Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law. A friend Fr "JM" asked me write a birthday appreciation of the Code, I suggested he should write an ode in praise of the Code, nothing has been forthcoming, so here is an extract from the Holy Father's speech on the subject.
"The law of the Church is, first of all, 'lex libertatis': the law that makes us free to follow Jesus," he concluded. "Hence it is important we know how to show the people of God, the new generations and all those called to follow canon law, the real bond [that law] has with the life of the Church." This must be done in order "to defend the delicate interests of the things of God and to protect the rights of the weakest, [...] but also in order to defend that delicate 'good' which each of the faithful has gratuitously received -- the gift of faith, of the grace of God -- which in the Church cannot remain without adequate legal protection."
I know a priest who prides himself on never having opened the Code of Canon Law, I can't help thinking that without it even the Church can end up as a band of brigands, the law guarantees a just society.
Anyone, especially Canon lawyers, want to offer an ode or sonnet, even a few couplets in praise of the Code?
5 comments:
No couplet, but it certainly threw out a lot of junk in the trunk. Your housekeeper still has to be of mature years. (And rightly so!)
Seems a lot more common sensical than the 1917 one.
An Ode to the Code !
Oh dear.
I thank Thee, Lord, that I am a mere man, and neither a poet nor a canon lawyer.
No time for an ode Father - maybe a little Haiku will do?
Ecclesiastic
Decrees and instructive words
Thy law is delight.
Excuse me Father, but what's with the cute little high heel shoe next to the cake?? A bit weird for celebrating a Canon Law birthday. LOL
Adrienne,
Laziness in picture hunting.
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