Children's Rights and Obligations in Canon Law

Mary McAleese, JDL (2019), Pontifical Gregorian University, is Professor of Children, Religion and Law at the University of Glasgow. She is both a civil and canon lawyer and was President of Ireland 1997-2011. Her publications include Quo Vadis, Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law (Columba Press, 2012).

Acknowledgments

List of Abrreviations

 Introduction

 1Objective and Scope of the Research

 2State of the Question

 3Methodology

 1Children as Rights Holders

 1A basic framework

 1.1 Internal Considerations

 1.2 External Considerations

 2A Brief History of the Development of Children’s Rights

 2.1 Conflicting Views of Childhood from Antiquity to the Modern Era

 2.2 Early Christian Teachings and Children’s Rights

 2.3 The Influence of the Old and New Testaments

 2.4 Church, State and Patria Potestas

 2.5 The Impact of the Enlightenment and Romanticism

 2.6 Children’s Rights in the Early Twentieth Century

 2.7 The United Nations and Children’s Rights

 3Background to Children’s Rights in Current Canon Law

 3.1 The Second Vatican Council and Children

 3.2 Children’s Rights in Drafting the 1983 Code of Canon Law

 3.3 The Idea of Rights of the Faithful

 3.4 Children’s Rights in Post CIC Church Documents

 2The Code of Canon Law and Children

 1Terminology

 1.1 The Canonical «person»

 1.2 The Word «child»

 1.3 Age and the Child in Canon Law

 1.4 The Unborn

 1.5 Minor

 1.6 Infant

 1.7 Non sui compos

 1.8 Post Infancy Minority to Adulthood

 2Who is a «child» in Canon Law

 2.1 Problems with the Term «child»

 2.2 Interpreting the Terms Pueri (Children) and iuvenis (youth)

 2.3 Problems with the Terms Infans (Infant) and Minor (Minor)

 2.4 Use of the Term «Childhood»

 3The Canonical Effects of Baptism on Children

 3.1 The Spiritual/Theological Effects of Baptism

 3.2 The Ecclesial/Juridic Consequences of Baptism

 3.3 The Paedobaptized and Credobaptized

 4Completing Sacramental Initiation and Its Canonical Effects

 4.1 The Meaning of «full Christian initiation»

 4.2 Initiation and Membership

 4.3 Penance

 4.4 The Sacrament of the Eucharist and Children’s Rights and Obligations

 4.5 The Sacrament of Confirmation and Children’s Rights and Obligations

 5The Rights and Obligations of Others Which Affect Children

 5.1 Rights and Obligations of the Child’s Parents

 5.2 Church Rights and Obligations Regarding the Child’s Education and Upbringing

 5.3 Teachers

 5.4 Rights and Obligations of a Child’s Godparents/Sponsors

 5.5 Rights and Obligations of the Child’s Pastor

 5.6 Rights and Obligations of the Child’s Diocesan Bishop or Ordinary

 5.7 Rights and Obligations of the Child’s Catholic Community

 5.8 Rights and Obligations of the Pope and Magisterium with Regard to the Child

 5.9 The Catholic Child’s All-Embracing Catholic Milieu

 6Children’s Rights and Obligations in the CIC

 6.1 The Basic Canons: Cann. 11, 96, 97, 98, 111 and 112

 6.2 Rights and Obligations of Infant Minors from Birth to Age Seven

 6.3 Infant Minors’ Rights to the Sacraments

 6.4 Rights and Obligations of Minors Aged Seven and Upwards

 6.5 The CIC and the Child’s Evolving Capacities

 7Rights and Obligations of the Christian Faithful and Laity

 7.1 Rights and Obligations of the Christian Faithful. The Introductory Canons, 204–207

 7.2 Rights and Obligations of the Christian Faithful: Canons 208–223

 7.3 General Rights and Obligations of the Laity Canons 224–231

 7.4 Additional General Rights and Obligations of the Faithful and the Laity

 8Rights of the Non-Baptized Child

 3Canon Law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the

 1The Holy See and the CRC in Dispute

 2The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989

 2.1 Children’s Rights under the UNCRC

 2.2 Compliance with the UNCRC

 3The Holy See and the United Nations

 4The Holy See and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

 4.1 Distinct but Related, the Holy See, the Vatican City State and the Catholic Church

 5The Holy See’s UN Treaty Compliance Reports

 5.1 The Holy See and the CERD398

 5.2 The Holy See and the CRC

 6Canon Law and the uncrc – An Inconclusive State of Affairs

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index of Authors