Ecclesiastical Notary

Job Description

Job Description

Job Description

The principal duty of all employees is to assist in the mission of the Church in the Diocese of Fort Worth.  This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of all activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job.  Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

General Position Summary:

Processing marital cases (similar to civil court proceedings), whose outcome have life-changing consequences to the Catholic spiritual life of the involved parties. While knowledge, skills, and abilities can be broadly defined across the diocese, the application of the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities by Tribunal staff is unique within the diocese. Tribunal staff are supervised to act throughout a marital case to solicit, evaluate, and include essential material that is sent to whomever makes the final decision on a case (Judge, Judicial Vicar, Bishop, Court of Appeal, the Roman Rota at the Vatican, or the Pope).  

Principal Accountabilities:

• Before a petition is accepted it is reviewed to ensure it is complete and appropriate. All material should individually and collectively satisfy the conditions for the case. Incomplete submissions are returned. Oversee each administrative and judicial case end-to-end as it progresses from submission to close; investigate whether the chosen process is appropriate for the case. Data is confidential. Cases processed are: Formal Case, Pauline Privilege, Lack of Form, Ligamen, Sanatio and Nihil Obstat .

• Contact Respondent and witnesses to solicit case testimony. Testimony is critical in a marriage case, but the Respondent and named-witnesses might be difficult to find (e.g. a petitioner might not have had contact with a respondent for decades, a respondent or witness might live in a foreign country or might not use electronic communication.) Tribunal staff must be resourceful (e.g., use social media) and persevere to contact hard-to-find Respondent and witnesses.

• Follow up to verify the legitimacy of documents and testimony: 

• If the Tribunal staff suspects that statements or documents are unacceptable, they must contact issuing authorities (civil governments, civil courts, Churches, private parties, etc.) to verify legitimacy.  These civil or Church organizations or private parties might be in foreign countries. 
• Evaluate Petitioner, Respondent and witness testimony to determine whether it is applicable, sufficient, and believable. Testimony must be truthful and sufficiently detailed to explain the circumstances of the case. If testimony, as originally submitted, is inadequate or questionable, the Case Manager will interview the witness again but not provide testimony on their behalf.        Testimony is received in writing or collected by the Notary via phone, or in person.

• Assess applicability of a chosen process for a case as case materials are gathered. Tribunal staff might discover that one of the parties didn’t disclose a key fact (unintentionally or intentionally) or witness testimony doesn’t support the grounds of the case. The Notary will meet with the Judge and determine whether to continue the case under the existing process or to change to another process. New facts might allow changing from a complex process to a simple process or require changing from a simple process to a complex process.

Create and send documents.

• Decrees―Case acceptance, Joinder (statement of formal case grounds), etc.
• Final documents for signature: Lack of Form, Ligamen, Sanatio , etc.
• Questionnaire specific to the grounds of the case to court appointed experts.
• Notification of case decisions to involved parties.
• Publication of Acts (collection of all documents: petition, testimony, and decrees)―make available for monitored review by each involved party before case is sent to canon lawyers.
• Report statistics on number and status of cases in queue.
• Process requests for decrees, abated (halted) cases, etc.
• Perform translations from Spanish to English and vice versa.
• Use CaseMaster to track progress.
• Update job knowledge by participating in continuing educational opportunities (e.g., TCC conference, Region XII NW Canon Law Conference, etc.)

Typical Decisions and/or Recommendations Made in This Position:

Minimal Exercise discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.

Supervision Given and/or Received:

  Moderate supervision given and/or received

Internal Contacts:

• The Diocese, Pastors, Priests, Principals, Business Managers, and employees.

External Contacts:

• Parishioners, diocese vendors, local, state, and federal agency representatives, and auditors.

Working Conditions and/or Physical Requirements:

• This position works in a typical office environment but is subject to stress due to the evolving and quickly expanding needs of the Diocese, tight deadlines and moderate workloads.
• Ability to sit and perform computer work for lengthy periods of time.
• Able to access and maintain centralized departmental files.  Involves extending arms and reaching files stored in multiple levels on shelves, climbing up a stepladder to access files.
• Ability to accept work interruptions while remaining focused on duties.  
• Data entry via computer keyboard that requires repetitive and frequent hand and wrist movements.
• Ability to lift up to 35 pounds without assistance and up to 60 pounds with assistance.

  Travel Requirements: