Florida Catholic | Canon Law Series

Canon Law - A Series by Father Jaroslaw Sniosek, JCL

Why do we need law in the church?

First in an occasional series focusing on canon law, or the legal code of the Roman Catholic Church.

Published: 01.18.08

Canon law contains the laws of the Roman Catholic Church. It is intended to protect the essential truths of the faith through norms designed to preserve and promote the common good. Canon law addresses issues related to church governance, administration of the sacraments, relationships among communities of the faithful, financial management of church assets, various offenses and penalties and procedures for the exercise of one’s rights under church law.

In his famous, early 20th-century book titled “Kirchenrecht,” Rudolph Sohm presented a theory of a purely charismatic organization of a Christian community. This eminent German legal theorist claimed that law is wholly alien to the spiritual nature of the church, and argued that charity is sufficient to secure order within a Christian community. To him, law was a system of rules, which by its nature required to be enforced through some rigid legal mechanisms and it created an obstacle to the development of charismatic gifts. Therefore, the author concluded, there should be no place for any law in the church.

Sohm’s concept yielded vast publicity in Europe and it was often used to postulate the exclusion of any rules and regulations in the church.

The point of his argument positioning faith and charity in the center of the life of the church is well taken. Indeed, the virtues of the spiritual nature are essential in the mission of the church. However, as canon lawyer Ladislas Örsy pointed out, human beings are not purely spirits and the human community cannot be only spiritual. The failure to see the role of a legal structure in protecting spiritual values in the human community of Christians demonstrates a deformed understanding of the church and its laws.

In an attempt to portray the nature of the church, the Scriptures provide a variety of images. The church of God is often described as the new people of God, the body of Christ, the sheepfold of which Christ is the only gate, the field of God, God’s building, the tent of God among humans, or the New Jerusalem. All the images indicate that the church as a sacrament is a composite of both divine and human elements. Constituted by the Lord, the church is a visible structure made up of human beings. Even though the Spirit sanctifies the people as the adopted children of God and assures that the Christian community continues to grow toward perfect union with him, the human frailty of the believers is not dispensed. As a brittle vessel carrying an apostolic message of God’s love throughout centuries, the church, therefore, is in need of just order and direction.

Right from the apostolic times, the church realized that rules and regulations in its assemblies are necessary to discern and coordinate various roles of members in order to ensure the common good. The first apostolic council in Jerusalem determined that the church needed structures and organizations to provide an environment for the spiritual life to unfold and expand. The early Christians exemplified an acute understanding that the spiritual gifts are bound to pass away without an adequate visible structure. In the third century, Tertulian reported that councils representing the whole Christian community were held to make decisions and promulgate canonical norms providing guidelines for actions and norms for appropriate conduct.

Throughout the centuries, the church has accrued a large number of laws. Collectively, the ecclesiastical rules are called canon law. Although in different times the church dealt with different problems, the promulgated canonical norms have strived to facilitate the attainment of church order and discipline reflecting authentic values of the church. It has assisted the Christian community to function and carry out its mission of proclaiming the good news in the world. Further, it has ensured stability and predictability and it has protected individual rights of Christian faithful articulating their responsibilities by assisting them to lead virtuous lives.

St. Thomas determined that the essential characteristic of law is its reasonableness. Therefore, as an ordinance of reason, law should always be judged by its purposefulness in fostering the common good and the welfare of the individuals who compose it. Nevertheless, ecclesiastical law, which is made to ensure the common good, may be dispensed in a particular case by those who possess executive power within the limits of their competence. However, when a promulgated law does not uphold the common good of the community and the welfare of its individual members, it should be reviewed and reformed. Even though certain laws may be initially accepted by the faithful who compose the community, their observance might become obsolete or odious over time. Once the law falls into disuse, it results in the phenomenon called the intrinsic cessation of law, which renders the law no longer binding.

One thing to remember about canon law is that it is not an end in itself. Like the visible structure of the church, the ecclesiastical law is meant for this passing world and although it has affinity with the divine, it reflects human fragility. However, law and legalism are not exactly the same thing and the fear of abuse of law cannot be a reason to eliminate law from the life of the church. Law has a crucial role to play in the Christian community striving for charity. In the condition of earthly life, it is the only guarantee of justice, without which we cannot even begin talking about charity.

Father Jaroslaw Sniosek, who has a licentiate in canon law, is a judge in the diocesan Tribunal, which ministers to people regarding their rights and duties under canon law. Readers are invited to send questions and topics for future articles to Father Sniosek at Sniosek@dioceseofvenice.org.

Why do we need law in the church?

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