I Apologize for Being a Canon Lawyer
No, I don’t apologize but there are a lot of people who think I should. Mostly, female, civil attorneys. For me times have changed. I had been a Philadelphia Lawyer for ten years when I decided to study Canon Law. I went away to Rome to study for two years. When I came home in 1990, with my newly minted License in Canon Law, I got right back into my civil practice trying to make that time up to my practice and the lawyers who propped me up while I was away. I really didn’t think at first about using my canon law in any professional way.
When I did, people found me quite amazing. I was asked to speak at luncheons, workshops and retreats. Even when the novelty wore off, I was always being asked about canon law with an inquisitive air or a sense of awe. Clerical sexual abuse and the national battle over abortion rights has changed all that. My letterhead proclaims that I have a license in Canon Law, but I am not at the point of tossing those expensive reams in the trash. I do not, however, volunteer that information in conversation any longer. I just don’t feel like defending me, the Church, Pope Francis, priests, pro-life proponents, Latin Masses or whatever else someone does not like about the Catholic Church. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good argument or I would not be a lawyer of any kind. I just find the people starting them are not worth the breath. Their minds are made up, no changing them because they know they are right. They also usually practice no faith.
I recently attended a virtual, inaugural meeting of a group of women lawyers at a Catholic university. In the breakout room of ten, I mentioned my Canon Law background in my self-intro. In what had been a warm and collegial exchange, I suddenly found myself the unwelcome guest. Total crickets. Not a sound or response to me. It was as if I was not there. Better than an argument, but still, not a great response. I don’t think they’ll be asking me to enter their mentor program any time soon. Too hard to pair me up with today’s distaff lawyers fighting for their truth and justice, and probably not mine.
My opening joke when I gave a talk on canon law/civil law, was that I was so boring I went to law school twice (you had to be there). The women in the audience don’t laugh anymore. They are actually seething a bit with dagger eyes and avoid me like the plague after. Men, however, swarm me with questions and not their opinions about God and man in a legal system. Professional women have expressed total disbelief that someone capable enough to earn a Juris Doctor degree could be so programmed, so stupid, so gullible, so crazy as to still buy into the Catholic Church. They assume what I think about clerical sexual abuse and limiting reproductive rights, and not using any thought process of my own. They presume they know me and my mind. They don’t, but that doesn’t seem to matter.
I am not invited to civil/canon law speaking engagements now and if I were, I do not think I would accept. Maybe it is the pandemic, but I don’t believe it would be different in an angry post-pandemic world. For the time being, I am going to continue to keep my canon law out of any non-canonical conversations. That’s safe. After all, who reads a canon law blog??
I think for now, I will just keep canon law as my secret super-power.
