Day at the Diocesan (Continued)

Observation March 30th - 12:30pm - 3:30pm (Entry 10)

Father Winslows roles in the diocesan are a little more specific. I
stated in an earlier entry that he works in the tribunal, or church court,
and focuses on marriage cases, but he went into more detail and
explained to me exactly his role in that. He is the Defender of Bond for
marriage tribunals, which means he is the one who oversees the
situation and influences the final decision on whether a marriage was
valid or not. This leads to whether or not a marriage is annulled, which
basically means it never happened in the eyes of the church. For
instance, if a vow was broken, or never even acted upon, it would
make the marriage invalid, and suitable for annulment.
His other job is the promoter of justice. Of course the churchs
court is much different than regular American court, and only enforces
church law, or Canon Law. If a church employee committed a robbery,
then they would step back and let the feds take over. He is the
prosecuting attorney in the tribunal, so he brings the heat to the
court floor. Most of these cases are never very serious, usually minor
things they handle themselves. Father Winslow also serves as a special
advisor to the bishop on all issues. He isnt his only advisor of course,
but he can confidently say that he does talk with and help the Bishop
out quite a bit.