Msgr. John Paul Kimes

Mark Moritz and Family Memorial Professor of the Practice

Office: 2144 Eck Hall of Law
Phone: 574-631-1942
Email: jkimes@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Carolyn Dowd

Msgr. John Paul Kimes teaches and writes in the fields of canon law, church governance, religious liberty, and the legal dimensions of clergy discipline and safeguarding. A priest of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, he earned degrees in theology and canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where he completed the J.C.O.D., the ecclesiastical equivalent of a doctorate, with highest honors. In 2025, he was ordained to the Order of Periodeut with the title of Monsignor.

Before joining Notre Dame, Msgr. Kimes served in the Discipline Section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he worked on matters involving the prosecution of serious canonical offenses. He has also taught at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, the Pontifical Urbaniana University, and the University of Notre Dame’s Rome Program.

An internationally recognized scholar of canon law, Msgr. Kimes has published extensively on penal law, ecclesiastical governance, the protection of minors and vulnerable persons, Eastern Catholic Churches, and the administration of justice in the Church. He is a frequent lecturer at universities, professional conferences, and ecclesiastical institutions throughout North and South America and Europe.

At Notre Dame, Fr. Kimes is the Raymond of Peñafort Fellow of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture and a Fellow of the Religious Liberty Initiative.