The proposal of the Synod to reform the Code of Canon Law has received its first substantive criticism from within the canonical field itself. The Dominican Pius Pietrzyk, judge of the ecclesiastical tribunal of the Military Archdiocese of the United States, maintains that the report of the commission tasked by the General Secretariat of the Synod to translate the synodal process into norms separates the power of governance from the sacred order and would turn the Church into «a Protestant community, but with a Pope». The New York priest Gerald Murray, also a canonist, speaks of «a radical break with Catholic doctrine». Both made these statements to the Vatican correspondent Edward Pentin in an article published this Monday, October 12, by the National Catholic Register.
The document, titled Final Report of the Canonical Commission, is dated in the Vatican on September 22 and was released by the General Secretariat of the Synod at the end of that month. It was coordinated by Archbishop Filippo Iannone, then prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts and now head of the Dicastery for Bishops, and among its ten members are Jesuit Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, Dutch canonist Myriam Wijlens, and Spaniard José San José Prisco. According to the Register’s count, it proposes amending 34 canons. The Synod itself presents it as a working document, advisory and non-binding: none of its proposals would take effect without the Pope’s approval and formal promulgation.
The criticisms target the most far-reaching changes. The report adds to canon 749, which regulates the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff and the College of Bishops, a new first paragraph that incorporates the teaching of the constitution Lumen gentium according to which the entire body of the faithful, anointed by the Spirit, cannot err when it believes, and that manifests this property through the supernatural sense of faith of the whole people. It also proposes that the bishop may directly appoint diocesan judges, both clerics and laypersons, without the authorization of the Episcopal Conference currently required by canon 1421, that pastoral councils be mandatory in all dioceses and parishes, and that certain decisions of the bishop require the consent of the presbyteral council.
For Pietrzyk, vicar for administration of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, the text contains «perhaps two decent ideas»; the rest, in his words, ranges from «silly cosmetic changes» to «a betrayal of the Second Vatican Council and two millennia of ecclesiology». He describes the figure of the lay judge as «revolutionary» and contrary to the Council, and criticizes Ghirlanda for defending an extreme view of the Pope’s capacity to delegate power. He also recalls that the report «has no legal authority» and dismisses it as «a strange footnote in the history of the Church». According to the Register, the commission does not touch canon 129, which reserves the power of governance to those who have received the sacred order and allows the laity to cooperate in its exercise.
Murray, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, sees in the set of reforms an attempt to extend the power of governance in the Church to baptized but non-ordained Catholics, and considers it a rejection of the Church’s teaching on the threefold office of Christ: priest, prophet, and king.
The third canonist consulted by Pentin, David Long, professor at the School of Canon Law of The Catholic University of America, is more nuanced. He supports giving greater juridical recognition to the sense of faith of the faithful, but believes its proper place is canon 750, not 749, and always under the magisterium: «The Council never treated it as something independent of the magisterium», he states. He does not see lay judges as a doctrinal rupture, because current law already admits them, although he calls for clarifying the scope of lay authority. He welcomes the mandatory pastoral councils and the consent of the presbyteral council, but warns that it will be necessary to foresee what happens when there is no agreement.
The commission, which worked on the Final Document approved by the synodal assembly in October 2024, does not limit itself to immediate adjustments: it proposes a long-term comprehensive revision of the Latin and Eastern codes. At the end of September, the new prefect of Legislative Texts, Anthony Randazzo, warned against those who see synodality as an opportunity to discard elements of the Church’s tradition. The criticisms come as another synodally inspired body, the Vatican meeting marking the tenth anniversary of Amoris laetitia, concludes its work with a report the Pope has asked not to publish. Which part of the canonical proposals becomes law will also depend on Leo XIV.
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