Canon Law in The Books Store

Here is an entirely new and comprehensive commentary by canon lawyers from North America and Europe, with a revised English translation of the Code. It reflects the enormous developments in canon law since the publication of the original commentary.

New features:

o A focus on the lived experience of the Latin Church since the promulgation of the 1983 Code
o Inclusion of significant canonical developments made since 1983 by the Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, as well as recent Papal statements
o An accounting of disputed canonical questions such as lay exercises of jurisdiction
o An effort to take into consideration the 1990 Eastern Code
o An effort to engage other commentaries on the 1983 code that have been published since its promulgation

An indispensable pastoral reference work, this book belongs in every parish, rectory, university and seminary library.

These and other debated questions are addressed by an international roster of outstanding experts on early Judaism and early Christianity, writing from diverse affiliations and perspectives, who present the history of discussion and offer their own assessments of the current status.

Here is the only book that explains fully in lay terms the grounds and procedures by which Roman Catholics who have undergone civil divorces can also have their former marriages annulled by the Church.

In the last decade alone, annulements in the United States have increased from 350 to over 30,000. At present, there are an estimated eight million divorced American Catholics, banned from full participation in the Church if the remarry without obtaining an annulment. Many of these people could obtain annulments -- yet, until the publication of Annulment, the lack of proper information and guidance has discouraged the majority of them.

This book makes available the rights of divorce Catholics under the Revised Code of Canon Law, which is now in effect. In everyday language, this authoritative handbook takes readers step by step through the process, defines the laws as they now exist, sorts through misconceptions and fears surrounding annulment procedures, dicusses the meaning and rationale behind the rules, lays out all the grounds (including the new psychological grounds), examines all factors (including costs), defines the various apporaches, and provides samples of the forms involved.

The author, a lawyer himself, consulted with canon lawyers, priests, and laypeople, -- some of whom have already used his manual with success.Annulment offers hope and solid help to the increasing number of people directly and indirectly affected by the divorce-remarriage-annulment problem. Zwack cuts cleanly through the Gordian knot of uncertainty to point the way for realistic, clear, effective solutions to this longstanding, anguished problem.