The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-11-10

i Gus task. 1t was estimated at first
that seven or eight years would be
required to complete the work, but
/ events proved that twelve entire years
| hardly sufficed. The commission was
confronted not only by the portly vol
umes of the ancient corpus, but also
| with the vast ocean of legislation that
| had emanated from ecclesiastical leg
| islatOrs during the course of nearly
| three hundred and fifty years, since
| the days of the Council of Trent. It
was hidden to prepare a single volume
CT laws to govern millions of Catho-
| lies. not of single nation, but scat
tered throughout the world 1t was to.
remove all obsolete laws and at the
same time bring the remaining DEGREES
fully abreast of present day conditions.
New legislation was to be enacted
when it was deemed useful or neces-
sary. Above all, the canons were to
be set down in clear, brief and unam-
biguous terms.
Responsibility Appreciated.
That the commission appreciated
the enormous responsibility placed on
their shoulders is amply demonstrate
ed, co quote a single instance, by the
published minutes of the discussions
that preceded the PRONUNCIATION OF the
decree, NE Temere," which estab-
lished new regulations for the cele-
bration of marriage. Eminent canon
lists, such as the present Cardinal De
Lai, Archbishop Sill, the Papal almon-
er, and Monsignor Lombardi, long pro-
fessor at the famous law school of the
Apollinare, labored for nearly two
years in preparing successive prelim-
mary drafts of the proposed legisla-
tion for discussion of the Cardinals
of the commission. The bare outlines
printed pages in the "Acta Sanctae
Sedis'
At intervals since 1905 many highly
important DEGREES were issued which
foreshadowed the character and scope
of the revision. The regulations for
Papal elections, the legislation on
Church music, the radical reformation
of the Roman Curia, the restoration
of the Rota to it's former noble posi-
tion among the tribunals of the |
Church, the provision for the remov-
al of parish priests, enactments for
the administration of seminaries, laws |
for the periodical visits Of Bishops
the Holy See and for the early admis-
sion of children to Holy Communion
all these were rightly regarded as
products of the activity of the com
missions for the codification of the
laws CT the Church.
Suggestions Invited.
During the course of these years
preliminary studies of the proposed
code were printed and privately dis
tributed to every Bishop and ecclesi- |
astical superior in the Western
Church. The Bishops were exhorted
to examine the work carefully and
communicate, without restraint, their
views on the subject matter of these
volumes. They were invited to make
suggestions, to propose emendations /
and to present objections, with the un-
derstanding that their representations
would be carefully considered. These
preliminary studies were contained in
three volumes, the last of which was
sent to the Bishops early in 1915.
Plus X did not live to see the COM
pletion of the great work he had in
augurated, work SO great and USE
full" as his successor said, that on
it's account the present age will be
called illustrious by posterity." On
May 27, 1917, Pope Benedict XIV
officially promulgated the completed
code and declared that it should go
into effect on May 19, 1918.