Date of death: 2/7/2025
Saint Meinrad Class: O 1958
It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our friend and colleague, the Reverend James A. Coriden, who passed to eternal life on Friday, February 7, 2025.
Father Coriden was ordained in 1957 for the Diocese of Gary. He earned a JCD in 1961 and joined CLSA that same year.
Father Coriden served on the tribunal and in the chancery in Gary and then taught canon law at CUA before joining the faculty at Washington Theological Union in 1975 to teach canon law. He taught there for over three decades.
In 1987, Father Coriden was chosen as the CLSA’s Role of Law Award recipient. In his citation announcing Father Coriden as the recipient, Father Richard Cunningham noted the following:
A priest of the Diocese of Gary, Indiana, Father Coriden attended Saint Meinard’s Seminary, received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Gregorian University, and a Doctor of Laws from The Catholic University’s School of Law. He has been admitted to practice before the bar of the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana, the Court of Appeals and the United States District Court of the District of Columbia, and the United States Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit.
In 2022 Father Coriden joined Msgr. Fred Easton and Donna Miller for a podcast to talk about his life as a canonist.
The CLSA owes Father Coriden a debt of gratitude for serving as one of the editors for the CLSA’s New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law that was published in 2000. He wrote numerous other books and articles on canon law and theology throughout his life.
CLSA members of a certain age will remember Father Coriden as the stalwart member who proposed a resolution at nearly every convention for many years. A review of past issues of Proceedings from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s confirms his involvement in the Society in this unique way.
Father Coriden was the recipient of the 2011 Catholic Theology Society of America’s John Courtney Murray Award, the highest honor bestowed by that society on a theologian.