Becoming a canon lawyer?

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ohshhhhmamas

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I’m about to start my Master of Arts in Theology and I have a few different ideas about what to do with it. One possibility is teaching, but what I’m really interested in is becoming a canon lawyer.

What are the job prospects for a lay woman to become a canon lawyer? My pastor told us that the Church is desperate for canon lawyers right now with so many retiring and not many new ones graduating. A current canon lawyer I met on the internet told me that many dioceses will pay for you to go canon law school in exchange for five years of service or so after graduation. Is that common? He told me someone with a canon law degree should be able to find a job easily in just about any diocese.

But then I read somewhere else that it’s actually really hard for a layperson to get a full time job as a canon lawyer and most only do it part time.

So what’s the truth? It’s something I think I’d be good at and would enjoy. I’m very motivated to spend the years in school, but I’d of course feel much more comfortable going if I wasn’t footing the bill myself. And I CERTAINLY don’t want to foot the bill myself if there are no full time job prospects out there after graduation. I’ve spent almost my entire adulthood so far underemployed. I don’t want to go through 4-5 more years of schooling and a bunch of new debt just to wind up underemployed again.

As I said, I’m just starting my Master of Theology program, so I have some time to figure this out, but any info you can give me would be a big help.

Thank you!
 
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I only know one canon lawyer, but his day job is as a civil lawyer. I am told, moreover, that most lay canon lawyers and a good share of clerical canon lawyers are also JDs. The best thing I can advise is to contact a lay canon lawyer directly and ask him your questions. One who comes to mind is Edward Peters: Dr. Edward Peters | Sacred Heart Major Seminary
 
I’ve thought about this myself (I have a J.D.), but each time I look into it, my trail ends at the realization that, in the U.S. anyway, the licentiate in canon law requires three years at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. As much as I’d love to do that, I’m past the point where I can go away for that long.

A lot of the older canon lawyer inquiry threads (2011 and earlier) on CAF have indicated a lack of job prospects, so it’s nice to your hear your pastor say that has changed. I’ll be interested to hear if any one has solid, updated info.
 
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ohshhhhmamas said:
What are the job prospects for a lay woman to become a canon lawyer? My pastor told us that the Church is desperate for canon lawyers right now with so many retiring and not many new ones graduating. A current canon lawyer I met on the internet told me that many dioceses will pay for you to go canon law school in exchange for five years of service or so after graduation. Is that common? He told me someone with a canon law degree should be able to find a job easily in just about any diocese.

But then I read somewhere else that it’s actually really hard for a layperson to get a full time job as a canon lawyer and most only do it part time.

So what’s the truth?
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I would say that it is somewhere in between, more toward the “it’s actually hard…to get a full time job as a canon lawyer.” When I graduated from canon law school (9 years ago), there were about 4 full time jobs available in the USA (at least, that’s how many were advertised) and that’s about how it is now (again, that’s what is advertised at, e.g., canonlawsocietyofamerica.org/employment/ ). So, it’s not as though every diocese or even a majority of dioceses have full time, open positions in the chancery/tribunal. At the same time, I think it is true that many dioceses could use part time help (I do some of that, too).

Yes, some dioceses have been willing to pay for schooling in exchange for a certain number of years of “service.” I didn’t go that route and don’t know how common it is.

Real information can only come from individual dioceses. You can certainly call around to the chancery/tribunal of whatever diocese(s) you would like to work in and see what they say. Things can change over the years, of course, but you could get a general idea of the prospects now.

Dan
 
Plus isn’t it safe to say that most of the bigger dioceses / archdioceses will send priests to school to become full time canon lawyers before they will hire someone?

I know in my archdiocese, there are a handful of priests with JCL and/or JCD.

Plus, it seems like every priest with a JD also has a JCD

God Bless
 
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phil19034 said:
Plus isn’t it safe to say that most of the bigger dioceses / archdioceses will send priests to school to become full time canon lawyers before they will hire someone?
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If there are willing/able/available priests, yes. The willing/available qualities can be the problematic part of the equation.

Dan
 
My pastor told me many dioceses are struggling to even staff parishes with the number of priests they have and don’t have priests to spare to send to canon law school, so they are hoping for more laypeople to get into the field.
 
I would not suggest obtaining a JCL without some concrete agreement with a diocese to sponsor and/or guarantee you a job afterward. It’s an expensive degree to pay for yourself, and unlike other graduate degrees has literally no other use than serving on a tribunal, job-wise.

It is true that more lay persons are being hired by tribunals, but the vast majority of canonists are clerics (priests and deacons), and only a priest can serve as the Judicial Vicar.

It’s good to hear that St. Paul’s and CUA are now offering distance learning. Makes things much easier for people.

Deacon Christopher
 
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