Michael Mazza
Author, “Memoranda of Understanding: Civil Intrusions on the Ius Nativum of the Church to Assign and Discipline its Clergy?” in Periodica de Re Canonica, vol. 114, no. 2: 259-314 (2025).
Author, “Who’s Really Calling the Shots at U.S. Diocesan Chanceries?” in First Things (24 February 2025).
Author, “L’eclissi della certezza morale nei casi di cattiva condotta sessuale dei chierici negli USA,” in La giustizia penale nella Chiesa: Tutela della vittima e garanzie dell-imputato, Davide Cito, Massimo del Pozzo, and Marc Teixidor, eds., Rome: Edizioni Santa Croce (2025): 457-469.
Author, “Is the Internal Forum under attack? The status of the sacramental seal and the internal forum in Church and State in the USA,” The Jurist, vol. 80, no. 1: 151-196 (2024).
Author, “Civil Suits by Catholic Priests: A Status Report,” in Catholic World Report (1 April 2024).
Author, “Moral Certainty in Uncertain Times: The Importance of Standards of Proof when Responding to Accusations of Clerical Misconduct,” The Jurist, vol. 79, no. 2: 285-323 (2023).
Translator, The Church, Persons, and Juridical Goods: An Introduction to Canon Law, by Eduardo Baura and Theirry Sol, Montréal: Wilson & Lafleur (2023).
Translator, That Which is Just in the Church: An Introduction to Canon Law, by Carlos José Errázuriz, South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press (2023).
Author, “Protecting the Right to Reputation,” Studia Canonica, vol. 57, no. 1: 145-170 (2023).
Author, “The Importance of the Value of Reputation,” in Homiletic & Pastoral Review (July-August 2023).
Author, “Canon Law Conundrum: When Moral Certainty is Neither Moral Nor Certain,” on the website “BeyondTheseStoneWalls.com” (May 3, 2023).
Reviewer, Le rapport Sauvé, une manipulation? [The Sauvé Report: A Manipulation?], a book by Fr. Michel Viot and Yohan Picquart, in Church, Communication and Culture, vol. 8, no. 1: 128-131 (March 2023).
Author, “The Canonical Tradition Valuing the Right to Reputation,” Revista Española de Derecho Canónico, vol. 79, no. 193: 515-555 (March 2023).
Author, “Defending a Cleric’s Right to Reputation and the Sexual Abuse Scandal in the Catholic Church,” Tulsa Law Review, vol. 58, no. 1: 77-97 (December 2022).
Author, “Bona Fama in an Age of ‘Transparency’: Publishing Lists of ‘Credibly Accused’ Clerics, The Jurist, vol. 78, no. 2: 445-476 (2022).
Author, The Right of a Cleric to Bona Fama, JCD Dissertation at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, Rome (July 2022).
Reviewer, “The Power of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to Derogate from Prescription: An Evaluation of the Legality and Justice of the 2002 Rescript,” a JCD dissertation by Brian Thomas Austin, in The Jurist 78, vol. 1 (2022): 358-61.
Author, “Canon Law, Civil Law, and the Current Crisis in the Church: Reflections of a Civil Lawyer Studying Canon Law in Rome,” in Homiletic & Pastoral Review (25 November 25 2019).
Author, “SEC Registration,” co-author (with Clifford E. Kirsch) of Chapter 8 in the Practicing Law Institute’s treatise Variable Annuities & Variable Life Insurance Regulation (2011).
Author, “A New Look at an Old Debate: Life Tenure and the Article III Judge,” 39 Gonzaga Law Review 131 (2004).
Author, “May a Catholic University Hire a Catholic Faculty?” 78 Notre Dame Law Review 1329 (2003) (examining the applicability of Ex Corde Ecclesiae and the Code of Canon Law in the United States).
Author, “Should Clergy Hold the Priest-Penitent Privilege?” 82 Marquette Law Review 171 (1998) (discussing the status of the seal of the confessional under American civil law).
- Winner, Scribes Law Review National Competition; American Society of Writers on Legal Subjects, 1999
Author, “The Rise and Fall of Part-Time Legal Education in Wisconsin,” 81 Marquette Law Review 1049 (1998).
- First-prize winner (shared), State Sesquicentennial Writing Competition; Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1998
- Presenter, “The Rights and Duties of Clerics,” Formation Class, St. Francis de Sales Seminary, Milwaukee, WI (29 Jan 2025)
- Presenter, “L’eclissi della certezza morale nei casi di cattiva condotta sessuale dei chierici negli USA,” at the canon law conference “La Giustizia Penale Nella Chiesa: Tutela della vittima e garanzie dell’imputato,” held at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome, Italy (10 April 2024)
- “Defending Accused Priests,” podcast with Dr. Felix Menéndez, Court Administrator of the Tribunal of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta in Atlanta, GA (23 February 2024)
- Address to the Seminarians of the Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri, Denton, NE (2 February 2024)
- “The Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis: Rights and Responsibilities,” part of the “Collective Wisdom Series” at St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Summit, NJ (7 December 2023)
- “Rights, Responsibilities, and Reputation: Canon Law, Civil Law, and Justice in a ‘Post-Scandal’ Church,” formation talk to seminarians at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology, Hales Corners, WI (6 December 2023)
- “The Rights and Duties of the Faithful,” a presentation to a young adult group at St. Stanislaus Parish, Milwaukee, WI (4 December 2023)
- “The Vulnerable Person and the Law of the Church: Are Accused Priests ‘Vulnerable Persons’?, at the “Dust of the Earth: On Persons” Conference at the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame (4 November 2023)
- “The Eclipse of Moral Certainty and the Importance of Standards of Proof,” at the Annual Conference of the Catholic Bar Association at the Scalia School of Law in Arlington, VA (27 October 2023)
- “The Nature of Law, the Role of Justice in the Church, and the Vocation of a Canon Lawyer,” a Career Day Speech to Students at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA (20 October 2023)
- “Justice in the Church: Do Catholics Have Rights?” at a meeting of the Ventura/North Los Angeles (CA) Chapter of Legatus International (19 October 2023)
- “Justice in the Church: The Rights and Duties of Catholics” at a meeting of the Santa Barbara (CA) Chapter of Legatus International (18 October 2023)
- “Standards of Proof in Preliminary Investigations,” at the Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting of the National Diocesan Attorneys Association in Oklahoma City, OK (14 October 2023)
- “Independent Review Board Webinar,” Men of Melchizedek (21 September 2023)
- “La garanzia del diritto di difesa nelle procedure penali amministrative” (The guarantee of the right of defense in administrative penal procedures), Alumni Webinar on the Discere Platform of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Italy (7 June 2023)
- “Dare I Say It: Love Canon Law,” to a student group at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy (22 April 2023)
- “Rights and Law in the Church: Theory and Praxis,” to the Leo XIII Institute in Mundelein, IL (8 March 2023)
- “Courageously Living the Gospel: Rights and Law in the Church,” to the North Tampa Deanery at St. Anthony the Abbot’s Catholic Church in Brooksville, FL (27 February 2023)
- “Canonical Rights of Priests and Pastors,” at the Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting of the National Diocesan Attorneys Association in Milwaukee, WI (22 October 2022)
- “Clergy Abuse Investigations Webinar,” Men of Melchizedek (6 October 2022)
- “Where Charity and Law Prevail: Do Catholics Have ‘Rights’ in the Church?” to the Kenosha Catholic Parishes in Kenosha, WI (7 September 2022)
- “Justice in the Church: A Conference on Canon Law,” at St. Anthony Parish in Longview, TX (15 August 2021)
- “Stand and Fight - Canon Law in a Time of Spiritual and Cultural Warfare,” at St. Charles Parish in Hartland, WI (19 August 2020)
- “Estotes Fortes in Bello - Canon Law in a Time of Spiritual and Cultural Warfare,” at St. Stanislaus Parish in Milwaukee, WI (13 August 2020)
- “Canon Law, Civil Law, and the Current Crisis in the Church: Reflections of a 1L studying canon law in Rome,” to the St. Thomas More Lawyers Society in Milwaukee, WI (6 September 2019)
- “Variable Insurance Products at a Crossroads: Opportunities and Challenges,” panelist, Investment Company Institute Annual Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference, Palm Desert, CA (March 2017)
- “New SEC Framework for Non-Variable Products and Rule 12h-7,” panelist, ALI-ABA Conference on Life Insurance Company Products, Washington, DC (November 2009)
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross -- Rome, Italy
J.C.L., magna cum laude (June 2021)
J.C.D., summa cum laude (June 2022)
Doctoral Thesis: “The Right of a Cleric to Bona Fama”
Congregation for the Clergy, 2-year Course in Administrative Praxis -- Rome, Italy Certificate of Completion, summa cum laude, May 2021
Marquette University Law School -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
J.D., summa cum laude, 1999
Editor in Chief, Marquette Law Review, Volume 82, 1998-99
Notre Dame Institute -- Alexandria, Virginia
M.A., Religious Studies, 1994
University of St. Thomas -- St. Paul, Minnesota
B.A., summa cum laude, Theology, 1987