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THE NEW CANON LAW A Commentary and Summary of the New Code of Canon Law By STANISLAUS WOYWOD, Rev. O.F.M. With a Preface by Right Rev. Mgr. PHILIP BERNARDINI, J.U.D. Professor ofCanonLawat the Catholic University, Washington New Edition, Augmented by Recent Decrees and Declarations YORK JOSEPH WAGNER F. (Inc.) HERDER LONDON: B. FR. BENEDICT BOEING, O.F.M. FR. BENEVENUTUS RYAN, O.F.M. Swprimi FR. EDWARD BLECKE, O.F.M. Minister Provincialis JULY 1, 1918 ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, S.T.D. Censor Librorum ^Imprimatur JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY *fr Archbishop of New York NEW YORK, JULY 3, 1918 Copyright, 1918, by JOSEPH F. WAGNER, Xew York PREFACE For several months past the articles by Father Stanislaus Woywod in the Ecclesiastical Review have informed the clergy of the most important features of the new Code of Canon Law. The same author now gives to the public a Summary and Commentary of the whole Code. As the present volume is published mainly with a view of the needs of the clergy engaged in the care of souls, the bulk of the book has been kept as compact as possible; wherefore in such places only where explanation and comment seemed neces sary they have been given, and in as brief a form as possible. Chapters which are not needed by every priest have been mentioned only with few words and en passant, as it were. The fourth and the fifth Book have been summed up very briefly, giving the most important points of legislation con tained therein. A very complete Index will make it easy to find any desired point of law. We heartily congratulate Father Woywod on the good work and trust that the clergy of the United States will be pleased to find in this volume a welcome means of acquiring the necessary knowledge of the new legislation of the Church. Dr. PHILIP BERNARDINI Professor of Canon Law at the Catholic University Washington, D. C. INTRODUCTION When on May the twenty-seventh, 1917, a new* Codex Juris Canonici was promulgated by Papal Bull, this memorable event marked the happy conclusion of a revision of the Code of Law for the Catholic Church which had taken thirteen years of the most painstaking work on the part of a large number of erudite scholars and specialists in Canon Law. The new Code is truly a monumental work, the magnitude of which will be apparent when thought is given to the truly gigantic task of revising and coordinating all the existing Church laws, including the laws of all ages since the times of the primitive Church, eliminating all those that have dropped out of use, or that have been revoked or suspended in the course of the centuries. Never before in the history of the Church was such a compilation on the same im mense scope attempted. During the Middle Ages various Popes caused official collections made of laws that had been enacted within a limited period of years, but never before was the entire legislation of the Church unified and codified as it has now been done in the new Codex. The Papal Bull decreed that the new book of law was to go into effect onWhitsunday, May the nineteenth, 1918. The period of time allowed before a new law after its official promulgation goes into force is known in the terminology of Canon Law as the vacatio legis. Canonists have generally held that for all laws pro mulgated by the Holy See two months time is granted before in places outside the City of Rome the obligation of observing the law begins. For very remote countries even a longer time has been conceded, in order to let the knowledge of the law become sufficiently disseminated to make its enforcement possible. In more recent times the Holy See has in important laws frequently specified the period of the vacatio legis, as for instance in the case of the decreeNe Tenure which was published about eight months before it was to be enforced. The general principle, however, valid in civil law as well as in Canon Law, is that it is the duty of subjects to keep themselves informed through the ordinary channels of information, as, for instance, official magazines and papers, what laws, amendments, decisions, etc., have been enacted THE NEW CANON LAW vi by the authorities. It is not necessary, hence, that the bishop an nounce to his clergy the laws and regulations passed by the su preme authority of the Church, nor can it be said that this is his duty, though for uniformity of action on part of the clergy of a diocese it is advantageous that the bishop announce to his priests the important new laws with direction to make them known on one and the same day to the people throughout the diocese. The purpose of the new Codex is, to supersede all existing collections of papal laws, whether contained in the various official compilations published with the special approval of former Popes, or in the volumes of decrees and declarations published by the various Roman Congregations, or, finally, in the many exist ing private collections of papal laws. Only in those instances in which the new Code expressly declares that a former law on a specified subject is to be retained, are former laws to continue in force. Instances of this kind are discussed in the course of the present volume. The benefit of the new Code is inestimable, and it will go far toward unifying and strengthening the activities of the Church, by effecting a more uniform course of action in all the important details of the Church s life. Let no one, however, labor under the impression that the Code means the legislation of the Supreme Head of the Catholic Church has now come to an end. An or ganization like the Catholic Church, living and laboring in the great, wide world, and guiding millions of people of all races in the way of truth, must needs adapt her work to the ever-changing conditions of peoples and times. The present Code, therefore, is not, and cannot be, the final law in all and everything, for, in as much as Canon Law is the regulation of the activities of the Church, and since these activities are changing and developing with the gradual progress of civilization, new amendments, deci sions, declarations concerning the meaning of some of the laws, and exceptions and particular regulations to fit the exceptional conditions of particular countries or dioceses, must naturally be expected. The Holy Father has, however, provided (Motu Pro- Ada prio, Sept. 15, 1917; Ap. Sed.f vol. IX, pag. 483) that any and all new laws, as well as the possible repeal of some Canons of the new Code, also any interpretative declarations, etc., issued either by the Supreme Pontiff himself or by one of the Sacred Congregations, shall be turned over to a committee whose duty it will be to formulate the new laws, etc,, into Canons, and to insert