Choosing the name for a child according to Polish and Canon Law
Tomasz Rakoczy
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin , PolandAbstract
First of all, it is the parental responsibility to choose the name for a child. When parents are about to select the name, they are obliged to follow Polish and Canon Law regulations. Polish legislator is equipped with the legal instruments allowing to deny the registration of a name. However, the regulations of those instruments are very general; thus, the state cannot excessively interfere with the parents’ decisions. The abovementioned regulations contain Recommendations edited by Polish Language Council. As far as the Code of Canon Law is concerned, the Church requires the parents not to choose the names that are foreign to Christian sensibility. When it comes to Polish reality, Polish Bishops’ Conference instruct the parents to choose Catholic names. The question arises: Is the choice of the Catholic parents respected by the Polish legal regulations? Moreover, it should be also taken into consideration, what names are actually, nowadays, given to the children.
Keywords:
name of child, civil law, canon law, parental responsibility, Recommendations of Polish Language Council, Instruction of Polish Bishops’ ConferenceReferences
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The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
