CODIFICATION OF CANON LAW

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 21, 26 May 1904, Page 2

CODIFICATION OF CANON LAW

THE HOLY FATHER'S 'MOTU PROPRIO '

His Holiness Pope Pius X. has issiued the following • Motu Proprio ' :— When by the secret design of Divine Providence We were assigned the onerous office of ruling the Universal Church, Our main purpose, and a settled law of action, as it were, with Us was to restore all things in Christ, so far as our powers would allow. This intention we revealed at the outset in an Encyclical Letter addressed to the Bishops of the Catholic world , to it, as to a goal, We have up to the present directed all Our amis , We have taken care that all Our undea takings should be m accordance with this beginning Knowing well, however, that ecclesiastical discipline greatly leads to lestoration in Christ, for when it is rightly ordeied and nourishing the most excellent results must follow, We turned our thoughts and attention to it with special' anxiety. The Apostohc See, it is true, has never failed, either at Ecumenical Councils, or apait from Councils, to promote ecclesiastical discipline by laws of the best kind according to the conditions of the times and the wants of men But even the wisest laws, if they remain scattered, are easily ignored by those who are bound by them and then cannot be duly applied. In older that this inconvenience should be avoided and that ecclesiastical discipline might thus be better provided tor the vanous collections of sacred Canons were drawn up. Passing over the most ancient ones, We think worthy ot note here the work of Gratian, who by a famous Decree wished not only to unify the sacred Canons, but to arrange and harmonise them After ' him, Innocent 111 , Honorius 111 , Gregory IX , Boniface VIII., Olement V., and John XXII , our predecassors, imitating what Justinian did' for Roman law, made and promulgated authentic collections of the Decretals, with the three last of which and the Decree of Gratian, what is now called a Corpus Juris Canonici, is in particular consolidated. As this collection was rendered inadequate by the Council of Trent and the promulgation of new laws, the Koman Pontiffs Gregory XIII , Sixtus V Clement VIIT, and Benedict XIV. took care to prepare new editions of the Corpus Juris Canonici or to provide new collections of the sajcred Canons ; to which were recently added authentic collections of the Decrees of some Roman Congregations.

But if in this way something was done by which, as the requirements of the times demanded, the difficulties that arose were lessened, the remedy was not sufficient. For in itself the mass of collections causes no slight difficulty ; in the course of centuries a multitude of laws were passed and inserted in many volumes ; not a few of them, though formerly suited to the times,' have been abrogated or are out of date ; finally some, on account of the altered circumstances of tihe times, are either difficult of execution or of little use for the common welfare of souls. Efforts to deal with these inconveniences in respect to certain parts of the law, which more piessingly demanded attention, were made chiefly by Our predeces-s-ors Pius IX and Leo XIII. of sacred memory, of whom one by the Constitution, ' Apostolicae Sedis ' compressed the Censures latae sententiae, and the other combined the laws on the publication and censure of books by the Constitution ' Officiorum et Munerum,' and by the Constitution • Conditae a Christo ' fixed rules for the religious Congregations with simiple vows. But eminent prelates of the Church, not a few of them Cardinals, have earnestly urged that all the laws of the whole Church published up to the present time should be clearly arranged and collected in one body, that the laws that have been abrogated or are obsolete should be cut away, and that where necessary the others should be Suited to the requirements of our times. This desire was also expressed by several bishops at the Vatican Council. These proposals We approve of, and receiving them with pleasure, We have resolved at length to give them effect. Fully alive to the extent and difficulty of the undertaking, with sure knowledge and after mature deliberation, We agree and order as follows •— I. We establish a Council or Papal Commission, as it is called, which is to have the regulation and care of the whole undertaking. It will consist of a number of Cardinals to be named by the Pope. 11. The Pope himself will preside over the Council, and in his absence the Cardinal-Dean. Id I A number of Consultors will be chosen by the Cardinals, with the approbation of the Pope, from amongst men most skilled in Canon Law and Theology. IV. We desire the whole of the Bishops, in accordance with rules which will be duly set forth, to join in and help forward this important work. V. As soon as the method to be pursued has been fixed the Consultors will prepare the matter and express their own opinion upon it at meetings held under the presidency of him to whom the Pope shall assign the office of a registrar of the Council of Cardinals. The views and opinions of the Consultors are then to be examined with mature deliberation by the Cardinals. Lastly, the whole is to be laid before the Pope for legitimate approbation. What We have decreed in this Letter is to be held valid, everything to the contrary, even matters deserving of special mention, notwithstanding. Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 19th March, the Feast of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first year of Our Pontificate. PIUS X., POPE.