Bishop Antoni Stankiewicz as dean and appointed in his place Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto [cs; de; fr; pl; pt; ru], who had been serving as a prelate auditor of the Court of First Instance.^[9] On March 29, 2021, Msgr. Pinto retired^[10] and Pope Francis appointed Msgr. Alejandro Arellano Cedillo as dean.^[11]

The Rota issues its decrees and sentences in Latin.^[12] The Rota adjudicates cases in a panel (called a turnus) of three auditors, or more, depending on the complexity of the matter, assigned by the dean of the tribunal.^[13] The auditors of the Rota are selected from among recognized ecclesiastical judges serving various dioceses around the world.^[14]

History

Façade of the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome

The Rota's official records begin in 1171.^[15] Until the Risorgimento and the loss of the Papal States in 1870, the Rota was a civil tribunal and its judgements had the status of law in the Papal States.^[16]

Since at least 1961,^[17] the Rota has been based in the Palazzo della Cancelleria,^[18] along with the other courts of the Holy See: the Apostolic Penitentiary^[19] and the Apostolic Signatura.^[20]

In March 2020, Pope Francis issued a new Vatican law which provides for greater independence of judicial bodies and magistrates dependent on the Pope. It also specifies the requirements for the appointment of judges and it simplifies the judicial system while increasing the staff of the court.^[21]

Name

Until the 14th century, the court was formally known as the Apostolic Court of Audience. The first recorded use of the term Rota, which referred to the wheel-shaped arrangement of the benches used by the court in the great hall at Avignon, is in Thomas Fastolf's Decisiones rotae, consisting of reports on thirty-six cases heard at the Court of Audience in Avignon between December 1336 and February 1337.^[22] Its first usage in a papal bull is in 1418.^[15] It is also possible that the term Rota comes from the porphyry wheel that was centered in the marble floor of Avignon, or even from the wheel-like cases in which parchment roll records were kept.^[23]

Operations

The Roman Rota is named after the round room in which it originally met.

The Rota's main function is that of an appellate tribunal, ordinarily reviewing decisions of lower courts if the initial court (first instance) and the first appellate court (second instance) do not agree on the outcome of a case;^[24] however, any party to an initial decision before a court of the Latin Church (and also some Eastern Churches) has the right to file a second-instance appeal directly to the Rota.^[25] Dominating its caseload are petitions seeking the issuance of a decree of nullity of a marriage, although it has jurisdiction to hear any other type of judicial and non-administrative case in any area of canon law. The Rota serves as a tribunal of first instance (in Anglo-American common law what would be termed exclusive original jurisdiction) in certain cases such as any contentious case in which a bishop of the Latin Church is a defendant.^[26] If the case can still be appealed after a Rotal decision, the appeal goes to a different turnus, or panel, of the Rota.^[27] The Rota is the highest appeals court for all judicial trials in the Catholic Church. A judgment of the Rota can, however with the greatest difficulty, be vacated by the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, which is the highest administrative court in the Catholic Church.^[28] However, the legal procedure or process used by the judges of the Rota, not the merits of the case, are on trial before the Signatura: the Signatura is only able to grant the petitioner a new trial to be held before a new turnus of the Rota, if the Rota was found to have erred in procedure ("de procedendo").^[29]

The Roman Rota proceedings are governed by a specific set of rules, the "Normae Romanae Rotae Tribunalis", promulgated in 1994 by Pope John Paul II.^[30] Only advocates who are registered in a specific list are allowed to represent the parties before the Tribunal.^[31]

Since Pope Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio Quaerit semper the Rota has had exclusive competence to dispense from marriages ratum sed non consummatum and is also competent to examine cases concerning the nullity of sacred ordination, in accordance with both universal and proper law.^[32]

Auditors

The active auditors of the Rota, with their dates of appointment by the pope, are:

• Alejandro Arellano Cedillo (Dean) (25 April 2007; named Dean 30 March 2021)^[33]
• Maurice Monier [de; fr; pl; ru] (Pro-Dean) (9 January 1995; named Pro-Dean 12 December 2016)
• Grzegorz Erlebach [pl] (4 November 1997)
• Jair Ferreira Pena (8 February 1999)
• Michael Xavier Leo Arokiaraj (25 April 2007)
• David Maria A. Jaeger (3 June 2011)^[34]
• Vito Angelo Todisco (4 October 2011)
• Felipe Heredia Esteban (4 October 2011)
• Davide Salvatori (30 December 2011)
• Alejandro W. Bunge [de; pt; ru] (17 April 2013)
• Antonio Bartolacci (23 January 2014)
• Manuel Saturino da Costa Gomes (23 January 2014)
• Pietro Milite (9 January 2015)
• Miroslav Konštanc Adam (22 March 2016)^[35]
• José Fernando Mejía Yáñez (22 March 2016)
• Francesco Viscome (21 November 2016)
• Hans-Peter Fischer (20 July 2017)
• Robert Gołębiowski (19 July 2019)^[36]
• Antonios Chouweifaty (25 April 2022)^[37]
• Laurence John Spiteri (25 April 2022)
• Pierangelo Pietracatella, (23 January 2023)^[38]

Officers

• Tomasz Kubiczek, (Promoter of Justice)^[39]
• Domenico Teti, (Adjunct Promoter of Justice)
• Jude Barthomieux Frédéric, (Defender of the Bond)^[40]
• Francesco Ibba, (Substitute Defender of the Bond)
• Alessandro Recchia, (Second Notary)
• Dr. Daniele Cancilla, (Head of the Chancellory)^[41]

References

1. Codex Iuris Canonici [CIC] canons 1443, 1444.
2. Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium [CCEO] canon 1065.
3. See John Paul II, ap. con. Pastor Bonus art. 121, 80 Acta Apostolicae Sedis 841 (1988) (noting that the Apostolic Signatura is the supreme tribunal)
4. 1983 CIC, can. 1442
5. Wacks, Raymond (2015). Law: A Very Short Introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 15.
6. Peters, Edward (7 January 2013). "Canon Law—Canonistics—Rota Background". CanonLaw.info. Archived from the original on 1 April 2021.
7. "Tribunale della Rota Romana". www.rotaromana.va (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-06-12.
8. Pastor Bonus art. 127.
9. "Vatican Appeals Court: Mgr Pio Vito Pinto President". 13 December 2012. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
10. Cheney, David M. "Father Pio Vito Pinto". Catholic-Hierarchy. Archived from the original on 1 April 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
11. "Resignations and Appointments - Appointment of dean of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota" (PDF). No. Daily Bulletin of 30.03.2021. Holy See Press Office. 30 March 2021. pp. 3–4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 April 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
12. Pastor Bonus art. 16 (Latin is the official language of the Roman Curia).
13. Canon L. Socy. Gr. Brit. & Ir., The Canon Law Letter and Spirit: A Practical Guide to the Code of Canon Law ¶ 2907, at 837 (Gerard Sheehy et al. eds., Liturgical Press 1995).
14. "Tribunale della Rota Romana". www.rotaromana.va (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-06-12.
15. Anne O'Hare McCormick, Vatican Journal: 1921-1954 (New York: Farrar, Strause and Cudahy, 1957) pg. 43
16. Anne O'Hare McCormick, Vatican Journal: 1921-1954 (New York: Farrar, Strause and Cudahy, 1957) pg. 39
17. "Catholic News Service - Newsfeeds". National Catholic Welfare Conference). 18 September 1961. p. 3. Archived from the original on 3 April 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2021. By maintaining his private apartment in the Chancellery Palace, he remains close by his old legal haunts: both the Rota, which he served so long, and the Apostolic Signature have their offices in the Chancellery.
18. "Dove siamo". www.rotaromana.va. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
19. "HOMEPAGE DI PENITENZIERIA APOSTOLICA". www.penitenzieria.va (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-06-12.
20. "Institutions of Justice Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura Profile". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
21. Wells, Christopher (16 March 2020). "New law for Vatican City responds to current needs". Vatican News. Archived from the original on 1 April 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
22. John Hamilton Baker, Monuments of endlesse labours: English canonists and their work (1998), p. 22
23. Anne O'Hare McCormick, Vatican Journal: 1921-1954 (New York: Farrar, Strause and Cudahy, 1957) pp. 37-38
24. Pastor Bonus art. 128 § 2.
25. Pastor bonus art. 128 § 1.
26. See Pastor Bonus art. 129 § 1.
27. Art. 18,2 Normae Rotalis
28. See Pastor bonus art. 122 (noting that the Apostolic Signatura, from Rotal sentences, hears plaints of nullity, petitions for total reinstatement, and petitions for new examination of status-of-persons cases and also hears misconduct proceedings against Rotal auditors).
29. Art. 33 Proper Law of Segnatura Apostolica
30. (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, June 6 1994)
31. art 47, Normae Rotalis
32. Quaerit semper, Vatican.va, accessed 7 July 2014
33. Cheney, David M. "Father Alejandro Arellano Cedillo". Catholic-Hierarchy. Archived from the original on 1 April 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
34. Zarchin, Tomer (3 June 2011). "Israeli Jew turned Catholic priest named head of papal court". Haaretz. Retrieved 5 June 2011. Note that the headline errs in stating that Jaeger was appointed "head" of the court; the body of the article does not make this mistake.
35. "Fr Konštane Adam Appointed Judge of the Roman Rota". 31 March 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
36. "Resignations and Appointments, 19.07.2019". Holy See Press Office. No. Daily Bulletin of 19.07.2019. 19 July 2019. Archived from the original on 3 April 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
37. "Resignations and Appointments, 25.04.2022". Holy See Press Office. No. Daily Bulletin of 25.04.2022. 25 April 2022. Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
38. "Resignations and Appointments, 23.01.2023". Holy See Press Office. No. Daily Bulletin of 23.01.2023. 23 January 2023. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
39. "Resignations and Appointments, 28.09.2019". Holy See Press Office. No. Daily Bulletin of 28.09.2019. 28 September 2019. Archived from the original on 3 April 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
40. "Resignations and Appointments, 12.01.2023". Holy See Press Office. No. Daily Bulletin of 12.01.2023. 12 January 2023. Archived from the original on 3 April 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
41. "Resignations and Appointments, 19.06.2017". Holy See Press Office. No. Daily Bulletin of 19.06.2017. 19 June 2017. Archived from the original on 3 April 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2021.

External links

• Tribunal of the Roman Rota
• Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts
• GCatholic.org
• Capellani Papae et Apostolicae Sedis auditores causarum Sacri Palatii Apostolici seu Sacra Romana Rota ab origine ad diem usque 20 septembris 1870

• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Sacra Romana Rota" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.