Category: Canon Law (Church Law)

Deacons are to be sexually continent, too!

The lay –and married– canon lawyer Ed Peters wrote a piece indicating the permanent deacons are to be sexually abstinent (continent) permanently. This is the teaching and law of the Church. Men in studies seeking ordination to the Diaconate, that is, to be a permanent deacon, should have been taught this by the formators but lets concede the fact that those in charge of the diaconate program skipped or mis-represented the Church’s teaching in this matter. It is widely seen, however, to an unenforceable church law. Ed Peters quotes the phrase, “perfect and perpetual” from Canon 277 §1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law to explain the behavior of the permanent deacon. The first premise is paragraph 1, even with the presence of a possible dispensation seen in paragraph 3. The expectation is that all clerics are sexually continent. Conclusion: all men called to holy orders are expected to refrain from sex! The Catholic Church doesn’t have a double standard, one for priests and one for deacons. For the 15K deacons in the USA: amend your life.

The academic article in Studia Canonica of 2005, “Canonical Considerations of Diaconal Continence,” in which Peters’ argues that married permanent deacons are by Church law to refrain from sexual intercourse with their wife, that is, the deacon remains sexually continent. The article can be read at this link: Ed Peters Studia c. 277 Diaconal Sexual Continence.pdf

Thomas Peters, Ed Peters’ son and blogger, posted this piece on his blog.

Pope issues new laws to conform Vatican to European financial controls

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Pope Benedict XVI issued sweeping financial reforms for the Vatican City State and the Holy See in the aftermath of great confusion over perceived financial irregularities between the Italian State and the Institute of Religious Works (IOR). For the last six months the Pope has been dogged by accusations of another Vatican coverup of bad money deals causing unnecessary distractions. Recent mega-problems with financial and real estate matters at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, especially under the leadership of Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, now the cardinal-archbishop of Naples, heightened papal awareness.
Clearly and consistently Benedict is interested in reform and renewal of the Church in all sectors and he sees this restructuring as part of the change needed. The Pope is cleaning a very dusty house. The new Laws conform to the Laws and principles in force in the European Union. A monetary agreement between the European Union and Vatican City State was signed on December 17, 2009. What’s at issue are the questions on how the various Vatican agencies use money. Particularly, “self-money-laundering, the controls on cash entering or leaving Vatican City State, the obligations regarding the transfer of funds, and the heavy administrative sanctions that are applicable not only to legal persons and entities but also to the physical persons who act on their behalf, by means of the binding recourse action.” Several other issues at hand are dealt with here: fraud and counterfeiting, protection of copyrights of money and circulation. None of the offices of the Vatican or the Holy See are going to exempt from financial oversight. Civil penalties will be imposed for violators. The Pope’s new laws take effect April 1, 2011.
Benedict created a new governing agency for money matters: the Financial Information Authority (FIA) –which will look to prevent and combat money laundering. Essentially, the Authority is a Vatican watch dog for money and other tangible assets.
The mindset of the Pope and his assistants is: “The Holy See welcomes this new commitment and will make these material resources that are necessary to the mission and duties of Vatican City State.” This is a moral and pastoral overhaul for the whole Vatican system.
For His Holiness, as the Communiqué says, “These new Laws are part of the Apostolic See’s efforts to build a just and honest social order. At no time may the great principles of social ethics like transparency, honesty and responsibility be neglected or weakened (cf. Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 36)
The Apostolic Letter in the Form of a Motu Proprio for the Prevention and Countering of Illegal Activities in the Financial and Monetary Sectors

You can read the Communiqué of the Secretariat of State regarding the new legislation for the prevention and countering of illegal activities in the financial and monetary sectors

The Director of the Vatican Press Office, Father Lombardi comments
A video clip from Rome Reports on the revision of the laws.

Toward clarifying the canonical status of Sr. Margaret McBride

Much discussion has surfaced about the excommunicated nun, Sr. Margaret McBride, for assisting in the 2009 abortion at St Joseph’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ.

Canonist Edward N. Peter’s wrote a piece on his blog, In the Light of the Law, “Toward clarifying the canonical status of Sr. Margaret McBride.”
I think Dr. Peter’s is clear. Don’t you?

Ratzinger’s influence in revising the criminal code of Church law reviewed

La Civiltà
Cattolica, the academic
periodical edited by the Society of Jesus but vetted by the Secretary of State
of His Holiness, will publish Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta’s essay, “The Influence
of Cardinal Ratzinger in the Revision of the Canonical Criminal Justice System.”

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Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, 59, is Spanish, ordained for the Prelature of the Holy Cross. Arrieta earned a doctorate in civil and canon law and served as Dead of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. (Rome) Moreover, he was Dean of the Institute of Canon Law of Saint Pius X (Venice). At the service of the Church, Arrieta was a canon prelate of the Apostolic Penitentiary and legal secretary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. Since 2007, he’s been the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and ordained bishop in 2008.




In the coming
weeks, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts will distribute to its
Members and Consultors the draft of a document containing suggestions for the
revision of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law, the basis of the Church’s penal
law system. For almost two years a commission of experts in penal law has been
re-examining the text promulgated in 1983, taking into account the needs that
have emerged in subsequent years. The aim is to maintain the general plan and
the existing numbering of the canons, while revising some of the decisions
taken at the time, which with hindsight can be seen to be insufficient.



Continue reading Ratzinger’s influence in revising the criminal code of Church law reviewed

Omnium in Mentem (in English)

On 15 December 2009, Pope Benedict made public some “clarifications” (revisions?) he made to the 1983 Code of Canon Law in a motu proprio titled, Omnium in Mentem. To date, no English translation of the motu proprio has been made available, until now that is.

We are happy to have said document in English thanks to the work of Mr. Paul Haverstock. You can read it here: Omnium in mentem trans Haverstock.pdf.

While Mr. Haverstock’s translation is not an official translation of the Holy See, it is a gift to have it now in well written English.

Motu Proprio: Variations to the Code of Canon Law, canons canons 1008, 1009, 1086, 1117 & 1124 –Omnium in mentem


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Vatican
City, 15 December 2009 (VIS) – Made public today was Benedict XVI’s Motu
Proprio, “Omnium in mentem”. The document is dated 26 October 2009
and contains two variations to the Code of Canon Law (CIC), variations which
have long been the object of study by dicasteries of the Roman Curia and by
national episcopal conferences.

The document published today contains five
articles modifying canons 1008, 1009, 1086, 1117 and 1124. According to an
explanatory note by Archbishop Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the
Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, these variations “concern two
separate questions: adapting the text of the canons that define the ministerial
function of deacons to the relative text in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1581), and suppressing a subordinate clause in three canons concerning
marriage, which experience has shown to be inappropriate”.

The variation
to the text of canon 1008 will now limit itself to affirming that “those
who receive the Sacrament of Orders are destined to serve the People of God
with a new and specific title”, while canon 1009 “will be given an
additional third paragraph in which it is specified that the minister
constituted into the Order of the episcopate or the priesthood receives the mission
and power to act in the person of Christ the Head, while deacons receive the
faculty to serve the People of God in the diaconates of the liturgy, of the
Word and of charity”.

Archbishop Coccopalmerio’s note then goes on to
explain that the other changes contained in the Motu Proprio all concern the
elimination of the clause “actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia
Catholica” contained in canons 1086 para. 1, 1117 and 1124. This clause,
“following much study, was held to be unnecessary and inappropriate”,
he writes.

“From the time the Code of Canon Law came into effect in the
year 1983 until the moment of the coming into effect of this Motu Proprio,
Catholics who had abandoned the Catholic Church by means of a formal act were
not obliged to follow the canonical form of celebration for the validity of
marriage (canon 1117), nor were they bound by the impediment concerning
marriage to the non-baptised (canon 1086 para. 1), nor did they suffer the
prohibition on marrying non-Catholic Christians (canon 1124). The
abovementioned clause contained in these three canons represented an exception
… to another more general norm of ecclesiastical legislation according to
which all those baptised in the Catholic Church or received into her are bound
to observe ecclesiastical laws (canon 11).

“With the coming into effect of
the new Motu Proprio”, Archbishop Coccopalmerio adds, “canon 11 of
the Code of Canon Law reacquires its full force as concerns the contents of the
canons thus modified, even in cases were there has been a formal abandonment.
Hence, in order to regularise any unions that may have been made in the
non-observance of these rules it will be necessary to have recourse, if
possible, to the ordinary means Canon Law offers for such cases: dispensation
from the impediment, sanation, etc”.

The Latin and Italian texts are here.