Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers meets in Rome

October 28, 2024

On 24 – 27 September 2024, the Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers met in Rome, celebrating its silver jubilee, for comparative study of the subject of synodality in the two systems of canon law. The Colloquium was hosted at the Angelicum (Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas) in Rome thanks to the offices of Fr Hyacinthe Destivelle OP, Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies, and Fr Loïc-Marie Le Bot OP, Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law.

The Colloquium opened with His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, launching the book Listening to the West: Synodality in Western Ecclesial Traditions (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2023). Following this, Professor Norman Doe of Cardiff University delivered a lecture  ‘Canon Law, Ecumenism, and Synodality’. Sister Nathalie Becquart, Under-Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, responded. All three presentations can be seen online.

During the subsequent days of the Colloquium papers were presented and discussed. In addition, as part of the silver jubilee celebrations, Norman Doe’s play, Thrice to Rome, was performed at the Palazzo della Cancelleria and a jubilee dinner was hosted by the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Christopher Trott. To conclude, an agreed statement of joint principles was agreed.

It is hoped that a full report of proceedings will be included in a future edition of the Ecclesiastical Law Journal, and the papers presented may also be published.