In clearing out the piles of articles I’ve read recently, I found an article on the Pope’s authority written by a self-proclaimed “fledgling canon lawyer” in November last year, and I’ve long wanted to have a word with this “Canon law beginner”. Today, at the beginning of this Jubilee Year, I’d like to write a few words, hoping that he will not put me in the “do not know too much about Canon Law” group of fools.
(1) He said: “The Church is like a diocese of the Pope. The Principle of Subsidiarity is not in force in this matter.” He also said that: this is clearly explained by Lumen Gentium (Vatican II’s Constitution on the Church, hereafter referred to as L.G.).
I am afraid that even Cardinal Ghirlanda, S.J. would not dare to recognize this fledgling canon lawyer as his student.
“Lumen Gentium” fulfills the task which was interrupted in Vatican I. After Vatican I had proclaimed the dogma of Pope’s infallibility, Vatican II supplemented the teachings in detail on Collegium Apostolorum and Collegium Episcoporum.
At the end of L.G. 20 it clearly states, “just as the office granted individually to Peter, the first among the apostles, is permanent and is to be transmitted to his successors, so also the apostles’ office of leading the Church is permanent, and is to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of bishops. Therefore, the Sacred Council teaches that bishops by divine institution have succeeded to the apostles, as shepherds of the Church, ‘and he who hears them, hears Christ, and he who rejects them, rejects Christ and Him who sent Christ.’” (The Church uses the terms “Council” and “Synod”interchangeably. The Second Vatican Council called itself “Haec Sacrosancta Synodus”.)
L.G. says more plainly in section 27:
“Bishops, as vicars and ambassadors of Christ, govern the particular churches entrusted to them by their counsel, exhortations, example, and even by their authority and sacred power, which indeed they use only for the edification of their flock in truth and holiness, remembering that he who is greater should become as the lesser and he who is the chief become as the servant. This power, which they personally exercise in Christ’s name, is proper, ordinary and immediate, although its exercise is ultimately regulated by the supreme authority of the Church, and can be circumscribed by certain limits, for the advantage of the Church or of the faithful.
The pastoral office or the habitual and daily care of their sheep is entrusted to them completely; nor are they to be regarded as vicars of the Roman Pontiffs, for they exercise an authority that is proper to them, and are quite correctly called ‘prelates’, heads of the people whom they govern.” (Bishops are appointed by the Pope, but their divine authority comes from God, just as the Pope is elected by the Cardinals, but his divine authority comes from God.)
(2) As for the Principle of Subsidiarity, it is basically a principle of natural law, and in a large organisation such as the Church, it is all the more necessary to respect this principle. If the bishop of a diocese manages the diocese “competently”, the Pope and the central “officials” of the Church should not interfere too much. If a bishop is found to be incompetent, the Pope and the central officials should deal with him strictly in accordance with the process of discipline.
Conversely, it is appropriate that the Pope, in the exercise of his “infallible” authority, consults his brother bishops, who are the heirs of the community of the Apostles. On two occasions in history, the Pope has used his “Ex Cathedra” authority (the Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception and of the Assumption of Virgin Mary’s Body and Soul Into Heaven), only after consulting extensively with the bishops of the world and the theologians of Catholic Universities. That was a good example.
(3) This fledgling Canon Lawyer continued, “about the Synod and who can participate, we go to 460.”
Of course, he considers the Pope as the “Bishop of the only diocese in the world”, the Synod held in the diocese is a “Diocesan Synod”, the Diocesan Synod being the one discussed in Canon Law Pars II, sectio II, titulus III, cap. I (460-468).
But the Pope is not the bishop of the only diocese in the world! And the most recent Synod is by no means a diocesan Synod! The Synod of Bishops is discussed in Code of Canon Law Pars II, section I, cap. II (342-348)!
Code of Canon Law 346 §1: “The synod of bishops assembled in an ordinary general Assembly consists of members of whom the greater part are bishops elected by the conferences of bishops according to the method determined by the special law of the synod; other bishops are designated by virtue of the same law; some others are appointed directly by the Roman Pontiff within a limited number; to these are added 10 general superiors of clerical religious institutes, elected according to the norm of the same special law.” (These non-episcopal members are like the abbotes of the monasteries of the early Church, with many clerics under their jurisdiction, they were similar to bishops, they wore a mitre and carried a crozier in the liturgy.)
It is indeed “creative” to allow non-bishops (layman and laywoman) to participate in the Synod of Bishops with the right to vote. (The Code of Canon Law in no way encourages “creativity”; it demands strict compliance!)
(4) In the conclusion of that “masterpiece”, our “expert” goes so far as to say that “whatever he (the Pope) speaks on faith and moral, becomes immediately ‘almost infallible’”.
The Code of Canon Law never uses “almost”; there is no “almost” in infallibility; “almost infallible” is fallible still!
(Signed) The one who does not identify himself as one of “those who do not know too much about Canon Law”