School of Canon Law

 

 

The School of Canon Law strives to prepare canonists with a deep theoretical and practical knowledge of Church law, which helps them develop legal skills with pastoral sensibility, while meeting the practical demands of legal praxis among God's people.

English brochure


Teaching follows a systematic method. It attempts to integrate the many juridical institutions emerging from the study of the Church’s Law within the diverse branches of canonical science. All this, in conformity with the Church’s vision of herself as expressed in the Second Vatican Council.

The program’s realist perspective helps the student to appreciate the dimension of justice that belongs to the salvific goods of the Church even prior to their reception in positive law.  This metaphysical realism offers a much richer viewpoint than the old positivistic outlook, which still influences some currents of canonical thought.  Students learn to seek justice while exercising legal prudence in fidelity to sound ecclesiastical tradition.
The program integrates theoretical study with courses on legal praxis.

The School has a large number of permanent professors as well as many prestigious visiting professors from the Roman Curia and from all over the world.

The School’s research and teaching are enriched by the staff’s experience in various dicasteries of the Holy See and in the Tribunals of the Vicariate of Rome. Close links to and regular academic collaboration with colleagues from other universities of Rome and of other countries also enrich the School, along with the theological research and collaboration of the School of Theology.

 

Sezione: 

In evidenza

Registration is now open for the 2025–2026 edition of the Joint Diploma in Integral Ecology, a collaborative initiative of the Pontifical Universities and Athenaea of Rome aimed at promoting the vision and mission of Pope Francis’s Laudato si’.

The Joint Diploma takes place over the course of one academic year (November 2025 – June 2026) and is divided into six modules, corresponding to the six chapters of Laudato si’. Each module includes two subsections designed to cover all areas related to current ecological challenges - from theology to philosophy, from economics to socio-cultural and political issues, from scientific analysis to faith and spirituality.

Our University is participating in the Jubilee of the Educational World, which will take place from October 27 to November 1, 2025. The celebrations will open with a Holy Mass presided over by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square on Monday, October 27 at 5:30 pm, to mark the opening of the academic year. To allow students to attend, classes will be suspended on that day. Ticket information.

In the following days, conferences, exhibitions, and a meeting between the Pope and students are planned.

Rome, October 6, 2025

Dear students, faculty, staff, and alumni,

As we embark on this new academic year, my first thought is one of profound gratitude to the Lord for the celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of our University. These have been intense and emotionally rich months: the photographic exhibition allowed us to relive, year by year, the moments that have marked our history - from our origins in 1984 to the audience with the late Pope Francis in 2023; the shared choice of our new institutional motto, Omnes traham ad meipsum, has provided a luminous synthesis of our mission for the future; and finally, the tribute to the "pioneers" has shown us with gratitude the human and spiritual roots from which everything began.

On Tuesday, October 7, 2025, the inauguration ceremony for the new academic year 2025/26 was held. On that occasion, four Honorary Doctorates were conferred by the various Schools.

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