Catholic Church Law, Structure, and Governance

Our Scrip Lady (Susan?) provided a number of great comments regarding the nature of the Church and a perception of legalism within Her.

I would like to make a few points regarding Her nature and the role of laws and discipline.

First, the suggestion that the Church is overly bound in legalism is not new. Some early Christians had a certain disdain for the law driven, in part, from an erroneous reading of Scripture (e.g. Romans 7 or Romans 10). As the Church grew, the importance of rule and governance became obvious if She was to attain Her supernatural goal: salvation of souls. The influence of laws within the Church certainly ebbed and flowed. This ebb and flow was driven by specific challenges the Church faced through Her history. Thus, when abuses became rampant and proliferated, laws were employed to reform and clean house. At times, reformers may have gone too far. St. Bernard complained about the excessive legalism he encountered in Rome. But this oscillation is inevitable in the search for balance – original sin continues to affect all christians.

Second, I want to point out that all of the Church’s laws that are not of Divine origin are the result of the Church’s experience through the millennia. Problems were addressed and laws enacted to prevent recurrence. The laws capture two millennia of experience. One ignores the advice they encapsulate at considerable risk. The bishop of Spokane Washington ran a diocese that was not organized in accord with Church law. He is, I am sure, regretting it now that his diocese is going through bankrupcy.

Finally, as I look at the Church today, it is very difficult for me to agree that excessive legalism permeates Her. To the contrary, my hypothesis (and I will speak to it in my last lecture) is that insufficient application of legal rule is a real problem and source of disunity.

The Church continually reminds us to focus on salvation of souls, particularly in times of urgency and emergency. Her laws support this call; legalism thus cannot be blamed for individual people’s failure in charity.

Consider, for instance, that faculties to absolve sins through sacramental confession, faculties to confirm, and permission to anoint validly are provided by the law to any presbyter (whether Eastern or Latin, whether in good standing or not, whether cleric or laicized) in case of emergency. The message of the Church is clear: provide for salvation first – that is the supreme law. One who might fail to exercise such faculty is, in fact, rejecting the Church’s very laws, not abiding by them.

Let me close by quoting some paragraphs of Lumen gentium which speak to the nature of the Church. As I mentioned in lecture, the council’s documents are crucial to a proper understanding of the nature of the Church and fundamental to an application of law and governance (some emphasis, is mine).

“…The Church is a sheepfold whose one and indispensable door is Christ. It is a flock of which God Himself foretold He would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, although ruled by human shepherds, are nevertheless continuously led and nourished by Christ Himself, the Good Shepherd and the Prince of the shepherds, who gave His life for the sheep…”

“…The Church, further, “that Jerusalem which is above” is also called “our mother". It is described as the spotless spouse of the spotless Lamb, whom Christ “loved and for whom He delivered Himself up that He might sanctify her", whom He unites to Himself by an unbreakable covenant, and whom He unceasingly “nourishes and cherishes", and whom, once purified, He willed to be cleansed and joined to Himself, subject to Him in love and fidelity, and whom, finally, He filled with heavenly gifts for all eternity, in order that we may know the love of God and of Christ for us, a love which surpasses all knowledge…”

“…By communicating His Spirit, Christ made His brothers, called together from all nations, mystically the components of His own Body…”

“…The Head of this Body is Christ. He is the image of the invisible God and in Him all things came into being. He is before all creatures and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the Body which is the Church…”

“…Christ loves the Church as His bride, having become the model of a man loving his wife as his body; the Church, indeed, is subject to its Head…”

“…Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated truth and grace to all. But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, are not to be considered as two realities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things; rather they form one complex reality which coalesces from a divine and a human element…”