1983 Code of Canon Law in the context of Codification (law)

Enclosed religious orders are religious orders whose members strictly separate themselves from the affairs of the external world. The term cloistered is synonymous with enclosed. In the Catholic Church, enclosure is regulated by the code of canon law, either the Latin code or the Oriental code, and also by the constitutions of the specific order. It is practised with a variety of customs according to the nature and charism of the community in question. This separation may involve physical barriers such as walls and grilles (that is, a literal cloister), with entry restricted for other people and certain areas exclusively permitted to the members of the convent. Outsiders may only temporarily enter this area under certain conditions (for example, if they are candidates for the order, doctors or craftsmen). The intended purpose for such enclosure is to prevent distraction from prayer and the religious life and to keep an atmosphere of silence.

Under certain circumstances, exceptions may be granted for enclosed men or women to leave the enclosure temporarily or permanently.

In the Catholic Church, an association of the Christian faithful or simply association of the faithful (Latin: consociationes christifidelium), sometimes called a public association of the faithful, is a group of baptized persons, clerics or laity or both together, who, according to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, jointly foster a more perfect life or promote public worship or Christian teaching, or who devote themselves to other works of the apostolate.

A 20th-century resurgence of interest in lay societies culminated in the Second Vatican Council, but lay ecclesial societies have long existed in forms such as sodalities (defined in the 1917 Code of Canon Law as associations of the faithful constituted as an organic body), confraternities (similarly defined as sodalities established for the promotion of public worship), medieval communes, and guilds.

In the Catholic Church, a titular church (Italian: titolo cardinalizio) is a church in Rome that is assigned to a member of the clergy who is created a cardinal. These are Catholic churches in the city, within the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Rome, that serve as honorary designations symbolising the relationship of cardinals to the pope, the bishop of Rome. According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, a cardinal may assist his titular church through counsel or through patronage, although "he has no power of governance over it, and he should not for any reason interfere in matters concerning the administration of its good, or its discipline, or the service of the church".

There are two ranks of titular churches: titles and deaconries. A title (Latin: titulus) is a titular church that is assigned to a cardinal priest (a member of the second order of the College of Cardinals), whereas a deaconry (Latin: diaconia) is normally assigned to a cardinal deacon (a member of the third order of the college). If a cardinal priest or a cardinal deacon is later appointed a cardinal bishop (a member of the first order of the college), he is typically transferred from his titular church to the vacant title of a suburbicarian diocese in the vicinity of Rome. Patriarchs of Eastern Catholic Churches who are created cardinal bishops are not assigned titles of suburbicarian dioceses.

The Eastern Catholic canon law is the law of the 23 Catholic sui juris (autonomous) particular churches of the Eastern Catholic tradition. Eastern Catholic canon law includes both the common tradition among all Eastern Catholic Churches, now chiefly contained in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, as well as the particular law proper to each individual sui juris particular Eastern Catholic Church. Oriental canon law is distinguished from Latin canon law, which developed along a separate line in the remnants of the Western Roman Empire, and is now chiefly codified in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEC; Latin: Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium, abbreviated CCEO) is the title of the 1990 work which is a codification of the common portions of the canon law for the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in the Catholic Church. It is divided into 30 titles and has a total of 1546 canons. The code entered into force in 1991.

The western Latin Church is governed by its own particular code, the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

In the liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church, the term ordination refers to the means by which a person is included in one of the holy orders of bishops, priests, or deacons. The teaching of the Catholic Church on ordination, as expressed in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Ordinatio sacerdotalis (an apostolic letter), is that only a Catholic male validly receives ordination (ex opere operato), and "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." In other words, the male priesthood is not considered by the church a matter of policy but an unalterable requirement of God. As with priests and bishops, the church ordains only men as deacons.

In the Catholic Church, a parish (Latin: parochia) is a stable community of the faithful within a particular church, whose pastoral care has been entrusted to a parish priest (Latin: parochus), under the authority of the diocesan bishop. It is the lowest ecclesiastical subdivision in the Catholic episcopal polity, and the primary constituent unit of a diocese or eparchy. Parishes are extant in both the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches. In the 1983 Code of Canon Law, parishes are constituted under cc. 515–552, entitled "Parishes, Pastors, and Parochial Vicars."

Eucharist (Koine Greek: εὐχαριστία, romanized: eucharistía, lit. 'thanksgiving') is the name that Catholic Christians give to the sacrament by which, according to their belief, the body and blood of Christ are present in the bread and wine consecrated during the Catholic eucharistic liturgy, generally known as the Mass. The definition of the Eucharist in the 1983 Code of Canon Law as the sacrament where Christ himself “is contained, offered, and received” points to the three aspects of the Eucharist according to Catholic theology: the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Holy Communion, and the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

The name Eucharist comes from the Greek word eucharistia which means 'thanksgiving" and which refers to the accounts of the last supper in Matthew 26:26–28, Mark 14:22–24, Luke 22:19–20 and 1 Corinthians 11:23–29, all of which narrate that Jesus "gave thanks" as he took the bread and the wine.

The Corpus Juris Canonici (lit. 'Body of Canon Law') is a collection of significant sources of the Canon law of the Catholic Church that was applicable to the Latin Church. It was replaced by the 1917 Code of Canon Law which went into effect in 1918. The 1917 Code was later replaced by the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the codification of canon law currently in effect for the Latin Church.

The Corpus Juris Canonici was used in canonical courts of the Catholic Church such as those in each diocese and in the courts of appeal at the Roman Curia such as the Roman Rota.

An institute of consecrated life is an association of faithful in the Catholic Church canonically erected by competent church authorities to enable men or women who publicly profess the evangelical counsels by religious vows or other sacred bonds "through the charity to which these counsels lead to be joined to the Church and its mystery in a special way." They are defined in the 1983 Code of Canon Law under canons 573–730. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has ecclesiastical oversight of institutes of consecrated life.

The more numerous form of these are religious institutes, which are characterized by the public profession of vows, life in common as brothers or sisters, and a degree of separation from the world. They are defined in the 1983 Code of Canon Law under canons 607–709. The other form is that of secular institutes, in which the members live in the world, and work for the sanctification of the world from within.

In the Catholic Church, a secular institute is one of the forms of consecrated life recognized in Church law (1983 Code of Canon Law Canons 710–730).

Secular consecrated persons profess the Evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience while living in the world, as compared to members of a religious institute who belong to a particular congregations, often with specific apostolates.

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, deposition, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from holy orders and the status of being a member of the clergy.

The term defrocking originated in the ritual removal of vestments as a penalty against clergy that was eventually codified within the Roman Pontifical. Contemporary Latin Catholic canon law does not contain such a ritual, leading some to consider it an inaccurate description of laicization. However, others consider "defrocking" a synonym to laicization that is especially popular in English. While the ritual removal of the vestments no longer exists, canon law still prohibits the wear of a clerical collar by laicized priests.

The term ratum sed non consummatum (Latin: ratified but not consummated) or ratum et non consummatum (Latin: ratified and not consummated) refers to a juridical-sacramental category of marriage in Catholic matrimonial canon law. If a matrimonial celebration takes place (ratification) but the spouses have not yet engaged in intercourse (consummation), then the marriage is said to be a marriage ratum sed non consummatum. The Tribunal of the Roman Rota has exclusive competence to dispense from marriages ratum sed non consummatum, which can only be granted for a "just reason". This process should not be confused with the process for declaring the nullity of marriage, which is treated of in a separate title of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.