Pope Francis Extends Time to Appeal Dismissal from Consecrated Life

There is also no need to request in writing the revocation or correction of the decree, the motu proprio said.

The equivalent law in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 500 paragraph 2, has been changed from 15 days to 30.

The amendments enter into force on May 7.

In the motu proprio’s preamble, Pope Francis cited the 1983 commentary on the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, which says, “expedit ut iura personarum apte definiantur atque in tuto ponantur,” or in English, “it is expedient that the rights of persons may be properly defined and secured.”

“This was the sixth general principle that the Synod of Bishops, in October 1967, approved for the revision of the Code of Canon Law and which still remains valid today,” the pope said.

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The principle, he added, recognizes “in the safeguarding and protection of subjective rights, a privileged place in the Church’s legal system.”

The safeguarding of a person’s rights becomes especially relevant “in the most delicate events of ecclesial living,” he said, such as a person’s juridical status as a consecrated.

Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.