For those of you who don't have the Canons memorized, Title IV is the big bunch of stuff that deals with discipline of clergy. These are the rules that get applied when a cleric is heretical or abusive or...something. Revisions have been proposed, and lots of people don't like the proposed changes. The changes make the disciplinary process less adversarial and they include lay ministerial leaders. Those in favor of the changes say that non-adversarial solutions should be available for problems, and that lay ministers should be accountable too.
Those who don't like the changes--and they seem to be in the majority--say that the new Title IV proposals are too vague and that they invite cumbersome complaints against lay leaders for matters that should be dealt with in other ways.
Anyway, the first hearing on the Title IV proposals was tonight. Of 13 speakers, 11 spoke against the proposal. Diocesan leadership in Rhode Island (and in most of New England, for that matter) has been generally against the proposals.
Here's the ENS report. Here are the proposed changes and the current Title IV canons (PDF).
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