Dr Ed Peters: Possible apostasy by a cleric?

Possible apostasy by a cleric: why we have Canon 1364

However rarely one hopes such rules will be needed, the 1983 Code of Canon Law makes provision for things like apostasy and schism, loss of ecclesiastical office, and penal procedure precisely because our divinely founded Church is inhabited by people like you and me. In any case, "canonical norms by their very nature are meant to be applied" (John Paul II, Sacrae disciplinae leges, 25) and there's nothing like a real case to consider how law should illumine life.

According to a statement apparently issued by a Midwestern bishop (you can see it here, but the names are irrelevant), a permanent deacon notified the bishop that he had become a Mormon. The bishop in turn stated that the deacon had, among other things, lost the clerical state. Hmmm. Just like that? I wonder.

Read the rest at: http://www.canonlaw.info/2007/06/possible-apostasy-by-cleric-why-we-have.html