Definitions

Question 1

Ius canonicum

Answer 1

that which is just in the Church

Question 2

A law

Answer 2

a general and abstract written norm by which the legislator provides for the common good of the community entrusted to his care

Question 3

To promulgate

Answer 3

to cause to emerge into public view

Question 4

Gratian on promulgation

Answer 4

laws are established when they are promulgated, they are strengthened when they are approved by the deeds of those who comply with it

Question 5

Liturgical laws

Answer 5

those binding the ministers and participants in the rites and ceremonies; the prescribed words, actions, materials to be used

Question 6

Who are bound by merely ecclesiastical laws (Canon 11)?

Answer 6

Merely ecclesiastical laws bind those who have been baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it, possess the sufficient use of reason, and, unless the law expressly provides otherwise, have completed seven years of age.

Question 7

How are ecclesiastical laws to be understood (Canon 17)?

Answer 7

in accord with the proper meaning of the words considered in their text and context.

Question 8

What is text?

Answer 8

The wording of the law

Question 9

What is context?

Answer 9

the words and sentences in the order and connection which they have with one another

Question 10

What is penal legality?

Answer 10

nulla poena, sine lege.

Question 11

A lacuna legis is resolved in light of what four things (c. 19)?

Answer 11

1- laws issued in similar matters,
2- general principles of law applied with canonical equity,
3- the jurisprudence and practice of the Roman Curia, and
4- the common and constant opinion of learned persons.

Question 12

What is a custom of fact?

Answer 12

the repeated and continuous behavior of a community

Question 13

What is a legal custom?

Answer 13

an unwritten law obliging persons to do/omit something, introduced by long-continued, free and public acts of a community, with the approbation, express, tacit, or presumed of its lawgiver.

Question 14

What is canonical administrative law?

Answer 14

the branch of canon law that regulates the composition and activity of the public ecclesiastical administration and the means of challenging its acts, in view of fostering just social relationships and directing the Church, in concrete circumstances, toward her ultimate end

Question 15

What is a general executory decree?

Answer 15

A norm which more precisely determines methods of applying legislation or urges its observance

Question 16

What is an instruction?

Answer 16

A document which clarifies the prescripts of laws and elaborates on and determines the methods to be observed in fulfilling them.

Question 17

What is a singular administrative act?

Answer 17

a unilateral, juridical act of one endowed with the requisite executive power of governance that creates, modifies or extinguishes a subjective juridical situation in a particular case

Question 18

What are the four types of singular administrative act?

Answer 18

1. singular administrative decree that makes a decision
2. singular precept
3. singular administrative decree that makes a provision
4. rescript

Question 19

What is a singular administrative decree that makes a decision?

Answer 19

A (broadly) coercive act by which the public ecclesiastical administration brings about a change in the juridical condition of a person or institute

Question 20

What is a singular precept?

Answer 20

A singular administrative act (a decree) which enjoins a person/persons to do or omit something; usually telling them to conform to the law.

Question 21

What are the three kinds/objects of precepts?

Answer 21

(1) order, positive command (simple precept)
(2) prohibition, negative command (simple precept)
(3) establish a delict (penal precept)

Question 22

What is a singular administrative decree that makes a provision?

Answer 22

A singular administrative act that advances the common good by bringing about a positive juridical development in the community or in the condition of public persons.

Question 23

What is a rescript?

Answer 23

A singular administrative act issued in writing by competent executive authority; of its very nature, a rescript grants a privilege, dispensation, or other favor at someone’s request.

Question 24

What is a favor?

Answer 24

a benign concession for the benefit of its recipient

Question 25

What is a dispensation?

Answer 25

the relaxation of a merely ecclesiastical law in a particular case (‘wounding’ of the law)

Question 26

What is a privilege?

Answer 26

a favor provided contra or praeter legem

Question 27

What is a licentia?

Answer 27

A permission/authorization which is the content of either a singular administrative decree that makes a provision or of a rescript

Question 28

How are doubtful laws to be interpreted (Canon 17)?

Answer 28

recourse must be made:
1- to parallel places, if there are such, 2- to the purpose and circumstances of the law, and
3- to the mind of the legislator.

Question 29

What is a general norm?

Answer 29

A rule which applies to every area of the law; what is identifiable in any law.

Question 30

What are the steps in the legislative process?

Answer 30

1- identification of a need
2- work of a drafting commission
3- external consultation
4- revision
5- submission of draft to legislator
6- if required, voting and hierarchical approval

Question 31

5 principles of canonical administrative law

Answer 31

1- principle of good governance
2- principle of cooperation
3- principle of discretion (prudence)
4- principle of legality
5- principle of responsibility

Question 32

What are the three kinds of public ecclesiastical administration?

Answer 32

1- organs of active administration
2- consultative organs
3- organs of control

Question 33

What are the two main activities of the public ecclesiastical administration?

Answer 33

Administrative norms and singular administrative acts.

Question 34

3 types of administrative norm

Answer 34

1- General executory decree
2- instruction
3- independent administrative norms (like statutes, rules of order)

Question 35

What are the four categories of indispensable law?

Answer 35

Laws essentially constitutive of institutes/acts; procedural law; penal law; reserved laws

Question 36

What is an ecclesiastical office (c. 145 §1)?

Answer 36

An ecclesiastical office is any function (munus) constituted in a stable manner by divine or ecclesiastical ordinance to be exercised for a spiritual purpose.

Question 37

What is a juridic person?

Answer 37

An artificial person distinct from its substrate (persons or things), established by ecclesiastical authority for an apostolic purpose, with the capacity for continuous existence, with its own rights/obligations at canon law and accountable to canon law.