Canon Law in Syracuse

Spring is the time of canon law conferences in the US.  The country is divided into regions of canon lawyers and the Eastern Region and the Midwest Region joined into one conference in the Diocese of Syracuse, NY last week.  These conferences are usually the best indicators for what is happening in canon law.  The four talks at this conference covered a lot.  It started with a talk on Special Faculties and canon 1392 by Rev. Peter Mottola, considered by many to be an expert in this very specialized area of canon law.  I did a talk on Ethics and Professional Responsibility for Canon Lawyers with a lot of emphasis on AI and Catholicism.  Rev. John Renken’s topic was “Book 5 Meet Book 6”, or financial crimes in the Church.  Finally, it is just not a canon law conference without one talk involving marriage and annulments.  This was covered by Father Alex Laschuk of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto.  He introduced many of us to the Decreta of Marriage Decisions (don’t bother checking Amazon!) and many novel appeal insights.

This conference was Chaired by the Rev. John Donovan of Syracuse Diocese and he and his staff made it an excellent conference by any measure.  The Host, Bishop Douglas J. Lucia was the main celebrant and homilist at the Conference Mass in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, a truly magnificent Church.  Next year the two regions will meet separately with the Eastern Conference meeting in Albany (May 19th  through May 22nd) under the Chair, Michael Ritty, of Canon Law Professionals. 

ERCC can be found at www.easternregionalcanonists.org