The Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis, promulgated the motu proprio Communis vita in 2019 that deals with the ipso facto dismissal of religious from their Institutes (can. 694). Religious have the duty to live in their own religious house observing a common life (can. 665 §1). Communis vita deals with cases of religious being illegitimately absent from their community (can. 665 §2) and who have become unreachable (and the situation irreparable). The article after first explaining the meaning of the document studies the following: the canonical order regarding the discharge ipso facto in the 1983 CIC, then indicates both the spiritual s to be protected concerning the common life and the necessary precautions for the application of the new canonical order.

On 15 August 2015 Pope Francis issued the Motu Proprio Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus (MIDI). In order to facilitate and speed up the marriage proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, the Pope renewed the specific norms for the procedure for determining the nullity of a marriage. The other procedural norms of the CIC/1983  were neither suppressed nor altered. The author of this article explains what the norm of can. 1678 §1 is about and where the renewal and continuity with the previous norm (can. 1679) consists in with regard to the full evidential of party statements in marriage annulment proceedings.

The Church possesses her very own legislation for cemeteries, which is the object of the present contribution. In this work, therefore, after an exposition of the etymology of the word cemetery and several other brief historical sketches regarding the institution of cemeteries, the author lays out the various canonical norms, including the new form of burial, so as to confront the difficulties facing the Church. Reference will also be made, where necessary, to ecclesiastical and civil law. In the end, the author outlines numerous practical aspects concerning the subject, leaving a deeper and more speculative treatment for another time.

Many of the norms of the 1983 Code of Canon Law mention the possibility of imposing on someone a provisional non-penal prohibition of the exercise his or her office, job, or sacred orders. In cases of this type it is possible to speak of a «non-penal suspension». The study provides a list of such norms and discusses the question of whether and how such a suspension may be imposed even outside of the specific cases that are mentioned in the norms.

In the varied options available within the legal sphere concerning the alleged abuse of minors, a canonical institute has recently been introduced in a way that is not explicitly provided by the current legislation, i.e. the so-called «administrative suspension» or «non-criminal suspension»: this refers to the imposition of a general prohibition from exercising the priestly ministry without the priest being held penally responsible for anything (i.e. without a crime and without a trial). Faced with
appeals for justice addressed to the Apostolic Signatura by certain priests affected by this administrative suspension, the Supreme Tribunal has developed a  jurisprudence that takes as the fundamental criterion of administrative legitimacy the principle of «proportionality» that must be observed by the ecclesiastical
authority so that an administrative provision may be maintained within the sphere of reasonability and does not assume the forms and purposes that are specific to a penal sanction.