The School of Canon Law is an ecclesiastical faculty preparing students for licentiate and doctorate degrees authorized by the Apostolic See. The school is a community of students, faculty, and staff working together for the purpose of the study of canon law in service to the Catholic Church, with particular attention to the needs and opportunities of the Church in the United States.
The purpose of the six-semester licentiate program is to help the student become acquainted with the whole corpus of Church law, understand it in terms of its theological, philosophical, and historical background, and learn the method and practice of scientific research. The level of research for the licentiate is that expected of professional canonists, specifically the exacting investigation of canonical questions encountered in curial, tribunal, and similar practice, and the articulation of one’s findings in written opinions, briefs, and the like.
In keeping with the Declaration on Christian Education (n. 11) of the Second Vatican Council, the curriculum affords clergy, religious, and lay persons a thorough, contemporary, scholarly, pastoral preparation for service to the Church in positions of canonical responsibility.
The personal guidance of the faculty is directed at every level of instruction and inquiry to the practical needs of canonists at the present time, as well as to thesis work, which will acquaint and equip students with the applied methods of canonical research and writing needed by both practitioners and scholars. |
