Pope adjusts canon law regarding diaconate, marriages of Catholics who defect

December 15, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI has revised two provisions of the Code of Canon Law. With a motu proprio entitled Omnium in Mentem, the Pope tightened the definition of the ministry exercised by deacons, and eliminated a canonical provision that had set out different rules for the validity of marriages involving Catholics who have “formally defected” from the faith.

In a note accompanying the papal text, Archbishop Francesco Coccopalmerio, the president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, explained that the canons describing the function of deacons (1008 and 1009) now establish a distinction between bishops and priests, who have “the mission and power to act in the person of Christ the Head, while deacons receive the faculty to serve the People of God in the diaconates of the liturgy, of the Word and of charity.”

The other effect of Omnium in Mentem, Archbishop Coccopalmerio said, was to amend three canons concerning the validity of marriages, “which experience has shown to be appropriate.” The changes eliminated separate provisions for Catholics who have formally renounced their faith. As canon lawyer Edward Peters explains in his analysis of the new document, the current definition in canon law makes it very difficult to establish “formal defection” from the Catholic Church, so these new provisions do not have wide-ranging effect. The fundamental effect of the changes, as Peters puts it, is that “all Catholics are bound by canonical form in marrying, period.”

Vatican officials explained that these changes in the Code of Canon Law are not intended to cause major changes, but to ease difficulties that have arisen in the years of practice since the 1983 Code of Canon Law went into effect.

 

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Further information:

• Motu Proprio: Variations to the Code of Canon Law (VIS)