Join the Canonically Speaking host Fr Paul Hayward as he speaks with Mgr Gordon Read.

Mgr Read was ordained for the diocese of Brentwood on 31 July 1976, and studied canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he obtained a JCL in 1979. He is currently parish priest of St Mary Immaculate & The Holy Archangels, Kelvedon, and has served as Judicial Vicar and Chancellor of the Diocese of Brentwood since July 1985.

He has produced well over 80 articles and commentaries on canon law matters, most of them for the Newsletter of the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland, of which he was President between 2013 and 2016, and of which he is a current Trustee. He has been given Life Membership of the Society in recognition of his services.

In this inaugural episode of the series, join the Canonically Speaking host Fr Paul Hayward as he speaks with Dr Michael J. Mazza, a civil and canon lawyer who advocates on behalf of clerics, religious, and lay people. He can be reached at canonicaladvocacy.com.

Dr Mazza has degrees from the College of St Thomas (BA, Theology, summa cum laude), the Notre Dame Apostolic Catechetical Institute (MA, Religious Studies), the Marquette University Law School (JD, summa cum laude), and the SantaCroce Pontifical University in Rome (JCL, magna cum laude, and JCD, summa cum laude). His doctoral thesis in canon law is entitled The Right of a Cleric to Bona Fama.

The book discussed in this podcast is volume 1 of That Which Is Just in the Church: An Introduction to Canon Law by Carlos José Errázuriz, translated by Michael Joseph Mazza, 2023.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/That-Which-Just-Church-Introduction/dp/1587318946

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

Javier Hervada: Critical Introduction to Natural Law (2006 translation),

Critical Introduction to Natural Right(2020 translation);

Eduardo Baura, Thierry Sol: The Church, Persons, and Juridical Goods: An Introduction to Canon Law, 2023;

Loic-Marie Le Bot, Petar Popović (eds.): The Concept of ‘Ius’ and the Nature of Law in Thomas Aquinas, 2025.

Host - Fr Paul Hayward

Producer - Charlie Brown

Music - Solfeggietto in C minor - C.P.E. Bach played by Imma Setiadi [https://www.immasetiadi.com]

Artwork - the opening page of Gratian’s Decretum or Concordia discordantium canonum.