Ivan Žužek

Prof. Ivan Žužek SJ was born in Ljubljana, capital city of the Republic of Slovenija, on 2 December 1924. He was a member of the Society of Jesus. He was the professor of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome. He was the rector of the same Institute from 1967 to 1973. When Pontifical Commission for the Revision of Eastern Code (CCEO) was instituted in June 1973, he was appointed to the post of General Secretary, and continued in this post till the dissolution of the Commission after the promulgation of the "Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium" (CCEO). At the beginning of 1991 he was appointed Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of legislative Texts. In this Council he served as Under-Secretary until his retirement in June 1995. However he has remained a consultor to the same Council as well as being a consultor to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

His main works are: "Index Analyticus Codicis Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium" and "Understanding the Eastern Code"

Ivan Žužek had a dramatic life story. As a young man in Nazi-occupied Slovenija, he managed to escape to England, only to be put on a train by British authorities for return to Eastern Europe. Along the way he jumped out and ended up in Italy, where he joined the Jesuits. Colleagues say he was a great scholar and an exemplary religious, as well as fierce papal loyalist. (If there is a gentle criticism of Žužek, it is that his rock-solid fidelity to Rome sometimes led to a “Latinization” of Eastern traditions, which will perhaps be addressed in a future revision of the code). The church lost one of its great canon lawyers with the death of Jesuit Fr. Ivan Žužek in 2004.

External links

*www.nationalcatholicreporter.org

*www.pontificalorientalinstitute.com

*www.pio.urbe.it

See also

CCEO

Pontifical Oriental Institute