The Canon Law and its Relevance to the Catholic Church

What significance does the Canon Law play in the Catholic Church? A set of rules and regulations are important in any society including the Christian religion. The law is both spiritual and physical unifying Christ to the Church. First, exercising the canon law helps in the continuation of the authority of Christ, the one who taught to love by leading an exemplary life. The apostles too played the same authoritative role years after Christ’s departure. The Canon law therefore, represents the authority that is exercised by the humans, particularly the pope and bishops of the church. Furthermore, the law functions didactically teaching what should be done and the reasons behind that. It helps preserve and conserve the Christian values and virtues.

Its through the canon law that the Word of God is effectively spread and the laws kept. In other words, the Canon Law ensures that the unity of the Church is defined accurately, protected and promoted, spreading the Word to the lost. Lastly, the Canon Law functions to describe, define and protect the rights and responsibilities of people in relation to their status in the Church. Theology holds an unlimited horizon seeking to gain knowledge on both the uncreated and the created universe, as wells s the Mysterious God who has revealed Himself to man right from the beginning of the world till today. On the other hand, Canon Law has a well-defined and limited scope of the universe with clearly set boundaries, ordinances and ordering practices that have been set by a pastoral authority.

However, they hold similar concept such as, the church, sacrament/ communion, faithfulness, episcopacy, Christian morals and virtues, among others, in these two very different horizons. Second, both reveal the signs of life and growth in the church in which the church can has the opportunity to make it’s an new decisions as well as get some new insights. This means the two seek for the growth of the church to ensure that the word of Cod is spread through the entire world. With this, it is clear that theology needs to gain knowledge of these values, which can be achieved through the study of the Canon Law. On the other hand, the Canon Law seeks to understand some of these mysteries to be able to set rules and regulations to govern the code of conduct in the church.