Folia Theologica et Canonica 4. 26/18 (2015)
RECENSIONS
280 RECENSIONS Codex iuris canonici - Az Egyházi Törvénykönyv (official Latin text with Hungarian translation and comments; edited, translated and annotated by Card. Peter Erdő), Szent István Társulat. Budapest 20155. pp. 943 After a long expectation the fifth, revised bilingual edition of the Code of Canon Law (1983) has been published at the end of 2015 (Latin - Hungarian text) thanks to Card. Peter Erdos’s minute work. The first Latin - Hungarian bilingual edition of the New Code of Canon Law appeared soon after when it came into effect on November 27* 1983, namely in 1984. edited by the Saint Stephan Society Editing House. This new edition is a very remarkable occurrence for the Hungarian ecclesiastical tribunals, the instruction of canon law, and for the better understanding of the internal law of the Catholic Church. This occurrence particularly calls attention to that indispensable scholarly work which was done in the fifties and sixties by Archbishop József Bánk, then based on the detailed analysis of the renewed canon law by Peter Erdő, whose precise work has formed the Hungarian technical terms and language of canon law. Peter Erdő used the Hungarian traditional legal and theological expressions to develop this new terminology. It is the essential reason for that very clear and logical Hungarian canonical language which nowadays is used in any Hungarian speaking territory. The New Code of Canon Law was promulgated in original form on January 25'h 1983 by Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) who was canonized in 2014. The revised Code has replaced regarding the Latin Church the former Codex iuris canonici, promulgated by Pope Benedict XV in 1917. Blessed John XXIII (1958-1963) was the one who initiated on January 25* 1959 together with a Roman diocesan council and an Ecumenical Council (i.e. Second Vatican Council) the reform of the canon law. With many other experts, from Hungary József Bánk was active contributor of this revision, particularly in the field of impediments of marriages. The documents of the Second Vatican Council have taken place in harmony in the New Code’s text, which followed the triple structure of the council’s concept on the Church, i.e. governing, teaching, and sanctifying mission of the Church. It is supplied obviously with the temporal goods, sanctions, and processes of the Church. After a long preparation, Pope John Paul II convoked a plenary session for October 20* 1981 and its work had been ended on October 28*. when the Latin text was ready for promulgation. Nevertheless, other linguistic and style corrections had been done until April 22nd 1982. The current Code of Canon Law (1983) is introduced by Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution Sacrae disciplinae leges which summarizes the importance of the canonical norm-system and its close relationship to the daily life of the Church since her foundation by Jesus Christ. It also emphasizes the gradual crystallization of the canonical regulation in the Church’s history which concluded into the codified form of the canonical system. After the apostolic consti-
