History
The current Code of Canon Law is the second codification of laws and regulations made by or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, replacing the Pio-Benedictine code that had been promulgated in 1917. See also Canon Law-Codification and Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
Pope John XXIII, when proclaiming a new ecumenical council for the Catholic Church, also announced the intention of revising the 1917 CIC. It was not feasible to revise the Code of Canon Law until after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, so that the decisions of the Council could guide the revision of ecclesiastical laws. Several of the council documents gave specific instructions regarding changes to the organization of the Catholic Church, in particular the decrees Christus Dominus, Presbyterorum Ordinis, Perfectae Caritatis, and Ad Gentes. In 1966, Pope Paul VI issued norms to apply these instructions through the motu proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae.
The Pontifica Commissio Codici iuris canonici recognoscendo, which had been established in 1963, continued the work of revising the Code of Canon Law through the pontificate of Paul VI, completing the work in the first years of the pontificate of John Paul II.
On 25 January 1983, with the Apostolic Constitution Sacrae disciplinae leges John Paul II promulgated the current Code of Canon Law for all members of the Catholic Church who belonged to the Latin Rite. It entered into force the first Sunday of the following Advent, which was 27 November 1983. In the Apostolic Constitution, the Pope described the new Code as "the last document of Vatican II", commenting on it in this way:
| “ | "The instrument, which the Code is, fully corresponds to the nature of the Church, especially as it is proposed by the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in general, and in a particular way by its ecclesiological teaching. Indeed, in a certain sense, this new Code could be understood as a great effort to translate this same doctrine, that is, the conciliar ecclesiology, into canonical language. If, however, it is impossible to translate perfectly into canonical language the conciliar image of the Church, nevertheless, in this image there should always be found as far as possible its essential point of reference." | ” |
In 1998 Pope John Paul II issued the motu proprio Ad Tuendam Fidem, which amended two canons (750 and 1371) of the 1983 Code of Canon Law and two canons (598 and 1436) of the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, so as to add "new norms which expressly impose the obligation of upholding truths proposed in a definitive way by the Magisterium of the Church, and which also establish related canonical sanctions."
On December 15, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio Omnium in Mentem, which amended five canons (1008, 1009, 1086, 1117, 1124) of the 1983 Code of Canon Law clarifying that, among those in Holy Orders, only bishops and priests received the power and mission to act in the person of Christ the Head while deacons obtained the faculty to exercise the diakonias of service, Word, and charity. The amendments also removed formal defection from the Catholic faith as excusing Catholics from the canonical form of marriage.
While there have been many vernacular translations of the Code, only the original Latin text has the force of law.
Read more about this topic: 1983 Code Of Canon Law
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