The1983Code of Canon Law (abbreviated1983 CIC from its Latin titleCodex Iuris Canonici), also called theJohanno-Pauline Code,[1][2] is the "fundamental body ofecclesiastical laws for theLatin Church".[3] It is the second and current comprehensivecodification ofcanonical legislation for the Latin Church of theCatholic Church. The 1983Code of Canon Law waspromulgated on 25 January 1983 byJohn Paul II[3] andtook legal effect on the First Sunday of Advent (27 November) 1983.[4] It replaced the1917Code of Canon Law which had been promulgated byBenedict XV on 27 May 1917. According to canon 6, the 1983 code of canon law abrogates the 1917 code of canon law and any penal laws made under it that are not contained in the 1983 code.[5]
The 1983Code of Canon Law is composed of laws calledcanons.
The current Code of Canon Law is the second comprehensivecodification of the non-liturgical laws of theLatin Church, replacing thePio-Benedictine code which had been promulgated byBenedict XV in 1917.[6][7]
Pope John XXIII, when proclaiming a newecumenical council for the Catholic Church, also announced the intention of revising the 1917 CIC.[8]
ThePontificia Commissio Codici iuris canonici recognoscendo, which had been established in 1963, worked on revising the 1917Code of Canon Law through the pontificate ofPaul VI, completing the work in the first years of the pontificate ofJohn Paul II.
| Sacræ disciplinæ leges Latin for 'Sacred disciplinary laws' Apostolic constitution ofPopeJohn Paul II | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Signature date | 25 January 1983 |
| Subject | Promulgation of the 1983Code of Canon Law |
| Text | |
← Aukina Divinus perfectionis Magister → | |
On 25 January 1983,[3] with theapostolic constitutionSacrae disciplinae leges,[9] John Paul IIpromulgated the 1983Code of Canon Law for all members of the Catholic Church who belonged to theLatin Church.[3] Itentered into force the first Sunday of the followingAdvent,[3] which was 27 November 1983.[4]
In an address given on 21 November 1983 to the participants in a course at theGregorian University in Rome on the newCode of Canon Law, the Pope described the new code as "the last document ofVatican II".[10]
While there have been many vernacular translations of the 1983Code, only the originalLatin text has the force of law.[11]
The Vatican II decreeOptatam totius (no. 16), in view of the decision to reform the existing Code, laid down that "the teaching of Canon law should take into account the mystery of the Church, according to the dogmatic constitutionDe Ecclesia". The1917 Pio-Benedictine Code was in fact structured according to theRoman law division of "norms, persons, things, procedures, penalties".
John Paul II described the ecclesiological inspiration of the 1983Code in this way:[3]
The instrument, which the Code is, fully corresponds to the nature of the Church, especially as it is proposed by the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in general, and in a particular way by itsecclesiological teaching. Indeed, in a certain sense, this new Code could be understood as a great effort to translate this same doctrine, that is, the conciliar ecclesiology, into canonical language. If, however, it is impossible to translate perfectly into canonical language the conciliar image of the Church, nevertheless, in this image there should always be found as far as possible its essential point of reference.
Thus the 1983Code is configured, as far as possible, according to the "mystery of the Church", the most significant books – Two, Three and Four – corresponding to themunus regendi, themunus sanctificandi, and themunus docendi (the "missions" of governance, of worship/sanctification, and of teaching) which in turn derive from the kingly, the priestly and the prophetic roles or functions ofChrist.[12]
The 1983Code of Canon Law contains 1752canons,[13] or laws, most subdivided into paragraphs (indicated by "§") and/or numbers (indicated by "°"). Hence a citation of the Code would be written as Can. (or Canon) 934, §2, 1°.[14]
TheCode is organized into seven Books, which are further divided into Part, Section, Title, Chapter and Article. Not every book contains all five subdivisions. Organized hierarchically, the subdivisions are
Most of the Code does not utilize all these subdivisions but one example is
The basic unit of the Code is thecanon. Its subdivisions appear as
Some canons contain "numbers" without "paragraphs", while most canons contain "paragraphs", and most "paragraphs" do not contain "numbers".
This is the outline of the seven books of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
This part of the Codex contains the general rules concerning
Legal sources are laws (includingcustom as a special way of legislation because of the need of the approval of the legislator), which contain universal regulations,general decrees (legislative or executory), instructions and statutes which refer to a special group, and in case of statutes are legislated by this group itself, and administrative acts, which only decide single cases.
Persons arephysical persons orjuridic persons. Not everyone is considered a "physical person" according to the definition of the 1983 Code, because one is constituted a person with consequent duties and rights only bybaptism.
The Codex specifies conditions for the validity of a juridical act, especially in relation to form, coercion, misapprehension and lack of participation.
Legal power is divided into the three authorities of legislative, executive and judicial. The ability to conduct juridical acts can be attached to an office or it can be delegated to a person. Appointment and loss of ecclesiastical office are regulated.
Time regulates prescription, which goes along with the national regulations, but can only be achieved in good faith, and definitions of time.
Book two describes the "People of God". It discusses the general rights and obligations of members of the church, and then discusses the ordering of the church, from theHoly See to the local parish.
The hierarchical constitution of religious and secular institutes and societies of apostolic life is shown to a degree adequate to explain the scope of applicability of the regulations of part two. Areligious institute is a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows.This book is divided into three parts:
The Christian faithful shows the obligations of the faithful in common, those of the lay and those of the sacred ministers or clerics with special consideration of the formation andincardination and excardination of clerics andpersonal prelatures. Furthermore, theassociations of the Christian faithful especially their recognition as ajuridic person are constituted, divided in public, private associations and those of the lay.
Part II is entitled, "The Hierarchical Constitution of the Church". This part describes the composition, rights and obligations of the Supreme Authority of the Church, consisting of theRoman Pontiff, theCollege of Bishops, theSynod of Bishops, theCollege of Cardinals, theRoman Curia and thePapal legates. A secular institute is an institute of consecrated life in which the Christian faithful, living in the world, strive for the perfection of charity and seek to contribute to the sanctification of the world, especially from within. Societies of apostolic life do not use a vow.
Book III describes the teaching function of the church.The forms of teaching are the ministry of theDivine Word in the forms of thepreaching of the word of God and the catechetical instruction, the missionary action of the church, the Catholic education in schools, Catholic universities and other institutes of higher studies and the ecclesiastical universities and faculties, the instruments of communication and books in particular and finally the profession of faith.
In book four, the function of the church and its religious acts are explained. This book is composed of three parts:
The sacraments arebaptism,confirmation, the most holyEucharist,penance,anointing of the sick,holy orders andmarriage. These sacraments are described with conditions, ceremony and participants.
Other acts of divine worship are sacramentals, theliturgy of the hours, ecclesiastical funerals, the veneration of the saints, sacred images and relics and the vow and oath.
Sacred places are those which are dedicated for divine worship or for the burial of the faithful. The Code knows five kinds of sacred places: churches,oratories and private chapels, shrines,altars and cemeteries. Sacred times areholy days of obligation, feast days anddays of penance.[15]
This part of the Corpus Juris is the regulation of the civil law.[clarification needed] There are instructions concerning the acquisition and administration of goods, especially the acquisition by bestowal either through an actinter vivos or through an actmortis causa, the role of pious foundations (canon 1303) andcontracts with special care ofalienation.
Book VI contains the canonical equivalent to secularcriminal law. The book has two parts:
The first part declares the necessity of a violation of a law and shows the limits and requirements of such a penal law. It determines reasons, which eliminate the punishment as lack the use of reason, nonage (less than seventeen years), mistake in law or facts, missing causality or intent and self-defence. It also describes social cases as complicity, wilful default and attempt. Possible penalties arecensures (excommunication and suspension), expiatory penalties (prohibition or an order concerning residence in a certain place or territory, privation of a power, office, function, right, privilege, faculty, favor, title or insignia) and penal remedies and penances. Finally the right of the application and cessation of penalties is regulated.
The canon 1374 made implicit any reference to the penalty of excommunication forFreemasons,[16] that was enforced by thecanon 2335 of thecode of 1917, which enforced exclusively to the Pope the right to prosecute and excommunicate Roman Catholic Freemasons. In 1981, theSacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith restated that canon law forbade "Catholics, under the penalty of excommunication, to enroll in Masonic or other similar associations."[17] Membership was still forbidden in a document dated back to 1983, but the emphasis was put on the prohibition against Freemasons receiving Holy Communion.[18]
The second part shows individual delicts, divided into delicts against religion and unity of the church, those against ecclesiastical authorities and thefreedom of the Church, those against special obligations, those against human life and freedom, usurpation of ecclesiastical functions and delicts in their exercise, and the crime of falsehood. In addition to these cases (and those stated in other laws) the external violation of a divine or canonical law can be punished when the special gravity of the violation demands punishment and there is an urgent need to prevent or repair scandals.
The Catholic Church updated Book VI of its 1983Code of Canon Law in June 2021 (effective 8 December 2021) for clearer rules on numerous offences, including sexual ones. The revision was the result of a long process commenced in 2009 to better prevent and addressCatholic Church sexual abuse cases, mostly committed by clerics against underage children entrusted in their care, but also against vulnerable adults, or other sexual offences the Church regards assinful due to breaching theclerical celibacy in the Catholic Church.Pope Francis, archbishopFilippo Iannone and other officials stated that bishops had been too lenient in penalising offenders in the past, in part because of the vague wording of canon law, and formally introducedlaicization as a penalty for certain sexual offences.[19]
In Catholic theology, the Decalogue (orTen Commandments) are numbered so that the sixth commandment is "Thou shalt not commit adultery". TheCatholic Church's interpretation of the sixth commandment is much broader than justadultery (extramarital sex), and concerns a set of offences against chastity. The revised provisions on sexual offences are derived from this broad interpretation of the sixth commandment. The provisions in canon 1395 §3 are coercion-based, as they require evidence of the use of 'force, threats or abuse of his authority'. Canon 1398 §1 describes sexual offences in which the victim was deemed incapable of consenting (because of 'habitually [having] an imperfect use of reason'). There is no freely givensexual consent for people deemed incapable of consenting.[20]
Book VII contains the legal procedure. It is divided into five parts.
The first part trials in general defines the court system, its two local instances and theRoman Pontiff as the supreme judge with the representation by the tribunals of theApostolic See, especially theRoman Rota. It determines the participants of the lawsuit, the judge, theauditors and relators, the promoter of justice, theDefender of the Bond, thenotary, the petitioner, the respondent, and the procurators for litigation and advocates. Finally it describes the discipline to be observed in tribunals, with the duty of judges and ministers, the order of adjudication, the time limits and delays, the place of the trial, the persons to be admitted to the court, the manner of preparing and keeping the acts, and the actions and exceptions in general and specific.
The contentious trial begins with the introductory libellus of litigation and the citation and notification of juridical act. The joinder of the issue occurs when the terms of the controversy are defined by the judge, through a decree of the judge. Further on, this part explains the trial of the litigation, especially the absence of a party, the intervention of a third person and the proofs. There are six kinds of proof: declarations of the parties, documents, testimonies, experts, judicial examination and inspection, andpresumptions. After taking evidence the acts are published, the case concluded and then discussed. The case ends with the sentence of the judge. The sentence can be challenged by complaint of nullity and by appeal. Finally theres judicata andrestitutio in integrum, the execution of the judgement, the judicial expenses and gratuitous legal assistance are regulated. As an alternative to this contentious trial there is the possibility of an oral contentious process.
Part three defines special processes and their special regulations, the process fordeclaring the nullity of marriage, cases of separation of spouses, process for the dispensation from a marriageratum sed non consummatum, the process in the presumed death of spouses, and cases for declaring the nullity of sacred ordination. This part also shows methods of avoiding trials.
Part four shows the proceedings of the penal process, with the preliminary investigation, the trial, and the adhesive procedure.
The last part shows the methods of proceeding in administrative recourse, which can be made by any person who says he was aggrieved by a decree, and the removal or transfer of pastors with display of the reasons for the removal or transfer.
The final canon, 1752, ends with theteleological and juridical principle that the supreme law of the Church is the salvation of souls (commonly formulatedSalus animarum lex suprema est.)
The 1983 code of canon law abrogates the canons and penal laws ofthe 1917 code that are not contained in the 1983 code. As a result, Catholics are no longer banned from eating horses or reading communist literature[21] and Catholic women are no longer required to wear head coverings (including veils).[22]
After the promulgation of the 1983Code of Canon Law, popes have amended it several times.
On 18 May 1998Pope John Paul II issued themotu proprioAd tuendam fidem, which amended two canons (750 and 1371) of the 1983Code of Canon Law and also twocanons (598 and 1436) of the 1990Code 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."[23]
On 26 October 2009Pope Benedict XVI issued the motu proprioOmnium in Mentem, which amended five canons (1008, 1009, 1086, 1117, 1124) of the 1983 Code of Canon Law clarifying that, among those in Holy Orders, only bishops and priests received the power and mission to act in the person of Christ the Head while deacons obtained the faculty to exercise thediakonias of service, Word, and charity. The amendments also removedformal defection from the Catholic faith as excusing Catholics from the canonical form of marriage.[24][25]
On 15 August 2015Pope Francis issued the motu proprioMitis Iudex Dominus Iesus, which amended twenty-one canons (1671–1691) toreform the process of determiningmatrimonial nullity. The document was made public on 8 September 2015.[26][27]
On 31 May 2016, Pope Francis issued the motu proprioDe concordia inter codices, which amended ten canons (111, 112, 535, 868, 1108, 1109, 1111, 1112, 1116 and 1127) to reconcile the norms of the Latin Code of Canon Law with those of theCode of Canons of the Eastern Churches. He did so after consultation with a committee of experts in Eastern and Latin canon law organized by thePontifical Council for Legislative Texts.[28]
On 3 September 2017 Pope Francis issued the motu proprioMagnum principium, which amended one canon (838) to grantepiscopal conferences authority overliturgical translations.[29]
On 19 March 2019, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter givenmotu proprioCommunis vita. It institutesipso facto dismissal of religious who are absent for a full year illegitimately from their religious house. It replaces canons 694 and 729 in their entirety, with anentry into force on 10 April 2019.[30]
On 1 November 2020,[31] Pope Francis issued themotu proprioAuthenticum charismatis whereby canon 579 was amended to state thatdiocesan bishops of theLatin Church are required, forvalidity, to receive the prior permission of the Apostolic See before issuing a decree of erection of a new religious institute of diocesan right. Thevacatio legis was until 10 November 2020.[32]
Themotu proprioSpiritus Domini was released on 11 January 2021; it changes theCode of Canon Law (canon 230 §1) to state that theinstituted ministries ofacolyte andlector are open to "lay persons", i.e. both men and women, instead of previously "lay men". This change, Francis says, acknowledges a "doctrinal development" that has occurred in recent years.[33][34][35]
Theapostolic constitutionPascite gregem Dei changed the book VI. Its changes took effect on 8 December 2021.[36][37][38]
Themotu proprioCompetentias quasdam decernere issued 15 February 2022 changed 10 canons.[39]
The apostolic letter issuedmotu proprio,Recognitum librum VI, issued 26 April 2022 changes one sentence from canon 695.[40]
Through arescript published 18 May 2022, Pope Francis changed canon 588 §2 concerning major religious orders. The change made it so that after receiving written permission from theCongregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the council of aninstitute of consecrated life or asociety of apostolic life of pontifical rite can nominate or elect a "non-cleric member", i.e., a layperson, as major superior. The change took effect immediately.[41][42]
Through amotu proprio entitledExpedit ut iura, released 3 April 2023, Pope Francis changed canon 700 to give members of aninstitute of consecrated life more time to appeal their dismissal.[43]
Themotu proprioLe Prelature personali of 8 August 2023, issued in Italian and entering into force on the day of its publication, changed canons 295 and 296 in order to specify several details of the nature and governance ofpersonal prelatures such asOpus Dei.[44][45]
John Paul II later promulgated a code ofcanon law for the 22sui jurisEastern Catholic Churches—theCode of Canons of the Eastern Churches—by means of theapostolic constitutionSacri Canones of 18 October 1990.[46]
{{cite encyclopedia}}:|website= ignored (help)Born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Patriarchates (byorder of precedence) |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| History |
| ||||||
| Language | |||||||
| Liturgical rites Liturgical days |
| ||||||
| See also | |||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
