| Before the Second Vatican Council, ecclesiastical legislation reflected uniformity throughout the entire Church. The Second Vatican Council however, placed greater emphasis on canonical institutes that best provided for the good of souls (salus animarum). Thus, to provide for the greater good of souls, c. 522 of the 1983 Code determines it is necessary that a parish priest has the benefit of stability in office and so he is to be appointed for an indeterminate period. The diocesan bishop can appoint him for a specified period only if the bishops' conference has, by decree, allowed this.;Our project focused on a critical analysis of the complementary norms of CBCN to determine whether they complement the universal law or go contrary to it. Since the end of Canon Law is the salvation of souls, we gave special attention to the institute that best provides for this objective, that is, the office of the parish priest.;Our study shows that CBCN performed fairly well in its complementary norms, putting into consideration the time the norms were published and how fast they were put together. However, some of the decrees are inadequate and one might be tempted to say that such decrees are contrary to law ( contra legem). We consider them apart from the law in view of the recognitio they have received from the Holy See.;We concluded our study with some suggestions that we hope could assist CBCN in the review of its particular complementary norms.;The decree of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (= CBCN), in response to the prescript of c. 522, is defective and fails to provide for the required stability for the office of a parish priest. The confusion caused by this single decree raised the question as to the status of the rest of the decrees of the conference that might give rise to similar or related problems. This situation informed the choice of our topic---the relationship between universal law and particular law: an analysis of the particular complementary norms of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria. |
