When I was a kid, the passing of Labor Day didn’t just mean going back to school.  For my mother and my grandmother, it meant the opening of “The Book”.  That was the Mass Book at my parish.  A whole tactical plan had to be worked out for them to get the announced Masses they wanted on the days they wanted.  They had to plan because there would be a line down the block from our parish office.  Announced Masses were on a first come – first serve basis.  Mom was there at dawn for a Christmas Day Mass. One of the canon law questions I get asked most is more like a c ..read more

There are so many apparitions of the Blessed Mother to keep up with.   I am devoted to Our Lady of Knock as a lawyer apart from my personal stake.  Mary appeared in a small rural village in Ireland on August 21 overnight to August 22.  In Irish history that’s an important date because that is the anniversary of the year the French invaded Killala in County Mayo Ireland to oust the British, and the day the great Irish Nationalist patriot, Michael Collins, was assassinated.  But when Mary came in 1879.  It was a time of great poverty in Ireland, with much suffering ..read more

Alphonse Liguori (Feast Day August 1st) was more Stephen Hawkins than Perry Mason.  He was both a civil lawyer and a canon lawyer by the time he was sixteen.  It was considered impossible to do that before age twenty.   Through his long life of ninety-one years, he needed every bit of that knowledge, every day.  In the end, it was probably his failure as a lawyer that brought him to sainthood.             In today's parlance, St. Alphonse was a nerd, a geek, a brain. He was short and homely and crippled with arthr ..read more

I don’t know anyone who is going to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Revival (July 17 through July 22).  If you are like me and have a ninety-eight-year-old mother you care for or a business you own and operate, getting there might just be a stretch too far.  There are a lot of ways virtually and personally to be there though.  Since  you are reading this blog I suggest that you may want to read the Law on the Holy Eucharist.  Canons 897 through 958 tell us the Church’s law around the Holy Eucharist.   It’s in the part of the Code that covers sacram ..read more

We don’t have bench warrants in canon law.  We don’t have bail either.  So that leaves the Holy Father with the question of what to do about a problem like Vigano’?  It’s not like Vigano’ is some ordinary guy sitting in the pews, no, he reached Cardinal status and was Papal Nuncio to the U.S.  That meant he could not be ignored.  Add to this the fact that he was accused of schism, so serious a Catholic Crime, that it is one of the few actually defined in the Code of Canon Law (Canon 751). (Schism is the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with ..read more

The Pontifical University of the Holy Cross,  “Santa Croce” is located in Rome.  It was founded in the work of Opus Dei.  It is known for many excellent major courses of studies including Canon Law.  Its faculty in Canon Law is well known, well published and oriented to its students in all the best ways.  If there were a Harvard or Yale in Pontifical Universities, this would be in that class.  Every three years Santa Croce hosts a conference on Marriage Law and Canonical Procedure.  The next one will be the ninth such program.  Today Santa Croce announce ..read more

Decisions of the Roman Rota Journal: Volume 2, Number 1 (2024) The Catholic University of America Press Editor and Translator:  Monsignor Ronny E. Jenkins ISSN: 2835-9127          eISSN:2835-9143 https://www.cuapress.org/journals/decisions-of-the-roman-rota/ This Journal deals with Marriage Law in the Catholic Church.  It is a series of decisions on marriage law (three here) from the Church’s highest court of appeal on marriage cases.  It’s easy to breeze through what CUA Press has to say about this journal, but the “mission” is impor ..read more

“To frighten a man there must be something in the cupboard, must there not?”  Paul Scofield as Saint Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons” “A Man for All Seasons” was the “Oppenheimer” of its day.  The film was released on December 12, 1966, and although it was anything but Christmas cheerful, it became extremely popular and won multiple Oscars that year.  This film made it noble to be a lawyer and through More, put out some guidelines on conscience and integrity we could use today more than ever.  It was More’s integrity that caused him to refuse to condone King Henry VI ..read more

The gospel this morning was the gruesome one where Jesus starts by telling you to pluck out your eye and ends with divorce being pretty bad for your eternal life possibilities.  There are people who cite these words out of context, with such force that canon lawyers label them “Angry Respondents”.  The Tribunal staff is trying to be as pastoral as they can be in a bad situation, but those ARs make it very tough.  They don’t care who they hurt or how much it costs to appeal over and over and over, right to the Holy See.  By that time, it can be obvious to everyone involved w ..read more

Last week, I talked about Pope Francis taking aim at Artificial Intelligence.  His recurring theme is AI and Ethics being the only way to preserve human dignity and have everyone share in any benefits that AI brings.  (Do not miss his Message “Artificial Intelligence and Peace”.) Look ahead in June for more from the Holy Father, lots more. Prime Minister Georgia Meloni of the host country, Italy, has invited Pope Francis to participate in the G7.  The operative word being participate.  He was not invited to send a letter to be read or make a speech there, but to participate ..read more