Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

A little education about canon lawyers...thanks to Ed Peters for this:  Edward Peters, "What canon lawyers are and aren't", This Rock (November 1991) 19-22.                 Most people think of canon lawyers as bespectacled, gray-haired monsignors who sit in dark-paneled rooms and quote Latin verses from authors dead for a hundred years. It may have been like that once, but today canon lawyers cut rather a different figure. Here I want to explain what canon lawyers are and aren't, what canon law is, and how to use (or not to use) a canon lawyer.           Canon law is the legal system of the Catholic Church. It is the oldest functioning legal system in the Western world. The word canon comes from the Greek kanon, meaning a rule or measure. In the early centuries of Christianity, canon law consisted mostly of rules developed in synods and counc...

Our group with Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (Many people have been asking about the study visit to the Roman Curia which I undertook with my classmates a little over two weeks ago! I finally am getting round to putting some thoughts down. Thanks for your patience!) From Ottawa to Dublin, from Dublin to Rome, all the roads were leading towards Rome for the JCL students of Saint Paul University. For some, it was the final two weeks of the JCL programme, having just completed comprehensive exams that same week. I travelled from Toronto to Dublin as one of our sisters was seriously ill and preparing to go home to God. The following day I went to Rome to meet up with the rest of my classmates who were already gathered there since the weekend and were enjoying the whole Roman experience including the sunshine and the warm temperatures. After such a long winter in Ottawa with snow until mid-May, it was a welcome change! I was happy...

Probably checking out the news about our new bishops in Ireland! Someone recently commented that I don’t blog much about what I am actually studying. I suppose it is because I wonder if many people are actually interested in the weird and wonderful world that is Canon Law. On Monday, we return to our somewhat normal academic schedule. The Latin books and notes came off the bookshelf and were flicked through considering we are back to amo, amas, amat after the weekend!  However, over the past two weeks I have been indulging in one of my favourite things: Liturgical Law. Squeezing a three year licentiate into two years means that some of our courses can be slightly intense and since the beginning of January we have had specialized modules, that is, one subject, every day, morning and afternoon! It has been somewhat of a marathon but we covered such a variety of topics and documents over these days, all of them very interesting. The first course was entitled ‘Liturgical Law outs...

Soon after breakfast it was time to head on our travels once more. Sr. Christiane and Sr. Christine had very kindly offered to drive me down to Ottawa. The journey was quite pleasant and it gave me a chance to look at the scenery, share some news with the sisters and get some of the country's history. We passed a small municipality in southwestern Quebec called Rigaud. It is famous because it has a very strange potato story attached to it so I thought my Irish readers might find it of interest! Its main attraction are Mont-Rigaud and a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes). The mountain is also home to an unusual, natural rock garden known as the "champs de patates", so named because of the local legend that it was once a potato field, turned to stone by God because the farmer worked on Sunday! We arrived in Ottawa just about lunch time after a two hour journey. We found Deschatelets Residence quite easily and we were warmly welcom...