Chapter IX: The New Code of Canon Law

AFTER more than thirteen years of strenuous labour given to the gigantic task entrusted to them by Pius X., the Commissioners appointed for the codification of Canon Law have at length finished their work. The new Code of Canon Law is published in the official organ of the Vatican, and is thereby promulgated for the whole Catholic world. There are some abstruse things in Canon Law, it is true, but the greater part of it has to do with the ordinary details of everyday Catholic life. It consists of regulations about fasting and abstinence, the due observance of Sundays and Holidays of Obligation, the mutual duties of pastors and flocks, the administration of the Sacraments, Christian marriage, Christian burial, and innumerable other matters of interest to the laity no less than to the clergy. We may then presume that a short account of the new Code will be welcome. It has always been an article of Catholic faith that Christ gave the prelates of His Church authority to make laws and regulations concerning matters of religion. There is plenty of evidence in the New Testament that the Apostles used the authority with which they were invested. They passed disciplinary decrees in the Council held at Jerusalem, and St. Paul makes it quite evident that he was conscious of possessing legislative and judicial authority to be exercised by him in the name of Christ. Before the end of the first century the Popes, as the successors of St. Peter, were exercising legislative authority over the Christians of East and West. As time went on the issue of Papal rescripts and decrees became more frequent. The receipt of a Papal decision on some disputed question settled the matter for Catholics —" Roma locuta est, causa finita est," wrote St. Augustine in Africa —" Rome has spoken, the case is ended." Especially in the General Councils of the Church was her legislative authority exercised. The Council of Nicæa, for example, at the beginning of the fourth century prescribed rules for the treatment of those who lapsed from the Faith in times of persecution. In course of time laws emanating from ecclesiastical authority, called Canon Laws, became very numerous, and in the sixth century learned men began to make collections of them. These collections gradually grew in bulk and number. The most famous of them all is that composed by Gratian, a Benedictine monk, in the middle of the twelfth century. In the next century Pope Gregory IX. authorised St. Raymond of Pennafort to make a collection which he promulgated by Papal authority in 1234. Gratian's collection, the decretals issued by command of Gregory IX., and a Sixth Book added by Boniface VIII. to the five books of the decretals of Gregory IX., make up the “Corpus juris canonici.” Gregory IX. prefixed a brief to his volume of decretals beginning with the words “Rex pacificus.” " The King of peace in loving kindness,” he wrote, “decreed that his subjects should be chaste, peaceable, and modest. But unbridled cupidity stirs up so many quarrels every day that unless justice kept it in check peace would be banished from the world. And so laws are made so that evil passions may be restrained under the rule of right by which the human race is taught, so that it may live honestly, do no injury to others, and give to everyone his due. The many constitutions and decrees of our predecessors scattered in many volumes caused confusion, and some were not to be found in books, so that their doubtful validity caused uncertainty in judicial decisions." For the common good and for the use of students, he adds, he had commanded his collection to be made, and to be used in the ecclesiastical courts, forbidding private persons in future to make unauthorised collections of canons. The Brief is so suited to present circumstances that it might have been written by Benedict XV. Nearly seven centuries have passed since the time of Gregory IX., centuries eventful in the history of the Church and demanding ever-increasing activity on the part of the Holy See. The mass of ecclesiastical legislation had grown to an enormous bulk, some laws had become obsolete, others had lost some of their usefulness through changed conditions, and in not a few cases it was difficult to say what the law was. Pius X. explained this in the Motu Proprio for the revision of the Canon Law which he issued on March 19, 1904, about six months after his election to the Chair of St. Peter. He had taken as the motto for his pontificate "to restore all things in Christ." Christian faith had become weak, if not altogether extinguished, in many parts of what once was Christendom; Christian morality was giving way to worse than pagan licence. As priest and as Bishop he had had long personal experience of the needs of the people, and he was convinced that Christian discipline needed renewing and strengthening. The laws of the Church, made for the sanctification and salvation of souls, must be more generally known, and brought once more into common observance. To these ends he thought nothing would conduce so much as the codification of the whole Canon Law. Something had already been done in this direction. Pius IX. had had ecclesiastical censures codified. These censures had been divided into classes, and a special numbered paragraph had been given to each under its appropriate heading. Leo XIII. had done the same with the rules concerning forbidden books, and the laws concerning Institutes with simple vows of religion. Pius X. determined to do the same for the whole body of Canon Law, and entrusted the work to Cardinal Peter Gasparri and a large number of experts. After several years of constant labour a rough draft of the laws of the Church was drawn up and sent to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic world. These were requested to make their suggestions on the draft submitted to them and send them to the Commissioners. Finally the new Code was drawn up, and it is now published authoritatively by Benedict XV. The new Code makes a handsome volume of 522 pages in large octavo. Following time-honoured precedent, the whole of the matter is divided into five books. The first book lays down certain general principles of ecclesiastical law; the second treats of the duties and rights of ecclesiastical persons; the third describes the law concerning sacred things, such as the Sacraments, churches, sacramentals, etc.; the fourth treats of the processes to be followed in ecclesiastical trials; and the fifth, of ecclesiastical crimes and punishments. The five books contain altogether 2,414 canons or laws, numbered consecutively. Many of the canons contain two, three, or more sub-sections. The canons are framed in simple and clear language, so that they can be understood easily and be referred to as easily. We may take an example or two by way of illustration. Sometimes troubled penitents ask their confessors whether they are obliged to follow summer time in observing the law of fasting before Holy Communion or the law of abstinence on Fridays. The 33rd Canon of the new Code gives the answer to such questions as these. It provides as follows: " In reckoning the hours of the day the common practice of the place is to be followed; but in the private celebration of Mass, in the private recital of the Divine Office, in receiving Holy Communion, and in observing the law of fasting and abstinence, although the common practice of the place be different, anyone may follow either the true local time, or the mean time, or the legal time, whether regional or special and extraordinary." It was thought by some that when the new Code came into force the Easter Communion would have to be made in the parish church of each one. Canon 859 § 3 of the new Code decrees: “Each one should be advised and persuaded to receive his Easter Communion in his parish church and if he receives it elsewhere he must notify his parish priest that he has fulfilled the Easter Precept." Canon 947 makes it quite clear that when in case of necessity the short form with one unction has been used in administering Extreme Unction, there remains the obligation to supply the usual unctions if the danger ceases. IMPORTANT CHANGES The principal object of Pius X. was to codify the existing laws of the Church; but the opportunity has been taken to revise some of them and to bring them into greater harmony with the modern needs of the Church. This is especially noticeable with regard to the diriment impediments of marriage. The impediment of age has been raised from fourteen and twelve years for the man and woman to sixteen and fourteen respectively. The impediment of consanguinity has been changed from the fourth collateral degree to the third as regards its extension, and in the same way that of affinity has been restricted to the second degree. The spiritual relationship arising from Confirmation has been abolished as a diriment impediment of marriage, and no spiritual relationship is contracted with the parents of the person baptised either by him who baptises or by the sponsors. A few other changes have also been made in this matter. Although the new Code is duly promulgated by its publication in the “Acta Apostolicæ Sedis,” Benedict XV. decrees that it shall not come into force until Whit-Sunday, May 19, 1918. An edition of the Code is announced as shortly to be published with a preface, notes, and index of matters by Cardinal Gasparri, and it will be eagerly awaited by all who are interested in Canon Law. Politicians and writers of all sorts tell us that after the war peace will dawn on a new Europe and a new world. For some years past the Church has been engaged in perfecting her organisation, and now she has revised the body of laws by which she is governed. Whatever the future brings with it, the Catholic Church will be found ready to do what she can to restore all things in Christ.