The 1917 Code: Between technical necessity and intransigent Catholicism

Le Code de 1917 : Entre nécessité technique et catholicisme intransigeant

Laurent Kondratuk (1, 2)

1 Université Marc Bloch - Strasbourg II
2 EA 3404 - UMB - Equipe d'accueil de droit canonique

The Code of Canon Law of 1917 is a response to the requests made by canonists and the Fathers of Vatican I to make canon law more accessible and to remove obsolete norms. Beside these requirements of a technical nature, historians of canon law mention other motives of an ideological nature. The codification (according to them) came about as a result of the avowed will of the Church, a societas perfecta, to assert its power of jurisdiction against the modern State. A re-reading of the MP "Arduum sane munus" (1904) of Pius X announcing the work on the code highlights the second argument : the code should contribute to restoring a Christian social order, an objective of uncompromising policy of Pius X and his predecessors. This restoration should include the moulding of a well-formed clrgy, anti-modernism and the formation of the faithfull. Does the legislator reflect this policy ? Does the Code of 1917 savour of intransigence ? The reply is a qualified one.

Mots clés: Canon Law; Catholic Church

Mots clés: Catholicisme intransigeant; Code de droit canonique; Histoire du droit; Codification du droit; Droit canonique; Pie X; Histoire de l'Église; Catholicisme

Mots clés: Diritto canonico; Intransigentismo cattolico; Pius X; Chiesa Cattolica

Domaines: Religions; Histoire; Droit

Laurent Kondratuk. Le Code de 1917 : Entre nécessité technique et catholicisme intransigeant. Revue de droit canonique, 2001, 51 (2), pp.305-321. ⟨hal-01488222v2⟩