Canon Law Backgrounder

A body of law legislated by ecclesiastical authority to organize and govern the Roman Catholic Church – Canon Law is the Code of manmade laws of the West’s oldest continuing functional legal system.

It was Pius X in 1904 who established a commission of cardinals to draft the first Code of Canon Law. That code was written in short articles called canons in much the same way as all modern states were codifying their legislation. Many keystones of U.S. and British common law, including due process and the statute of limitations, are derived from canon law.

The Code of Canon Law has evolved throughout history, and underwent a complete revision following Vatican II. In 1963 Pope John XXIII entrusted the revision to a competent commission of twenty-nine cardinals. Twenty years later, Pope John Paul II promulgated the Revised Code of Canon Law in 1983, and that is the canon law under which the Church operates today. The Code itself consists of 1,752 canons or laws, divided into seven books. Like the Church, Canon Law is universal -- a code of law that knows no national or local boundaries. All appeals end in Rome.

Completely encased in one volume, the Code of Canon Law specifies such issues as what constitutes an excommunication, who can be a priest, how to sell property, where and how the term Catholic can be used in a title. It specifies the rule of marriage annulments, details the sacraments and elucidates in clear terms who can be Catholic.

Says Patricia Dugan – “It is the work of the civil lawyer to counsel and advocate in the affairs of man, to deal with their lives.  It is the work of the canon lawyer to deal with a system meant ultimately to affect their souls.”