„OLD AND NEW IN HARMONY: IMPORTANCE OF FORMER SOURCES OF CANON LAW FOR THE CURRENT CHURCH’S DISCIPLINE

It is clear, that one of the chief characteristics of canonical material, which has be been kept throughout a period of more than two thousand years – not depending on its date of origin – is its “sacred character”. The Bible, the Holy Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church are basic and essential sources in the Church’s life, therefore these are also indispensable bases for canon law as a norm-system which regulates the relations among persons and objects which participate in her very life. In order to interpret correctly these norms, the canonist needs to know – at least on a basic level – the Corpus iuris canonici, including acquiring the meaning and method of the auxiliary abbreviation system. Good routine in the canonical Latin is an elementary presumption by the Code. These indicated capacities were served already by the annotated edition of CIC (1917) which contained the sources of each canon in abbreviated form, and it is true regarding the new Code of Canon Law too. Canon law itself is in a close relation to the pastoral and sacrament-administering life of the Church and its content together with its goal are defined by her funder. This is therefore that stability which among alterations of external conditions signifies the immutability in the historically institutionalized Church’s life.