In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI, out of concern for the “integrity and
consistent application of discipline in the Church,” gave the Pontifical
Council for Legislative Texts the mandate to revise the Church’s system
of penalties outlined in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, according to
Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, the pontifical council’s secretary.
Bishop
Arrieta said a commission has worked on revisions for two years and that
the proposed revisions will be sent to the pontifical council’s members
in upcoming weeks.
Bishop Arrieta, a Spaniard and a priest of Opus Dei, said that the 1983
Code differs from the previous 1917 Code in promoting a greater
subsidiarity within the Church’s disciplinary system and in affording
greater rights to those accused of canonical crimes.
“Subsequent
experience has shown that some of the techniques used by Code to
guarantee the rights were not essential and could have been replaced by
other guarantees more consistent with the reality of the Church,” Bishop
Arrieta wrote.
“Indeed, these techniques are in many cases an
objective obstacle, sometimes insurmountable because of the scarcity of
resources, to the effective application of the penal system.”
A “widespread anti-juridicism,” he added, has led to difficulties in
implementing the demands of “justice and good governance.”
SIC: CC/INT'L