Eight students from Australia, Samoa, New Zealand and Singapore attended a two-week intensive course in Sydney as they gradually work their way towards becoming qualified canon lawyers. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
The degree is run as a partnership between Broken Bay Institute in Pennant Hills and Saint Paul University, in Ottawa, Canada. Students work through online and intensive on-campus courses and graduate with a licentiate in canon law.
One of the students, Fr Penetito Talafaaoti, from Samoa, explained what motivated him to attend the course last month. “One quote I love about canon law is, ‘Law exists for the salvation of people’,” he said.
“That inspires me to serve my people through this path. Coming here to Australia has been a grace, because it gives me the chance to meet and talk with other students who share the same interests and program.”
Broken Bay Institute chief executive officer and principal Gerard Moore said: “Our region is short of qualified canon lawyers.
“The field covers marriage tribunal, governance, canonical advice, in fact all facets of the Code of Canon Law. St Paul offers the program online with two face-to-face units each year, taught in August,” Professor Moore said.
The cohort of students includes diocesan and religious priests, a religious sister and a layman.
Fr Chris De Sousa CRS, a Sydney priest who is serving as a member of the governing council of the Somascan Fathers in Rome, said the course’s flexibility “will assist many more to complete studies in canon law, an area of the Church that is in need of greater resourcing and trained advocates and judges”.
Most lay people think of the Church in terms of prayer and the sacraments, not law. But like any society, the Church needs a legal framework, Canadian canonist and course lecturer Chad Glendenning said.
“It ensures that people act appropriately among themselves. It protects people’s rights and obligations. It identifies obligations on the part of religious superiors and bishops and parish priests,” Professor Glendenning said.
FULL STORY
Facing up to the shortage of canon lawyers in the Pacific region (By Michael Cook, The Catholic Weekly)
