A canonist or canon lawyer is usually described as someone who has studied canon law and has a degree in the field. To canon law it is what the Juris Doctor or Bachelor of Laws degree is to civil law. It is not easy to get a profile of this profession. Little is written about it in the mainstream press. The former deal largely with personnel or clergy and church property matters and the latter, for the most part, do marriage cases.
Some canonists do both types of work.
Such practitioners are relatively rare and, to the best of our knowledge, the St. Joseph Foundation remains the only organization with the defense and vindication of ecclesial rights as its sole purpose. Recently, Duquesne University in Pittsburgh inaugurated a two year program leading to both Master of Church Administration and J.C.L. degrees, with canon law courses taken at Louvain, Belgium. We might add here that many canon lawyers in North America received their degrees from pontifical universities in Rome and elsewhere in Europe. The Department of Canon Law at CUA was established in 1906. From its inception until 1990 the Department awarded 535 J.C.D. degrees.