Roman Catholics: Reforming Canon Law

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Pope Paul called the Second Vatican Council "the beginning not the end" of renewal in the Roman Catholic Church, but apart from the vernacular liturgy, change has come slowly. To get on with reform, a study group of the Canon Law Society of America—representing the U.S. experts who teach and explain the church's juridical code—met this month in Pittsburgh and put forth a series of recommendations for carrying out the spirit of Vatican II.

The proposals, which emphasize human rights rather than church discipline, deal not only with the canon-law code but with basic constitutional problems of the church. Arguing that the church should incorporate more of today's democratic ideals in its structure, they urge a more distinct separation of executive, legislative and judicial functions. Under the present code, explained Jesuit Ladislas Orsy of Catholic University, there is a certain "imbalance" in church government: in practice, the offices of the Roman Curia both plan church regulations and enforce them. A wiser mode of government would be to have the law-creating function carried out by a separate, non-Curial agency—such as a senate of bishops. Another problem is that the church's courts—from Rome's Rota down to diocesan tribunals—have no real powers to interpret the code of canon law, but merely apply it.

Elected Bishops? In the same spirit, the study group, which included theologians and Biblical experts as well as canon lawyers, proposed restoration of the ancient tradition by which laity and priests participated in the selection of bishops and elimination of free-and-easy transfer of bishops from see to see. Other proposals:

> Abolition of all prior censorship of books (by withholding the imprimatur), and all outmoded ecclesiastical penalties, such as automatic excommunication without prior hearing for violation of the seal of confession.

> Public justice, whenever possible, as compared with present star-chamber proceedings.

> "Full participation" of women in the life of the church—which some canonists interpret as a veiled recommendation that women be ordained to the priesthood.

> More allowance for local variation in applying a legal code that currently attempts to be universal in scope. As one canonist foresees it, church law in the U.S. might some day use some of the procedures of English common law rather than those of the more codified Roman law that underlies the existing canons.

>-A bill of rights for correcting grievances, which implies the need for new channels through which priests and nuns could appeal unjust orders of superiors.