Columnist: Ed Peters
Canonist Ed Peters on Excommunication
Most Catholics know that excommunication has played an important role in ecclesiastical life since ancient times. Many also assume that this controversial procedure was relegated to the history books after ...
A Bishop’s Failure to Enforce Canon Law Does Not Excuse His Faithful From Following It
It needs no long blog post from a canon lawyer to explain how wrong would be a failure by a bishop to protect his faithful against scandal (CCC , ) and/or to ...
Some Suggest Archbishop Viganò’s Call for Francis’ Resignation is a Mistake – It’s Not — IF the Charges Viganò has Made are True
Apologies for a long post; I don’t have time to write a short one. I don’t mean to single out Fr. Raymond de Souza, whom I have read with profit ...
Canonical Reform Won’t End the Abuse Crisis, but it Can Help
Public penance should be the first response. Then let's look at some basic improvements to canon law The official response to the allegations against Theodore McCarrick has been tiresomely predictable ...
Yes, “Consensual Adult Relationships” Among Clergy are Crimes Under Canon Law
Homosexual acts committed by or between clerics—even among those presumably able to consent—are at the root, the very root, of the sexual misconduct and cover-up crisis exposed by the McCarrick scandal ...
McCarrick, the Bishops, and the Deepening Confusion About Sex
Faithful Catholics can easily see how the virtual abandonment of Humanae vitae by mid-level ecclesiastical leadership (many bishops, most priests, and nearly all marriage formators) over the last five decades has wrought ...