A never-married man meets a divorced woman whose ex-husband is still alive. They fall in love and want to marry in the Catholic Church.
A media outlet that brands itself “Real Catholic” causes disruption in the Catholic community as it promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories.
A group of women who are consecrated members of a Catholic religious institute feel that the Holy Spirit is calling them to leave their institute so they may start a new one.
What do all those scenarios have in common? Each pertains to canon law, which is the general term for the church’s official rules and regulations. What is more, if each one is to be resolved justly, it will require the intervention of someone who knows canon law—that is, a canon lawyer (also known as a canonist).
In the first scenario above, the real-life prospective bride contacted a diocesan tribunal, and, after a canonical process, received an annulment. In the second, the media outlet’s bishop used his prerogative under canon law to declare that it could not legitimately call itself Catholic. And in the third, the women consulted a canonist to ensure that the setup of their new institute was licit in the church’s eyes.
Explaining the nature of canon law is like explaining the nature of the U.S. Constitution. There’s the mundane reality of what’s written, and then there’s the dynamic reality that flows from the written page when it is put into action. On paper, canon law governs the Catholic Church’s internal operations, discipline, and dispute resolution. But, just as the Constitution provides the blueprint for American democracy, those laws and regulations together provide the blueprint for justice in the church.
The early institutional church drew its laws from the gospels and the New Testament epistles. In time, rules on discipline from other widely accepted sources such as the Didache became part of the church’s law, as well as papal decisions and canons enacted by ecumenical councils.
Today, the central source of canon law in the Latin (i.e., Roman) church is the Code of Canon Law (abbreviated CIC after its Latin title, Codex Iuris Canonici), promulgated in 1983 by Pope John Paul II. It is a revision of the 1917 Code, which was the Latin church’s first official codification of its laws. In 1990, John Paul promulgated the Code of Canons of the Eastern churches (usually abbreviated CCEO after its Latin title).
Canon law is also found in liturgical law, papal writings that include legal components, and the decisions of the courts and dicasteries of the Holy See.
Although much of canon law derives from theological sources, it is not itself an article of faith. Catholics are not required to believe in it. But they are expected to believe that the Catholic Church has the right to establish laws that bind the faithful.
When the 1983 Code was composed, its architects took care to ensure that the final canon would provide the lens through which all its law should be interpreted: “The salvation of souls . . . must always be the supreme law in the church.” It is a message to the church’s judges and lawyers, reminding them that their own judgments will be judged by God.
This article also appears in the March 2025 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 90, No. 3, page 49). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
Image: Pexels/Sora Shimazaki
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