Word: romanism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Pope Paul called the Second Vatican Council "the beginning not the end" of renewal in the Roman Catholic Church, but apart from the vernacular liturgy, change has come slowly. To get on with reform, a study group of the Canon Law Society of America-representing the U.S. experts who teach and explain the church's juridical code-met this month in Pittsburgh and put forth a series of recommendations for carrying out the spirit of Vatican...
...should incorporate more of today's democratic ideals in its structure, they urge a more distinct separation of executive, legislative and judicial functions. Under the present code, explained Jesuit Ladislas Orsy of Catholic University, there is a certain "imbalance" in church government: in practice, the offices of the Roman Curia both plan church regulations and enforce them. A wiser mode of government would be to have the law-creating function carried out by a separate, non-Curial agency-such as a senate of bishops. Another problem is that the church's courts-from Rome's Rota down...
...More allowance for local variation in applying a legal code that currently attempts to be universal in scope. As one canonist foresees it, church law in the U.S. might some day use some of the procedures of English common law rather than those of the more codified Roman law that underlies the existing canons...
...nature of their profession tend to be conservatives. Although church officials from the beginning of Christianity found it necessary to draw up rules of proper ecclesiastical behavior, the first collection of such laws dates only from the Middle Ages. Inspired by the revival of study of Roman civil law, clerical scholars began to organize the various pronouncements of Popes and councils on ecclesiastical discipline over the centuries, deciding what rules were relevant. Canon law was not completely codified until 1917; it contains 2,414 articles in Latin, dealing with everything from the penalties for abortion (excommunication, revocable only...
...same time that Roman Catholic canon lawyers were putting together their reform proposals, another group of ecclesiastical legal experts-the ulema (scholars) of Islam-was meeting in Cairo to update the Sharia, or code of spiritual rules, which governs their own ancient faith. Since the Sharia is based exclusively upon Mohammed's words in the Koran and the equally authoritative oral tradition of his deeds and sayings, the ulema had a tougher task adapting its provisions to fit the changes in modern life...