Are Catholic Bishops Above the Law?


By Judie Brown

According to recent news stories on the Obama administration’s effort to investigate the Bush administration's authorization of certain interrogation techniques, Attorney General Eric Holder and other Obama administration officials have said that no one is above the law. Regardless of your view of CIA operations, the truth is that there should not be a question about anybody being above the law. Without a proper regard for the law, chaos would reign.

Carry this a step further but in a slightly different direction. If we consider the Code of Canon Law, which is the body of laws governing the Catholic Church, we have to ask if these laws are subject to personal interpretation or are they in fact laws that should be uniformly interpreted and obeyed?

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