On November 21^st, 2011, at the LUMSA University in Rome, an official announcement was made regarding the symposium being organized by the John Paul II Foundation (Vatican) and the International Institute of Cannon Law & Comparative Law of Religions being held in Lugano, Switzerland. The Conference: “John Paul II – great legislator of the Church: foundations, innovations and perspectives” will take place in the Faculty of Theology in Lugano, March 22-23, 2012.

During the announcement, Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, president of the Foundation, underlined how blessed John Paul II was a great Pope who demonstrated this, in many ways and in different areas of Church life.

The symposium will address the question: was the Holy Father a great legislator because of having promulgated during his pontificate – as the first pope in Church history – two codex of Cannon Law or are there other reasons for such a statement?

Rev. Professor Libero Georsa, director of the Institute stated the symposium program will enable to demonstrate bases for new hermeneutic of ecclesiastical law established by John Paul II and new perspectives initiated by him, to be applied in Church life.

Lectures will be delivered by distinguished professors of Cannon Law and of other science disciplines such as: Rev. Professor L. Gerosa (Lugano), Professor F. D’Agostino (Rome), Msgr J. I. Arrieta (Vatican), Professor G. Dalla Torre (Rome), Msgr. T. Pieronek (Cracow), Professor O. Fumagalli Carulli (Milan), Professor A. Riccardi (Rome), Msgr. C. Vasil (Vatican) and Cardinal K. Koch (Vatican).

The Symposium will be made possible thanks to the financial support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, as well as other local institutions and private donors.

Fr. Andrzej Dobrzyński

John Paul II Pontificate’s Center for Documentation and Research