Canon law (Catholic Church)

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Canon law (Catholic Church)

Canon Law, the ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. The academic degrees in canon law are the J.C.B. (Juris Canonici Baccalaureatus, Bachelor of Canon Law, normally taken as a graduate degree), JCL

JCL

JCL may refer to:Computing:* Job Control Language, a scripting language used on IBM mainframe operating systems* Java Class Library* Java Constraints Library...
(Juris Canonici Licentiatus, Licentiate of Canon Law

Licentiate of Canon Law

Licentiate of Canon Law is the title of an intermediate graduate degree with canonical effects in the Catholic Church offered by pontifical universities and ecclesiastical faculties of canon law....
) and the J.C.D.

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JCL

Licentiate of Canon Law

Doctor of Canon Law

Doctor of Canon Law is the doctoral-level terminal degree in the studies of canon law of the Roman Catholic Church.It may also be abbreviated I.C.D. or dr.iur.can. , D.C.L., D.Cnl., D.D.C., or D.Can.L. ....
). Because of its specialized nature, advanced degrees in civil law or theology are normal prerequisites for the study of canon law.

Early sources

In the first millennium of the Catholic Church, the canons of various ecumenical and local councils were supplemented with decretal

Decretal

Decretals is the name that is given in Canon law to those letters of the pope which formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law.They are generally given in answer to consultations, but are sometimes due to the initiative of the popes....
s of the pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
s; these were gathered together into collections such as the Liber Extra (1234), the Liber Sextus (1298) and the Clementines (1317).

Much of the jurisprudential style was adapted from the Roman Law

Roman law

Roman law is the law system of ancient Rome. As used in the West the term commonly refers to legal developments prior to the Roman/Byzantine state's adopting Greek language as its official language in the 7th century....
Code of Justinian. As a result, Catholic ecclesiastical courts tend to follow the Roman Law style of continental Europe, featuring collegiate panels of judges and an investigative form of proceeding, called "inquisitorial", from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
"inquirere", to enquire. This is in contrast to the adversarial form of proceeding found in the Common Law

Common law

Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
system of English and U.S. law, which features such things as juries and single judges.

In the thirteenth century, the Catholic Church began to collect and organise its canon law, which after a millennium of development had become a complex and difficult system of interpretation and cross-referencing. In 1582 a compilation was made of the Decreta, Extra, the Sext, the Clementines and the Extravagantes
Extravagantes

The term Extravagantes is applied to the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, to designate some papal decretals not contained in certain canonical collections which possess a special authority....
(that is, the decretals of the popes from Pope John XXII

Pope John XXII

Pope John XXII , born Jacques Du?ze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a Papal conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France....
to Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. He founded the Sistine Chapel where the team of artists he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance to Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age....
).

See Corpus Juris Canonici.

Codification

In response to the request of the bishops at the First Vatican Council

First Vatican Council

The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864....
, Pope Pius X

Pope Pius X

Pope St. Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914, succeeding Pope Leo XIII ....
ordered that work begin on reducing these diverse documents into a single code, presenting the normative portion in the form of systematic short canons shorn of the preliminary considerations ("Whereas ..." etc.) and omitting those parts that had been superseded by later developments.

The code was promulgated on 27 May 1917 as the Code of Canon Law (1917) by his successor, Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV , , , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from September 3, 1914 to January 22, 1922, succeeding Pope Pius X ....
, who set 19 May 1918 as the date on which it came into force,. For the most part, it applied only to the Latin Church except when "it treats of things that, by their nature, apply to the Oriental", such as the effects of baptism (canon 87).

In the succeeding decades, some parts of the 1917 Code were retouched, especially under Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as the 260th pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church and monarch of Vatican City, from March 2, 1939 until his death in 1958....
. In 1959, Pope John XXIII

Pope John XXIII

Blessed Pope John XXIII , born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli , known as Blessed John XXIII since his beatification, was elected as the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and monarch of Vatican City on 28 October 1958....
announced, together with his intention to call the Second Vatican Council

Second Vatican Council

The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965....
, that the Code would be completely revised. In 1963, the commission appointed to undertake the task, decided to delay the project until the Council had been concluded. When work finally began, almost two decades of study and discussion on drafts of the various sections were needed before Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II John Paul II is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century. He has been Pope_John_Paul_II#Role_in_the_fall_of_Communism in bringing down communism in Eastern Europe, as well as significantly improving the Roman Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and A...
could promulgate the revised edition, which came into force on 27 November 1983, having been promulgated via the apostolic constitution

Apostolic constitution

An apostolic constitution is the highest level of decree issued by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The use of the term constitution comes from Latin language constitutio, which referred to any important law issued by the Roman emperor, and is retained in church documents because of the inheritance that the canon law of the R...
of 25 January 1983.

This edition is referred to as the 1983 Code of Canon Law to distinguish it from the 1917 Code. Like the preceding edition, it applies to Catholics of the Latin Rite. For Eastern Catholics two sections of Eastern canon law had already, under Pope Pius XII, been put in the form of short canons. These parts were revised as part of the application of Pope John XXIII's decision to carry out a general revision of the Church's canon law; as a result a distinct Code for members of the Eastern Catholic Churches came into effect for the first time on 1 October 1991 (Apostolic Constitution Sacri Canones of 18 October 1990). The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches

Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches

The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches is the title of the 1990 codification of the common portions of the Canon law for the 22 of the 23 sui iuris Churches in the Catholic Church....
, as it is called, differs from the Latin Code of Canon Law in matters where Eastern and Latin traditions diverge, such as terminology, discipline concerning hierarchical offices and administration of the sacraments.

From time to time, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts

Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts

The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts is part of the Roman Curia. Its work "consists mainly in interpreting the laws of the Church". . Its President is currently Archbishop Francesco Coccopalmerio, while Juli?n Cardinal Herranz Casado holds the position of President Emeritus....
issues authentic interpretation

Authentic interpretation

An authentic interpretation is an official interpretation of a statute issued by the statute's legislator. In Civil law and canon law, an authentic interpretation has the force of law....
s regarding the Code.

In 1998, Pope John Paul II issued the motu proprio

Motu proprio

A motu proprio is a document issued by the Pope on his own initiative and personally signed by him.It may be addressed to the whole Church, to part of it, or to some individuals....
, which amended two canons (750 and 1371) of the 1983 Code of Canon Law and two canons (598 and 1436) of the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, so as to add "new norms which expressly impose the obligation of upholding truths proposed in a definitive way by the Magisterium of the Church, and which also establish related canonical sanctions."

Canon Law and Church Office

Under the 1983 Code of Canon Law, all seminary students are required to take courses in canon law (c. 252.3). Some ecclesiastical officials are required to have the doctorate (JCD) or at least the licentiate (JCL

JCL

JCL may refer to:Computing:* Job Control Language, a scripting language used on IBM mainframe operating systems* Java Class Library* Java Constraints Library...
) in canon law in order to fulfill their functions: judicial vicars (c. 1419.4); judges (c. 1421.3); promoters of justice (c. 1435); defenders of the bond (c. 1435); procurators and advocates (c. 1483). In addition, vicars general and episcopal vicars are to be doctors, or at least licensed in canon law or theology (c. 478.1). Ordinarily, bishops are to have an advanced degree in scripture, theology, or canon law

Canon law

Canon law is internal ecclesiastical law governing the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church churches, and the Anglicanism of churches....
(c. 378.1.5).

Patron saint

St. Raymond of Penyafort (1175–1275), a Spanish Dominican priest, is the Patron Saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges....
of canonists, due to his important contributions to the science of Canon Law. Other saintly patrons include St. Ivo of Chartres and St. Robert Bellarmine.

Related terms

Affinity (canon law)
Affinity (canon law)

In Canon law , affinity is a relationship arising from the sexual intercourse of a man and a woman, sufficient for the generation of children, whereby the man becomes related to the woman's blood-relatives and the woman to the man's....
Apostolic Administrator
Apostolic Administrator

An apostolic administrator in the Roman Catholic Church is a prelate appointed by the Pope to serve as the ordinary for an apostolic administration....
Apostolic constitution
Apostolic constitution

An apostolic constitution is the highest level of decree issued by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The use of the term constitution comes from Latin language constitutio, which referred to any important law issued by the Roman emperor, and is retained in church documents because of the inheritance that the canon law of the R...
Apostolic vicariate
Apostolic vicariate

An apostolic vicariate is a form of territorial jurisdiction of the Catholic Church established in missionary regions and countries which do not have a diocese....
Apostolicæ Sedis
Apostolicæ Sedis

Apostolic? Sedis was a Papal Constitution promulgated by Pope Pius IX on 12 October, 1869.It was a constitution relating to Canon law , clarifying the procedure regarding censure....
Benefice
Benefice

Originally a benefice was a gift of land for life as a reward for services rendered. The word comes from the Latin language noun beneficium, meaning "benefit"....
Canon Episcopi
Canon Episcopi

The Canon Episcopi is an important document in the history of witchcraft. It is first attested in the Libri de synodalibus cuasis et disciplinas ecclesiasticis composed by Regino of Pr?m around 906, but Regino considered it an older text; he, and later scholars following him, believed it to be from a "Council of Anquira" in 314, but no o...
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches

The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches is the title of the 1990 codification of the common portions of the Canon law for the 22 of the 23 sui iuris Churches in the Catholic Church....
Confirmation of bishops
Confirmation of bishops

In Canon law , confirmation of a bishop is the act by which the election of a new bishop receives the assent of the proper ecclesiastical authority....
Consanguinity
Consanguinity

Consanguinity refers to the property of being from the same lineage as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being Kinship and descent from the same ancestor as another person....
Contractum trinius
Contractum trinius

A contractum trinius was a set of contracts devised by European bankers and merchants in the Middle Ages as a method of circumventing canon law edicts prohibiting usury....
Corpus Juris Canonici
Corpus Juris Civilis
Corpus Juris Civilis

The Corpus Juris Civilis is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperors....
Crimen sollicitationis
Crimen sollicitationis

Crimen sollicitationis was a letter sent in 1962 by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to "all Patriarch#Patriarchs of the Catholic Church, Archbishop#Catholic Church), Bishop s and other Ordinary, including those of Eastern Catholic Churches"....
Decretal
Decretal

Decretals is the name that is given in Canon law to those letters of the pope which formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law.They are generally given in answer to consultations, but are sometimes due to the initiative of the popes....
Decretum Gratiani
Decretum Gratiani

The Decretum Gratiani or Concordia discordantium canonum is a collection of Canon law compiled and written in the twelfth century as a legal textbook by a jurist named Gratian ....
Delegata potestas non potest delegari
Delegata potestas non potest delegari

In constitutional law and administrative law, the principle delegata potestas non potest delegari states that ?no subdelegate powers can be further delegated?....
Devil's advocate
Devil's advocate

In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who takes a position, sometimes one he or she disagrees with, for the sake of Logical argument....
Dictatus papae
Dictatus papae

Dictatus papae is a compilation of 27 axiomatic statements of powers arrogated to the Pope that was included in Pope Gregory VII's register under the year 1075....
Dispensation (Western Christian)
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction

Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in its primary sense does not signify jurisdiction over ecclesiastics , but jurisdiction exercised by church leaders over other leaders and over the laity....
Ecclesiastical court
Ecclesiastical court

Church CourtsAn ecclesiastical court is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages in many areas of Europe these courts had much wider powers than before the development of nation states....
Edictum Rothari
Edictum Rothari

The Edictum Rothari was the first written compilation of Lombards law, codified and promulgated 22 November 643 by King Rothari. The custom of the Lombards, according to Paul the Deacon, the Lombard historian, had been held in memory before this....
Epiclesis
Epiclesis

In most Christian churches, the epiclesis is that part of the anaphora, or Eucharistic prayer, by which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit . Some Eastern Orthodox theologians hold that the epiclesis is essential to the Eucharist, since the entire Sacred Mysteries is based on the action of the Holy Spirit....
Eucharistic discipline
Eucharistic discipline

Eucharistic discipline is the term applied to the regulations and practices associated with an individual preparing for the reception of the Eucharist....
Latae sententiae
Latae sententiae

Latae sententiae is a Latin term used in the Canon law of the Catholic Church meaning literally "given sentence".Officially, a latae sententiae penalty follows automatically, by force of the law itself, when the law is contravened....
Motu proprio
Motu proprio

A motu proprio is a document issued by the Pope on his own initiative and personally signed by him.It may be addressed to the whole Church, to part of it, or to some individuals....
Oratory
Oratory (worship)

In Christianity, an oratory is a room for prayer, from the Latin orare, to pray.In the Roman Catholic Church, an oratory is for all intents and purposes another word for what is commonly called a chapel....
Particular church
Particular Church

In Catholic theology and Canon law , a particular Church is an ecclesial community headed by a bishop or someone recognized as the equivalent of a bishop....
Paternity
Prefecture
Prefecture

Prefecture indicates the office, seat, territorial circumscription of a Prefect. The term prefecture is also used to refer to offices analogous to prefectures....
Prelate
Prelate

A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy who either is an ordinary or ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from Latin pr?latus, the past participle of pr?ferre, literally, "carry before," or "to be set above, or over," or "to prefer," hence a prelate is one set over others....
Privilege (canon law)
Privilege (canon law)

Privilege in the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church is the legal concept whereby someone is exempt from the ordinary operation of the law over time for some specific purpose....
Promulgation
Promulgation

Promulgation or enactment is the act of formally proclaiming or declaring new statute or administrative law when it receives final approval....
Rector
Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings, but all of them indicate an academic, religious or political administrator.The word "rector" also appears in many modern languages, such as Albanian, Dutch language, Spanish language, Catalan language and Romanian language....
Sacra Rota Romana
Sacra Rota Romana

The Tribunal of the Rota Romana or the Sacred Roman Rota is the highest appellate court of the Latin Rite and several of the Eastern Catholic Churches and is the second highest ecclesiastical court constituted by the Holy See....
Seal of the Confessional
Seal of the Confessional

The Seal of Confession or the Seal of the Confessional is the absolute confidentiality for Roman Catholic priests, of anything that they learn from penitents during the course of confession....
Secular clergy
Secular clergy

In the Roman Catholic Church, secular clergy are religious ministers, such as deacons and priests, who do not belong to a Catholic order. While regular clergy take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience and place themselves under a Catholic order , secular clergy do not take vows and live in the world ....
Sede vacante
Sede vacante

Sede vacante is an expression, used in the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, that refers to the vacancy of the episcopal see of a particular church....
Simony
Simony

Simony is the ecclesiastical crime of paying for holy offices or positions in the hierarchy of a church, named after Simon Magus, who appears in the Acts of the Apostles 8:18-24....
Team of priests in solidum
Team of priests in solidum

In 1983 the Catholic Church introduced the possibility of entrusting the pastoral care, of one or more Parish to a team of Priesthood in solidum....
Territorial abbot
Territorial abbot

A territorial abbot or abbot nullius heads a territorial abbey or territorial abbacy, which is a type of particular church within the Catholic Church....
Vacarius
Vacarius

Roger Vacarius was an Italy authority in civil law and Canon law , who became the first known teacher of Roman law in England. Apparently educated in Bologna, he was brought to Canterbury, possibly by Thomas Becket, to serve as counsel to the Archbishop of Canterbury Theobald of Bec, in his struggle with Henry of Blois, Bishop of Wincheste...

Footnotes

External links

Texts and translations of Codes of Canon Law, with referenced concordances

, original text in Latin
but with the 1998 modification of canons 750 and 1371, English translation by the Canon Law Society of America, on the Vatican website
, English translation by the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland, assisted by the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Canadian Canon Law Society
, original text in Latin
, defective English translation
, original text in Latin

Translations of Codes of Canon Law, without concordances

, English translation by the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland, assisted by the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Canadian Canon Law Society