Canon Law & Order | "What is Canon Law and Why Should I Care?" (S1 E1)

S1 E1: In this mini-series hosted by Father Will Banowsky, judicial vicar for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Father Will explores the intricacies of Canon Law in the Catholic Church, as well as it's practical application and effects. 

In this first episode, Father Will sits down with Father Jerome Krug to give a brief introduction to Canon Law and show why the Code of Canon Law exists to protect people, not police them. They connect the tribunal, parish life, money, ministry, and even freedom to the Church’s supreme goal: the salvation of souls. 

• canon law as the Church’s structure for rights and responsibilities 
• why Catholics remain bound to the Church after baptism 
• how the code governs sacraments and who may receive them 
• confirmation sponsor and baptism godparent requirements 
• what a diocesan tribunal actually does and why it matters 
• the judicial vicar role and delegated authority from the bishop 
• how restricted donations are protected under temporal goods 
• penalties and remedies aimed at reform and healing 
• canon 1752 and salvation of souls as supreme law 
• law as a path to freedom using the traffic law analogy 
• Vatican II’s fruit reflected in the 1983 Code of Canon Law 
• nihil obstat, Catholic teaching oversight, and marriage permissions 
• the global Church structure including Eastern Catholic canon law 

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Learn more about the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City online at archokc.org, and follow us on social media by searching "Archdiocese of Oklahoma City."

Transcript

What Canon Law Really Is

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In the Catholic Church, the faithful are bound by canon law, a set of individual paragraphs of set law that the church interprets and applies to given situations, established by the church to maintain order, govern, and protect her people. Here's how it works.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Well, Father Will, thanks for sitting down with me to talk about how ministry's going, to have a little conversation between two callers.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Objection! Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, from wherever you're watching, to this limited edition miniseries here in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City called Canon Law and Order, where we talk about one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated topics in the church, and that is my favorite book when I'm desperate, The Code of Canon Law.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Generally, it's a good sleep aid for most people, right? But uh what is it other than just a bunch of Catholic rules?

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Well, the code of canon law, I mean, people think like, oh, it's the rule book. But really, what this is, it's a compendium and structure of the way the Catholic Church is supposed to conduct itself, how the sacraments are supposed to be kept and honored and dispensed, who can value receive them, um, how we're supposed to safeguard the treasure to the church and also safeguard your rights and responsibilities. I know that's a kind of a big fancy term, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Sounds like you studied this.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Uh unfortunately, I did. I studied canon law for three years. Does every priest do that? Uh no. In fact, many priests, when I went to study canon law, said, thank you for falling on the sword so that we don't have to.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

So this is something you know more about than most priests?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Yes. That's something I know more about than most priests, though there are canonists who know far more than I do.

Once Catholic Always Catholic

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Um, this is a kind of specialized uh study. Um, and really it's something that touches the whole life of the church. Because from the moment that you're baptized Catholic, the moment that the priest or the deacon validly says, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, you basically are now beholden to the rules and responsibilities and laws that govern the church. And the reality is that people don't realize is there's no such thing as formal disaffiliation with the Catholic Church. So once you're Catholic, you are Catholic forever. And all these rules and guidelines you are subject to, whether you stop believing, you become Buddhist, or you start going to a megachurch down the road.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Life Church.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

I wasn't gonna say anyone by name.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Uh so you said that the book, the code of canon law, that book, the code of canon law, teaches priests how to celebrate the sacrament and who can receive the sacraments. So whenever the priests of my parish

Sacraments And Sponsor Requirements

SPEAKER_01 3:05

are telling me the rules about the sacraments, he's not just making them up.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

No, and and and really this is something where where we don't really understand. Because especially when we think of canon law, we think mainly only of marriage. And really, a lot of what we do in the tribunal, and the tribunal, it sounds scarier than it is. It's not like we have a court hidden in the basement of the pastoral center. Uh it'd be really cool if if we did at least I could have a gavel. Um at least a gavel. At least a gavel. Um they think, oh, it's you know, dealing with marriage and ultimates, but it deals with everything. And who can uh licitly and validly receive the sacraments? And for example, one of the ones that we get a lot of pushback on is with who can be confirmation sponsors, who can be godparent at baptism.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

So that's not just made up?

SPEAKER_02 3:46

No, it's not just made up. Um it's one of those things where, right, in order for someone to be a confirmation sponsor or baptism godparent, they have to be a baptized Catholic, they have to be 16 years old, they have to receive their confirmation, and they have to be practicing their faith validly. Um and so we didn't just make it up and just say, like, you know, they we did not get into uh a discussion in the basement over a couple of pints and say, hey, what'd be the best way to make people mad? No, and really that's kind of the thing is canon law touches everything. It's why every diocese has the tribunal, which does deal a lot with annulments, and we'll get into that on a later episode to really talk about how it's not a Catholic divorce, how it looks at did a sacramental reality happen, and how it actually heals the person from the scars of that relationship. But the tribunal touches all aspects of the church, governed by the bishop who is the ordinary of the diocese, delegated to what's called the judicial vicar.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

What's a judicial vicar?

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Um the judicial vicar is what I curse myself with every time I look in the mirror. No, the judicial vicar, first off, vicar has a lot to do with you know the name for priest, right? When we talk about the Pope, he's the vicar of Christ. When we talk about the assistant, um associate pastor, really it's a parochial vicar. Um, if you watch a lot of British comedy, you hear a lot about the vicars. You know, they didn't just invent that word in the Anglican church.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

That's our word.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

It's our word. And so the judicial vicar is the vicar, the priest set aside to handle the judicial matters in the diocese.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

So I want to, you studied canon law, right? So that makes you a canon lawyer. Yes. And you work on the tribunal. Yes. And you work also as the judicial vicar. And so you you're here to teach a lot of people, including other priests, about the code of canon law.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Yes, because a lot of times we don't understand just how big the scope is, how it really touches everything. And and I don't want to bore anyone, I will, but I can, you know, bore them about many

Money Gifts And Donor Rights

SPEAKER_02 6:02

topics. But even when we think about like what a church owns and what a church has, you know, if you were to all of a sudden come up to my parish, Holy Spirit, Catholic Church with Mustang, and say, Father, here's $500,000, but it can only be used on stained glass windows. Well, I can't then some really nice stained glass windows. Well, we have some really tall windows. Um I can only use that for stained glass windows. And or if you say, hey, um and it's all protected by book five of the code, which deals with temporal goods. Um, there are seven books in the code. Um, the first is general norms, which is really boring, but it's important. Um, the second talks about the Christian faithful. Um, the third has more to do with sort of diocesan curia um and education and things like that. Fourth is sacrament, fifth is temporal goods. Sixth is penal law, um, which is like penitentiary? Yeah, like trials and stuff. Oh, and stuff. And then and stuff. And the seventh deals with the procedures for trials and how all that goes.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Um but that's neither here nor that sounds that sounds like canon law and order.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Yeah, it does sound dun dun. Don't sue us, NBC. Um so like for book five, right? If you were to say, okay, um, here's five hundred thousand dollars, but it can only be used to support your parish choir. And I can't then turn around and use it to make payroll or use it to buy shiny things or use it to uh fix the parking lot. I can only use it to support the organ and maintain the choir, pay for canters. And because that's protected by the code, if that parish were then to merge with another parish, that fund, it sticks with it. So that new parish entity of the combined two parish couldn't say, well, now we're using it for religious. Nope. It is protected even when they merge.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

So the code of canon law protects the rights

Penalties That Aim To Heal

SPEAKER_01 8:04

of donors to the church.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Right, it's the rights of donors to the church, protects the rights of the faithful, the protects the faithful's rights to the sacraments, protects the good name of the faithful.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

You're using this word protect a lot. Is that how you see the code of canon law?

SPEAKER_02 8:17

I see the can code of canon law as really the lifeblood of how we relate to one another and make sure that we don't take advantage of one another.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

That's great. So the canon law is here to help me.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Canon law is here to help you unless you run afoul of canon law.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Which even then it's meant to help me, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Right. Because because one of the things that we really look at with the code, right, even when we have these um penalties, these remedies, it's about the reform of of the offender. It's about how do we look at taking that wound that you've caused by whatever it is that you did and and healing it. It's why you'll hear a lot the word sanation.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Sanation.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah. So like we think sanation was like, oh, like sanitation, and it has nothing to do. You know, and this is one of the things where because we're coming from a Germanic language in English, we don't often we lose a lot of those Latin roots. But when you think about, you know, in Spanish, sanar, the verb to heal, and then you think sanation, it's like, oh, that that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So the church has the mission of saving souls, and the code of canon law is how we save souls. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 9:29

It works on it. In fact, like you go if you were go to the last canon, there's 1752. It's why every time they come 1752?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

That's a lot. Yeah, it's a this it looks like a small book, but the prints are really small.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

It's like a Bible.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

It's like a uh it's like a Bible. It's it's not my Bible. The Bible's still more important than the code. Um it's why though every time they like redo the code or redo a book or add new canons, they'll like join some together so they can keep all the same numbers. So so unless they try and redo this version of the code, there'll always be 1752. And so I'm gonna read this in English and not Latin, so that people don't think I'm trying to put on errors.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

And so that I can understand it.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Yes. Um, in cases of transfer, the provisions of canon 1747 are to be applied, always observing canonical equity and keeping, and this is important, like this is the last code of the canon. The first part of this, people are like, okay, what does that have anything to do with it?

Salvation Of Souls As Supreme Law

SPEAKER_02 10:27

The last part is very important. And keeping in mind the salvation of souls, which in the church must always be the supreme law.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

So the salvation of souls is the supreme law of the church. And the other 1751 canons are there to help support.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

To aid in that, yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

So I guess sometimes law can get a bad rep. Like law is there to like oppress me or limit my freedom, but that's not how we should think about the code of canon law.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

No, that's not how we should think about law in general. I mean, we think of it, oh, as putting rules, as putting restrictions. But, you know, so does being a disciple, right? Jesus says, I'm not here to abolish the law or the prophets, I'm here to fulfill it. Even Jesus is asking us to follow not just the Supreme Law, the Ten, but the Ten Commandments and the natural law. And when we really look at the law and we follow what it says, yes, it's asking us to do stuff. It's asking us to do stuff maybe we don't want to do, but by submitting to it, we actually have more freedom because we're not paralyzed by the choices that just disregard happen. But it also allows ourselves to be in mind with the church. Because really, when we look at the history of canon law, it began developing itself from the very beginning. All those different canons coming out of the different councils are sort of the genesis of the code of canon law. And this particular code, which was first published in 1983, um

Why Law Can Increase Freedom

SPEAKER_02 11:59

has its bearing from the 1917 code, which got its development from what came out of the Council of Trent. This code was updated um after the Second Vatican Council to be in line with that. You know, you always hear the spirit of Vatican II, and you could either use it to say how you want things to be how you want it, or some people may use it derisively as in like getting away from what the church is supposed to teach. Um but really when we look at what is the fruit of the spirit of the second Vatican Council, it's the code of canon law, which takes, codifies, protects, and enshrines um the fruit of the Council Fathers, the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

So you think we should look at law as something that frees us because it helps eliminate unnecessary decision making when it's not needed because it points out the correct way to go?

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Right. Well, just imagine, right, rush hour traffic if we didn't have traffic traffic loss.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

You know, just imagine trying to get down I-35 um or go up I-35 to either a football game in Norman or Stillwater without traffic loss.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

It would get pretty dangerous. So the laws are there to to help us live in a free way. Right. They're not there to uh take my choices away or oppress

Nihil Obstat And Marriage Oversight

SPEAKER_01 13:15

me.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

And it's also there to protect the church. For example, um, if you are teaching theology in a Catholic institution, um especially colleges, you need what's called a nihil obstat. I do not object, um, from the bishop, because you are being placed in there to teach the church, to um pass on the faith. That's why if you were open up any Catholic Bible into the first page where all the copyrights on, you'll see the Nihil Obstadt. I do not object to the publication of this. You see it, you know, even for marriages. I always joke because my office, we handle the peruptial investigations. So I sign all of them, so I joke that no one can get married without my signature, um, which is kind of true, but really it's because the archbishop has delegated that signature to me. Um, but the my signature on that document really it's a needle offset, means I don't object to this marriage taking place.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Wow. So the bishop or his delegate has to give the thumbs up for any marriage to take place in the Catholic Church?

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Right, because it's again it's it's safeguarding the sacrament. We'll talk about that in a later episode.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Um, really about marriage later. Um So, you know, I think you talking about uh the school setting made me think about the law, and I'm the chaplain of Mount St. Mary Catholic High School, and I'm also the associate pastor or parochial vicar. That's the approved canonical church. Okay, I'm the parochial vicar at St. Eugene Catholic Church, where there's also a school. And I guess the way you're explaining the law helps me see that the law is almost like a teacher or a classroom for how to live. Like we don't have to figure it out on our own. The church gives us a way of living the Christian life and living together inside the church, and that's the code.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Which seems like a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

It is a good thing. And I think it's something that we we take for granted because we as the faithful, we're not really taught about these canonical realities. Um, we're not taught about what our rights are, we're not taught about how so much of our understanding of the church and the sacraments and how everything touches together comes from this book. In fact, most of us, when we have anything to do with um the code, we really think more of marriage. And that's important because there is that safeguarding there. It's, you know, why, right, when we talk about canonical form in marriage, it's in the code. It says all those who are baptized Catholic must be married inside the church. So if you're trying to get married in Cancun on the beach, that's not a sacramental marriage in the eyes of the church if you're a baptized Catholic. It's why canonical defective form is so easy because you can prove, well, this is a baptized Catholic on a beach. It's you know, easy to prove. It's why we have what's called, and we'll talk about this in a later episode, the dispensations for mixed marriage for those who are um Protestant, Marry and Catholic, or those who are non-baptized, marrying a Catholic, because the church says, well, you should marry a Catholic, but we understand this,

Rights Of The Faithful Explained

SPEAKER_02 16:25

we give you the dispensation, and then we don't object. And one of the things that's really important, right? So I was talking about book two and book two is what's book two about? Um the people of God. Oh the people of God. And the first part of book two, uh, De Christi fidelibus, Christ faithful or the Christian faithful. And and as a church, we really see that word in Latin cristi fidelibus first appear in the code, in in the 83 code. Um, and so much of I'll just kind of give an example of what's in here on that, um, just to sound smart. Um, we're not going to talk about general norms because no one really cares about single administrative acts in physical and juridic persons.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Yes. Um, or ecclesialist uh offices. But when we talk about the Christian faithful, right, one of the headings in the book of the people of God um is the obligation and rights of all Christ Faithful. But then the next section, Title II, right, is the um obligation and rights of lay members of Christ Faithful. So it talks about who the laity are um and what their obligations are um and what rights they have. And so, and I'm gonna not turn this into reading rainbow, which is a wonderful show of my childhood, and read. But then then it also talks about in book two sacred ministers, um, the difference between priests and deacons, the rights you have as a priest, the rights you have as an ordained cleric, because both priests and deacons are are clerics, the rights you have as a seminarian to your own spiritual director, you know. Um, and then also talking about the rights that our religious institutions, our religious brothers and sisters have.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Well, I think this is helpful because I feel like most of the time when canon law is brought up in parishes, it's usually probably brought up because someone's being told no. Yes. And so maybe it's good to hear about canon law outside of just being told what the rule is and why what you want can't happen. Right. As this is good, but also it's it's helpful because when you hear words like canon law or canon lawyer or tribunal, it sounds a little scary. Scary, thank you. So I think it's good to see the friendly face behind the tribunal.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Yes. Well, you know, um growing up, I was always called the Pillsbury Doughboy. And I was much slimmer then, but um, or or just a giant teddy bear. But you know, like, I mean, we can look grumpy and priests get grumpy. I mean, that's the reality, is is is we're we're human too. And so sometimes we hear these things. But also, too, right? You you mentioned like in the parishes, sometimes we only ever talk about canon law once a year during uh OCIA, when we're kind of telling those who are looking to convert um about the annulment process on what they have to do. What they have to do. Um, but there's just so much deeper and richer. And yeah, it can be a bit of a boring subject, and and it could be something that really you don't think about until you need it. But it's a lot like a lot of our our laws. Um they're there enshrined to protect us and give us safety.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Well, it seems like you know a lot about this topic. I guess studying it for three years, you you would, and serving in the tribunal as a judicial vicar, you have a lot to share. So I think this will be a good opportunity for people to it might not be between two collars, but uh Well, and I just hope more than anything, it's a way for us to learn a lot more

Global Church Structure And Accountability

SPEAKER_01 19:46

about our our church.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Because the Catholic Church, unlike any other of our of our Christian institutions, is a truly global reality. Um with the Holy See and the Holy Father, uh, the Holy Father being the supreme legislator, um, and all the governance structures going there. And then also touching um our brothers and sisters who are Eastern Catholics, who are part of those uh 23 ecclesia su iuris or churches of their own right um that make up the eastern wing of the church, governed by their own code, the the code of canon law of the eastern churches. Um and so it's really important that it kind of binds us in a way, and where our own itty-bitty parishes, wherever they may be tucked away, really are part of this larger structure. And the code helps us understand how they all relate to one another, how our parish relates to the diocese, how the diocese relates to um the Holy See, and how the Holy See relates to our relationship with God.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

It's sort of like a rope roadmap of relationships inside the church.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

It is, you know, and how all those structures kind of come together. You know, how um dioceses work with the religious institutions inside their their borders, how dioceses work with one another, um, how the diocese and the bishops work with the Holy See, and really everything in there, and also too how we as priests belong, right? Because one of the things in the code is like priests have to belong to a diocese or religious institute. We can't be vagrant, we can't be um untethered, untethered or unaffiliated. No free agents, no free agent priests. You know, if you if you run across a free agent, we're gonna break in the fourth wall here. If you run across a priest who's not associated with a diocese or a free agent, call my office. He is breaking the law, and he may not actually be a real priest, so we can reign him in.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Well, I I look forward to seeing the rest of this series,

Series Wrap And Farewell

SPEAKER_01 21:52

and it was good talking to you today. Good talking to you. You have a got you've got a lot to share. Here, brush up.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

All right, thank you for joining us on the This first episode of Canon Law and Order.