Dr Ed Peters: Canonical defection just got harder to prove

The Pontifical Commission for Legislative Texts has just issued a "Notification" that makes it more difficult to conclude that a given person has "defected by a formal act" from the Catholic Church. The Notification raises some thorny questions for canonists which need to be, and will be, addressed elsewhere; here, I only point to a strength in the Notification that rank-and-file Catholics are likely to overlook.

http://www.canonlaw.info/2006/04/canonical-defection-just-got-harder-to.html