For more than twenty years, A Concise Guide to Canon Law has provided priests, deacons, and lay pastoral ministers with essential information about Church laws that regularly impact the lives of everyday Catholics. This compact reference guide addresses topics such as who can receive the sacraments and when, the responsibilities of pastors and bishops; administration of parishes; and the role of finance and pastoral councils. The book also now includes the teachings of Popes Benedict XVI and Francis on issues such as marriage and annulment, as well as a new chapter on Catholic funerals. Canon lawyer Aldean Hendrickson, director of the tribunal for the Diocese of New Ulm, also has updated this practical guide with additional material that includes: a chapter on the Liturgy of the Hours; an updated section of frequently asked questions and answers at the end of each chapter; a revised and enhanced glossary of key terms; and a suggested reading list for deeper study.

Not only inefficiency, but frustration, disorder, anger, and injustice threaten all human endeavors, no matter how pure their motives or high their ideals. That's why successful organizations always create employee handbooks and clear procedure manuals that delineate where authority lies, how conflicts are to be resolved, and, above all, how each organization's mission is (and is not) to be accomplished. Is it any wonder then that the Catholic Church—comprised not of 200 persons but 1.2 billion members in 200 countries—also governs itself by means of a handbook, which it calls the Code of Canon Law? Because handbooks and manuals concern themselves with the day-to-day inner working of organizations, they often reveal more than do news releases about the actual purposes and genuine spirit of organizations: a fact that's particularly true in the case of the Catholic Church. Indeed, if you want to know the Church for who She is, you need to be familiar with the Code of Canon Law. Unfortunately, it contains over 1,752 rules (or canons). Among them, you'll find fascinating canons that lay out the Church's official principles and procedures governing matters as various as abbots and annulments, scandals and Sacraments, monks and missions, bishops and books, priests and popes, synods and sacraments, homeschoolers, hostile witnesses, baptisms, burials, parishes, penance, confessions, Councils, impotence, imprimaturs, and, even marriages to the person who murdered your spouse! Thankfully, Vatican expert and veteran author Fr. Laurence Spiteri has in the pages of Canon Law Explained relieved you of the need to read all 1,752 of them (fascinating or not). Here he acquaints you with the fundamental canons by which the Church seeks to bring about, as it declares in the very last canon, the purpose all of them serve: "The salvation of souls, which must always be the supreme law in the Church." Fr. Spiteri's brief, but lucid explanations of the origins and meaning of the canons make sense of much that puzzles non-Catholics about our Church and that sometimes frustrates even us Catholics. As he relates the Church's laws and procedures directly to Christ's command "to go forth and teach all nations"—and to the role those laws and procedures play in your salvation and mine—Fr. Spiteri transforms what seem to be dry-as-dust rules into the sweet waters of salvation. If you want to know the Church for who She is—and to love Her more—Canon Law Explained is the book for you.

This practical, sound reference book decodes complex Roman Catholic Church law and doctrine. It is the third book in The Concise Guide Series, a series of books tackling questions of central importance for contemporary Catholics. Other books in the series are A Concise Guide to Canon Law and A Concise Guide to Catholic Social Teaching.

A comprehensive commentary on the 1983 Code of Canon Law by leading canon lawyers in the United States, with a complete English text of the Code. [from front cover]

An entirely new and comprehensive commentary by canon lawyers from North America and Europe, with a revised English translation of the code. Reflects the enormous developments in canon law since the publication of the original commentary. +

Cannon's handbook on parliamentary procedure is user friendly for the inexperienced and an invaluable guide for the veteran presiding officer. His method for holding effective meetings is based not on the traditional, bewildering accumulation of particulars and exceptions, but on common sense, logic, good communication and fairness all within the bylaws and rules of any organization as well as traditional procedure. A professional parliamentarian since 1965, Hugh Cannon has guided meetings with as few as 30 and as many as 10,000 delegates. Now, with revealing and amusing anecdotes, he puts this extensive practical experience at the service of readers. His Card System,' for communication between a parliamentarian and the Chair, was first introduced in this handbook, and now is presented as a workshop topic at many national conferences for parliamentarians. The section of the handbook devoted only to rules of procedure ( A Short Course in Parliamentary Procedure ) is a mercifully brief 70 pages, compared to the hundreds of pages in traditional procedure manuals. Yet these pages cover all that will ever come up in most local, state or national meetings. In simple, contemporary language the reader is provided a thorough and complete understanding of the rules of parliamentary procedure.

"James Coriden offers a vision of canon law in the Catholic Church - seeing it not as an instrument of control but as a guide and guarantee of freedom for believers. In the process he emphatically joins the ongoing debate about the role of church law, a debate that he believes "will have profound implications for the long term," possibly reshaping the law and indeed "the very face of the church." While his message is addressed primarily to professional canonists, it will resonate among all Catholics who care about the way their church functions." "The view of canon law that unfolds in these pages is that of a ministry that upholds the freedom of believers and the good order of the community. This is based on the assumption that "church" is first of all a local community rather than a global structure. The test of effective law depends upon its service to the lived experience of its members in their own cultural, economic and social situations." "The concluding section of this book sets forth "An Urgent Agenda for the Future of the Ministry," particularly in the way church law is revised and amended."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved