Canon Law as “structural theology”

As many of you know, I am a canon lawyer, or canonist, in the Church. At the request of Bishop William P. Callahan, I studied from 2016–2019 at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC to obtain my canon law license. Canon lawyers are “generalists” in Church law. We have to study all parts of Church law and can practice in any area of the law. While there is no “bar exam” in canon law, there is a comprehensive exam that is its closest equivalent, although it is an oral exam and not written—and is significantly shorter. Three professors of canon law, all doctors in canon law, examine the candidate on everything found in the Church’s Code of Canon Law. There are 1752 canons in the code, many with multiple paragraphs, and anything in them is ‘fair game’ for the examination. The one blessing is that the exam is only one hour long so they can’t go through everything in great detail! It was a somewhat fun and somewhat of a nerve-wracking experience.
 
As you may know, most dioceses have a tribunal (known officially as the “tribunal of the first instance”) that handles, for the most part, petitions for declarations of nullity of marriage (commonly known as annulments). Most canonists spend some time in the tribunal, assisting the diocesan Judicial Vicar in his work, which is what I do as the Adjunct Judicial Vicar—if you stop by my office and my desk is covered in papers and files, it’s usually an annulment case I am working on. A diocesan tribunal is unlike a court in a common law tradition (as our American, secular courts are organized). Church tribunals do not follow the adversarial system; rather, the procedure of a canonical court is more akin to the inquisitorial system, with the judges leading the investigation There are not trials in the same way as you would find in our secular courts.
 
The retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Bishop Richard J. Sklba, once addressed the Canon Law Society of America. In his keynote, he raised the idea that canon lawyers are “structural theologians” of the Church. As a Church, the Sacred Scriptures and the Sacred Liturgy are the main vehicles of our encounters with Christ. Most fields of theology explore and explain what it is that we encounter. Moral theology defines how we live in response to the encounters. Canon Law outlines the parameters of “how” we live as a Church, moving from encounter to encounter. I am happy to serve the Church in this way.