“Nearly 400 cases were decided, more than double the number in previous years, lowering the number of cases pending, several of which have unfortunately gone on for too long,” Father Pio Vito Pinto, the dean of the Roman Rota, said during a January 24 audience with Pope Francis.
“The Dean also welcomed a shift in the tendency to favor negative rulings over positive, a turnaround uniquely ‘anchored in the fontal and factual truth, illumined by the Holy Spirit, thanks to the contribution of different human and juridical sensibilities,’” the newspaper added in its report.
In December 2012, Pope Benedict appointed Father Pinto as the new dean of the Roman Rota, which hears appeals on marital and other appellate cases.
The Rota, he said, “would like, as formerly with Pope Benedict, to promise you perfect obedience to the Magisterium and to those decisions which God will inspire you to make for the fundamental spiritual good of the Church.”