Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)
Our readings this Sunday all touch on the topic of law.
Many of us have a love-hate relationship with the idea of law. On the one hand, we want laws to protect what we deem to be important. If we value highway safety, we will have speed limits. We will have annual state inspections of our vehicles. We will have local and state police on hand to monitor traffic.
On the other hand, we may chafe occasionally at some of the requirements that these laws place upon us. We may find the speed limits a little too slow for our driving pleasure! We may find state inspections inconvenient. We may feel a little uneasy whenever we see a police car, even if we haven’t been violating any laws.
We may, at times, complain about politicians or lawyers or judges. Yet, we will turn to them if we feel that our rights have been violated and that something should be done.
Every organization of any kind will need some kind of laws. Good laws protect the values of the organization. Good laws promote a healthy balance between the rights and duties of individuals and the rights and goals of the organization. Good laws help the organization form policies, resolve disputes and enforce rules when needed. The well-being of the organization, and of the individuals that make it up, depends largely on the quality of its laws and how wisely the laws are implemented in practice.
The Catholic Church is, among its other attributes, an organization of human beings. As such, it, too, requires laws of some kind. The fundamental law of the Church is, of course, the Law of God in the Scriptures, especially as it is interpreted by the words and deeds of Jesus Christ and illuminated by the continued presence of the Holy Spirit among us (with is the basis of our belief in Tradition). However, the Church has a whole body of law, what we call canon law, in addition to the Scriptures. Why isn’t the Bible enough? Why do we need more laws in the Church?
The Scriptures themselves point to the need of additional laws in the Church, and they do so in several ways.
One way is in how we celebrate our faith in liturgy and ritual. In other words, how we celebrate the Sacraments. The Bible does not give us much detail in how to do this, but offers us examples of how to go about it. One example is the dispute over whether Gentiles who believed in Jesus as the Messiah needed to become Jews first before they could be baptized. No one denied that they could join the Christian community. The dispute was about how they could join. This dispute had to do with a deeper dispute over how important previous practices like circumcision should be among Christians. No word of Jesus could be found that would resolve the issue. Therefore, we see the Jerusalem community gathered in Acts 15 to address this question and come to a decision. They saw, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that if Christ is truly the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, then to be baptized into Christ made circumcision irrelevant and unnecessary. Thus were the first laws on baptism enacted. So, too, in our day we have laws to define how we celebrate the Sacraments, and foster their meaning in our lives. The fast before receiving Communion helps to remind us of the importance of the Eucharist and that only this Bread of Life can satisfy our deepest hunger. The seal of confession helps people come to the priest with their sins and experience the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
A second way is how we deal with disputes in the Church. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul encouraged community members who had a grievance against another to take it to the Church community and not to a civil court. His reasoning was based on the very nature of the Christian community. The point would be to not merely resolve the issue at hand, but to do so in such a way that would help the disputing parties be reconciled to one another, thus healing the rift in the community. In our day, we usually take disputes to civil courts because the decisions of Church courts – known as tribunals – have no effects in civil law. Nonetheless, there is no reason why some disputes between Catholics cannot be settled by tribunals, if both sides are willing to bring it there and to accept the tribunal’s decision. Moreover, the case would be handled in such a way that it would help the disputing parties be reconciled.
A third way is how we deal with Church members who are accused of serious offenses that are, by their very nature, destructive of the Church community. Jesus gave a basic outline of such a procedure in Matthew 18, when he explains how, at first, one person should speak to the wrongdoer in an attempt to win that person over. Then, if that fails, try again with a second person as a witness. Then, if that fails, bring it before the Church community for a decision. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians of how they should handle the case of a man who is living in incest.
Now, in both the second and third ways, a Church community cannot just “wing it” as it strives to resolve the issues. There need to be some procedures and standards in place. We must protect people against false accusations while at the same time remain capable of identifying the guilty. We also need to find ways to promote forgiveness and reconciliation wherever possible. All of this requires procedures to be set in place. Hence, the need for canon law.
A fourth way is, in fact, the way in which many people come in direct contact with canon law. It has to do with marriage cases. Jesus, in his teaching on marriage in Matthew 19, spoke of its indissolubility “unless the marriage is unlawful”. St. Paul, again writing to the Corinthians, also seems to allow for some circumstance where a marriage might not be binding before God. What does “unless the marriage is unlawful” mean? How do we protect the dignity and indissolubility of marriage in general, while considering whether a given marriage might not be binding before God? Again, laws and procedures are needed. Again, the need for canon law.
Now, a few words on canon law itself. For most of the Church’s history, canon law consisted of the collection of various laws and decisions that oppose and councils had made over the centuries. As time went on, it became more difficult to determine what the applicable laws were in some cases, because the collection of laws over the centuries became quite large. To promote some clarity, the decision was made under Pope St. Pius X to develop a Code of Canon Law. This first Code was published in 1917. Canon lawyers went through the whole body of canon law at the time. They identified specific laws, boiled them down to short statements of usually one to three sentences (which were called canons), and organized them according to topic. After the Second Vatican Council, a revised Code of Canon Law was published under Pope St. John Paul II.
What is in the Code? The first section deals with general principles of canon law that guide how the rest of the Code is to be interpreted and implemented. Then, there is a list of the rights and responsibilities of Catholics as Catholics, followed by a listing of the rights and responsibilities of the various roles and ministries within the Church. There are laws for how parishes and dioceses are structured. There are laws for the celebration of the Sacraments. There are laws for how to administer Church property and how to set up and run tribunals.
Not all laws have the same importance. There is a distinction between laws that come from the Lord in Scripture and Tradition, and laws that the Church has come up with over the centuries which flow from and are intended to support the Lord’s own law. The Church recognizes that its own laws can’t foresee every circumstance or anticipate every need. Therefore, canon law allows, in some cases, for a dispensation. Pastors and bishops can dispense people under their care from some Church laws in specific cases. The idea is that if, in a given case, enforcing a law would actually cause harm rather than good, a dispensation is allowed. For example, a pastor can dispense someone from the full fast time before Communion for health reasons, if the fast could be seriously harmful to someone.
My intention in this post was to point out the fact that the Church has a set of laws, to explain the need for such laws, and to say a few words about how they work in practice. I recognize that these few words will open up a many questions for some people. Most people first encounter canon law when there is a Sacrament to be celebrated: who can be baptized, and how? Who can be a sponsor? Why or why not? At what age should we celebrate Confirmation?
Many people have experienced the annulment process, or know someone who has. Usually the person who initiates an annulment process does so because they want to marry in the Church, or have their civil marriage validated, and thus be able to receive the Eucharist once again. There is a lot of information – and misinformation – out there about annulments.
Given the news about the Church these days, some may wonder what role canon law has – and can have – in the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
I will likely follow this post up with one on the annulment process. Occasionally, if there is interest, I could delve into some other canonical areas. It would be another way for me to dust off my canon law degree and put it to good use!