Canon law to protect against threats to faith

Published: March 2, 2024

By Deacon Matt Glover, JD, JCL
Chancellor for Canonical Affairs

For as long as the Church has been established by Jesus Christ, there have existed norms, rules and regulations.

Even in the earliest New Testament writings and the writings of the earliest Christian communities, we see Church leaders struggling to implement the fundamental principles of Christianity into the practical, day-to-day realities of living in this imperfect world.

Over the course of hundreds of years, these nuts-and-bolts rules developed into a system of norms that governed the entire Church. Over time, these rules were collected and put into various codes that attempted to synthesize and summarize the Church’s various rules.

These collections were further refined in the 1917 Code of Canon Law. And then, in 1983, St. John Paul II promulgated the newest Code of Canon Law to be consistent with the theological updates of the Second Vatican Council.

But why have “canon law” to begin with? Don’t laws just stifle the freedom of the Holy Spirit? Aren’t rules and regulations a thing of the past — the kind of thing that Jesus himself railed against?

If understood as merely arbitrary limitations, then yes, canon law would seem to hinder, not help, the Church’s saving mission here on earth. However, we are, in fact, still here on earth, where human interactions remain imperfect. And far from being merely arbitrary limitations, canon law really is best understood as practical or applied theology.

St. John Paul II emphasized this in his 1983 document, “Sacrae Disciplinae Leges" ("The Laws of Sacred Discipline"), which promulgated the new Code of Canon Law. In there, he emphasized that “the code is in no way intended as a substitute for faith, grace and the charisms in the life of the Church and of the faithful.”

Rather, he said the purpose of canon law is “to create such an order in the ecclesial society that, while assigning the primacy to faith, grace and the charisms, it at the same time renders easier their organic development,” both in society and in individual persons.   

So, understood and applied correctly, canon law is by no means an obstacle to faith, grace or charisms in the life of the Church. Instead, it stands as a ready aid, a willing participant, a bulwark against the tides of the world that threaten to drown that faith, grace and charisms.

At its best, canon law is not self-referential. But it always redirects others more deeply into the life of faith, grace and charisms. Because, as the final canon of the code says, the supreme law of the Church is the “salvation of souls.”

Deacon Matt Glover, JD, JCL, is the chancellor for canonical affairs for the Diocese of Little Rock. He is also a deacon at Christ the King and St. Theresa churches in Little Rock. This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic March 2, 2024. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.