Starting from the Instruction The pastoral conversion of the parish community at the service of the evangelising mission of the Church, the article tries to study the relationship of the laity with their pastors in the pastoral care of the parish, keeping in mind the theological-legal principles of the subject and analysing how this relationship is realised in the various forms of collaboration of the laity in the parish.

How is the sacrament of marriage protected procedurally? In order to avoid erring in such a delicate field, the Legislator has established a concrete procedural dynamic, both in procedendo and in iudicando, designed to foster an ever better administration of justice for the protection of marriage. Every action of the various officials of the tribunal remains linked to the needs of both marriage and the process itself insofar as both are ecclesiastical public goods. Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus, with its proposal for a more brief annulment process and with the abolition of the need for the double conformity of sentences, seeks for the course of the process to be more attentive to the truth of the bond. In order to prevent any possible arbitria procedendi, I propose in this article, within the framework of a synergistic dynamic with the judicial vicar, a prescriptive participation of the promoter of justice during the phase of determining the correct form of the nullity process with which to deal with the matrimonial case according to canons 1676 and 1685. In his role as the official guardian of the fair administration of justice in all cases and degrees of matrimonial proceedings, it will fall to the promoter of justice to protect the judicial process in favor of the good of the indissolubility of marriage.

Book VI of the CIC, recently promulgated, introduced a series of legislative innovations, some of which concern the canonical protection of minors. Compared to the previous text, a greater attention to the person of a minor is codified, assimilating and integrating the legal interventions that were introduced from 1983 into the present day. This article offers a critical reading of some of these new elements, highlighting their most important aspects as well as situating them into the current legislative landscape.

The contribution offers an introduction to the Instructions regarding the Institutes affiliated, aggregated or incorporated to an Ecclesiastical Faculty, issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education on 8 December 2020. In particular, the following aspects are illustrated: the concept of «connection» to an ecclesiastical faculty and its typologies; the main innovations of the new regulations; the procedure for granting affiliation, aggregation and incorporation, as well as its suspension or revocation. The article also points out the open questions and the norms that create possible difficulties of interpretation.

The author, based on the abstract qualification of presumptions as proofs (cann. 1584-1586) and their systematic placement among proofs in the current Code, proposes an application of them in the individual phases of the ordinary contentious process and, therefore, of the process of matrimonial nullity (cf. can. 1691 §3). From this, their nature as proofs is confirmed a posteriori, with interesting consequences especially in relation to the exercise of the right of defense.