CLGSB&I Conference - Rome 2022

Until the pandemic struck, I had attended twenty-nine of the last thirty conferences of the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland.  I think it is the best canon law conference held each year.  Because of covid the conferences for 2020 and 2021 were held virtually.  This May we finally had an in-person meeting and it was in Rome.  Enrollment was filled with more than the usual one hundred in attendance, and that was without many of The Regulars who were still wary of international travel. 

The conference moves around every year, rotates actually.  Rome is scheduled every five years and the other years are rotated among Ireland, Scotland and Great Britain.  If I could go to only one conference per year, this would be the one not to miss.   When the conference lands in Rome, the speakers are top-notch, after all, they have the Curia and the pontifical universities from which to invite speakers.  This year was excellent. 

The star of the conference was His Grace Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.  His topic was the big topic trending in canon law for a year now.  It is the new Book VI, the penal law of the Church.  His formal presentation title was “The Return of Penal Discipline in the Pastoral Field of Governance.”  Bishop Arrieta was at the helm of the birth of the new Book VI.  In his presentation Bishop Arrieta outlined the genesis of the project and the main causes that determined it, and some of the criteria that guided the work through the years it took to bring it to fruition.   There have been many, many presentations on Book VI, and I think I have heard ninety percent of the ones I thought worth hearing, but this is the best.

Another notable presentation was by the Reverend Fabio Baggio, the Under-Secretary of the Migrant and Refugees Section.  His talk was “Migrant and Ecclesial Law.”    His talk are not in the Proceedings but will be available later. 

This year the Proceedings of the Conference were in great demand.  There may still be a few copies left for purchase through the web site.  Two talks were missing at the time of proceedings print, but this year, the Canon Law Newsletter, one of the Society’s publications will produce a book of all of the talks as given in Rome. 

Next year’s Conference will take place in Galway, Ireland.  It’s a first come first serve to members and after that, it is open to others.  The Society’s Publications alone make membership worthwhile.  The dues are reasonable compared to the dues of the US Society (CLSA).  The dates for next year’s conference are May 1 through May 5, 2023. 

You can get more information at:  http://www.clsgbi.org/