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A new Code of Canon Law, based on the previous Codex Juris
Canonici, was promulgated under Pope Benedict XV in 1917 and remained in force
until 1983. The Code underwent a number of relaxations under influence of the
Second Vatican Council.
Source: Codex Iuris Canonici, ed. Herder,
Freiburg 1918. Translation from the Latin by John Wijngaards.
- Women take their domicile from their
husbands
- Only men can hold ecclesiastical orders and
offices
- Women cannot be full members of pious
organizations
- Women are the last choice of minister for
baptism
- Women may not distribute holy communion
- Girls or women may not be Mass servers at the
altar
- Only men can be ordained to Holy Orders
- Men and women should sit separately in
church
- Women should have their heads veiled in
church
- Sacred linen must first be washed by men, before
women touch them
- Women may not preach in church
- Women may not read out Sacred Scripture in
church
- Women need to act through a male procurator
Women take their domicile from their
husbands
Canon 93, § 1 “A wife who is not legitimately separated
from her husband, automatically retains her husband's domicile.”
Only men can hold ecclesiastical orders
and offices
Canon 118. “Only [male] clerics can hold the power of order
or ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or obtain benefices and ecclesiastical
pensions”.
Women cannot be full members of pious
organizations
Canon 709, § 2.. “[With regard to confraternities or
pious unions established to promote devotional or charitable works], women
cannot be given membership in them, except for the purpose of gaining the
indulgences and spiritual graces granted to the male members.”
Women are the last choice of minister
for baptism
Canon 742 § 1. “In case of emergency, any one can
baptize.”
Canon 742 § 2.“But if there is a priest,
he is preferred to a deacon, a deacon to a subdeacon, a cleric to a lay man and
a man to a woman, unless it is more convenient that a woman rather than a man
baptize, for decency's sake, or if a woman is better acquainted with the form
and mode of baptizing.”
Women may not distribute holy
communion
Canon 845, par. 1.. “The ordinary minister of holy communion
is only the priest.”
Canon 845. par. 2. “The
extraordinary minister of holy communion is the deacon, with permission of the
local bishop or the parish priest, only to be granted for a serious reason,
which may legitimately be presumed in a case of emergency.”
Relaxation. On the basis of a general Instruction , Fidei
Custos, released by the Congregation of Sacraments on April 30, 1969, which
concerns extraordinary distribution of Communion, lay women as well as nuns may
be in principle empowered to distribute Communion, under certain conditions.
But according to the order of succession described in § 3 of the
Instruction, by which the choice is made for extraordinary distributors, lay
women are listed in the last place. According to § 5 of the Instruction,
they are to be used only in emergencies, when a more suitable person cannot be
found—which can only mean a man or at least a nun! “... A woman of
special devoutness may be chosen in emergencies, namely whenever any other
suitable person cannot be found. ”
Girls or women may not be Mass servers
at the altar
Canon 813, § 2. “The mass server should not be a woman,
unless no man can be found and there is a good reason, and then on this
understanding that the woman responds from a distance and does in no way
approach the altar.”
Re-endorsement. “How far the liturgical task of women, to
which baptism gives them a right and duty will go, still needs to be studied
further; but, in the actual organization of the liturgy, women do not fulfil a
ministry around the altar, that is certain. For their ministry depends on the
will of the Church and the Catholic Church has not ever entrusted liturgical
ministry to women. Therefore, every arbitrary innovation in this matter shall
be considered a grave infringement of ecclesiastical discipline and will need
to be suppressed with firmness.” (Liturgical Commission, 25 January
1966).
“According to the liturgical norms handed on in the Church,
women, whether young girls, married women or nuns, are forbidden to serve the
priest at the altar, whether in church, in a home, a convent, a college or an
institute for women” (Third Instruction on the implementation of the
Constituion on the Liturgy, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 62 (1970) p. 700).
Only men can be ordained to Holy
Orders
Canon 968, § 1. “Only a baptized male can receive
sacred ordination.”
Men and women should sit separately
in church
Canon 1262, § 1. “It is desirable that, in harmony with
ancient Church order, the women in church be separated from the men.”
Women should have their heads veiled in
church
Canon 1262, § 2. “Men should attend Mass, either in
church or outside church, with bare heads, unless approved local custom or
special circumstances suggest otherwise; women, however, should have their
heads veiled and should be modestly dressed, especially when they approach the
table of the Lord.”
Sacred linen must first be washed by
men, before women touch them
Canon 1306, § 1. “Chalices, patens, purificators, palls
and corporals before being washed should only be touched by clerics who are
responsible for maintaining them. ”
Canon 1306, § 2.
“The first washing of purificators etc. should only be undertaken by a
cleric of the higher orders.”
Relaxation. The moto proprio “Pastorale Munus” of
Pope VI, 30 November 1963, allowed local Bishops to give permission also to
clerics of minor orders, lay religious and pious women to perform the first
washing of pawls, corporals and purificators (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 56
(1964) p. 10).
Women may not preach in church
Canon 1342, § 2“All lay people are forbidden to preach
in church, even if they belong to religious congregations.”
Relaxation. Vatican II, Constitution on the Liturgy,
allowed an exception. “The sacred celebration of the Word of God should be
promoted .... especially which lack a priest, in which case a deacon or another
man delegated by the Bishop can conduct the celebration.” (1964)
In 1965 the Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra
Liturgia gave a negative answer to the modest question whether an
appropriately prepared woman could take over the lector’s office in a mass
for women alone: the office of lector, it was answered, is a liturgical duty,
which is conferred upon men only. For this reason the Epistle is to be read by
the celebrant in the case mentioned. Notitiae, pub. by the Consilium ad
exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia, 1, 1965, pp. 139-140, n. 41 and
n. 42.
Women may not read out Sacred Scripture
in church
Relaxation. The “General Introduction to the Roman
Missal”, Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, ch. 3, art. 66,
which was released in 1969, gives permission to the Bishops’ Conference to
allow women to read the lessons preceding that of the Gospel, while remaining
outside the sanctuary, in case no man qualified for the duty of lector is
present. ( Missale Romanum, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanus, 1970, p. 45. )
The discrimination against woman contained in this regulation cannot be
overlooked: she is admitted to the function of lector only in emergency, and
the sanctuary is taboo for her.
The “Third Instruction concerning the orderly implementation of
the Constitution on the Liturgy, ” of November 5, 1970: declared in no. 7a
that the Bishops’ Conference may decide where the woman is to stand for
the reading. Acta Apostolicae Sedis 62 (1970), p. 700.
Women need to act through a male
procurator
“[In the canonization process] anyone of the faithful can request
that a case be instigated . . . . Men can act through themselves or through a
properly appointed procurator; women only through a procurator”, Canon
2004, § 1
John Wijngaards
Follow @JohnWijngaards
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