Faculty Profile
Presentation
The Faculty of Canon Law is an academic entity that pertains to “SagesseUniversity” in Beirut – Lebanon.
By fidelity to the ecclesial and educational mission of the Maronite Archdiocese of Beirut, the establishment of the Faculty of Canon Law in 1997, is the fruit of a long academic and cultural process conducted by Univeristé La Sagesse (ULS), since 1875.
This faculty, through its objectives and activities, finds its way forward by dialogue and required and defended research by the successive Maronite Archbishops of Beirut, since the late Msgr Joseph Debs, Founder of the Institute of Law, then, Msgr Paul Matar with whom the final decision of Founding the Faculty of Canon Law rested until his Excellence Msgr Paul Abdel Sater, current Archbishop, who continues working on the process of his predecessors through the renewal of the administration and management of the ULS.
The existence of a Faculty of Canon Law, in a country like Lebanon, is of a particular importance due to the multiplicity of personal status and religious courts, which hold a central role in the practices of worshippers and especially in the public life of citizens.
This particularity requires essentially an academic training for all generations of canonists. This training is based on the Church’s Magisterium, the commitment to the service of People of God, and motivated by the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law of Eastern Churches (CCEO) in 1990.
These factors have made it necessary to create a local faculty that provides this curriculum declared by the Fathers of the Church, in an oriental environment that is open to change and modernity.
The faculty, which was aggregated with Utriusque Iuris Institute of Pontifical Lateran University until September 2022, aims to grow and promote canonical disciplines in the light of the Law of the Gospel, to instruct and train students in research and teaching, but also in order to them to acquire the necessary competencies to fulfil certain particular ecclesiastical responsibilities.
This faculty aims to ensure the scientific and systematic teaching of Canon Law through its sources, institutions, and legislation, and initiate students to the knowledge of standards of the Latin and Oriental Codes.
The faculty of Canon Law is an academic unit within ULS. It is considered the unique center of Canon Law in the region delivering its teachings to the students in Lebanon and the neighbouring countries.
The aggregation, with the Pontifical Lateran University, was granted by the Decree of the Congregation for Catholic Education on January 3, 2000, and it conferred canonical and pontifical baccalaureate and licentiate in Canon Law.
In the light of new provisions of the Decree of the Congregation for Catholic Education “Instruction on the aggregation of institutes of higher studies” (December 8, 2020) concerning the ecclesiastic faculties, the faculty found it essential to modify its statutes according to spiritual instructions. These modifications came into effect at the beginning of the academic year 2021-2022.