scholarly journals The Role of Canon Law in the Ecumenical Venture: a Roman Catholic Perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Leahy

One of the main goals of the Second Vatican Council (the 50th anniversary of whose opening will be celebrated in 2012) was the unity of all Christians. Not least among its achievements was the fact that it launched the Catholic Church into the Ecumenical Movement and also paved the way for a global revision of the Church's Code of Canon Law. This article reflects from a Roman Catholic perspective on aspects to do with canon law and ecumenism. It does so in the light of the Council's teaching and reception. Conciliar hermeneutics and questions left open at the Council are considered. In conclusion, the author suggests that greater attention to the Church's charismatic principle and missionary mandate underlined at the Council offers wide scope for continuing exploration among Anglican and Roman Catholic canonists in the cause of unity.

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Stanislav Přibyl

The Code of Canon Law, promulgated by John Paul II in 1983, is a synthesis of the earlier 1917 Code and the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council. The Code contains norms which go well beyond a reform of the inner legal relations within the Catholic Church. A lot of them deal with the value and dignity of the human person, which shows a clear impact of the pontificate of John Paul II, who put a lot of emphasis on the given issue. The article discusses the fields of legal regulations in the Code which touch upon the issue of the human person, esp. freedom of religion, protection of unborn life, social rights, legal standing of women and the education of future generations. It points out the main difference between civil law (which also serves the dignity of the human person) and canon law, namely, the latter aims at the salvation of souls.


2013 ◽  
pp. 287-291
Author(s):  
Pavlo Vyshkovskyy

On December 5, 1963, at the end of the second session of the Second Vatican Council, a "Decree on means of public notice" was signed together with the Constitution on the Holy Liturgy. This was the first of the nine decrees issued by the Council, which expressed the views of the entire Ecumenical Church, which represented at the Council more than 2500 bishops, experts and theologians who participated in the General Assembly. Almost half of the Fathers of the Council were pastors of European dioceses. There were also 379 African bishops, 300 bishops from Asia and almost a thousand from the United States at the Council. All of them - the heirs of the College of the Apostles - saw humanity entering into a new phase of dialogue through the media, and wanted to answer the question of whether the Church could use them for their development and proclamation of the Gospel.


2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-152
Author(s):  
Tomasz Jakubiak

The nature of tasks facing godparents in the Catholic Church seems to substantiate the view that affiliation to a non-Catholic Church or community renders one incapable of being entrusted with the role of a godparent in the Catholic Church. Such possibility is not provided for in the Code of Canon Law. Considering numerous doubts concerning the matter, it is necessary to identify criteria to be used on the ecumenical plane when entrusting non-Catholics with the role of a witness or godparent. In view of the above, the goal of analyses performed for the purposes of this article was to identify norms in the legal system of the Catholic Church (in particular Latin Church) which provide for the possibility of Christians who are not members of the Catholic community to be admitted to the role of godparents or witnesses at baptism.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Enrique Somavilla

La Iglesia Católica ha llevado a cabo varias reformas de la Curia romana, semper reformanda, de acuerdo con las exigencias de los nuevos tiempos, de la vida eclesial y del propio espíritu conciliar.Pablo VI consiguió la acomodación a los postulados del Concilio Vaticano II mediante la Constitución apostólica Regimini Ecclesiae Universae. Los cambios efectuados por Juan Pablo II, con la Constitución apostólica Pastor Bonus, significaron la adaptación al Código de Derecho canónico de 1983. La reforma de la Curia romana acometida por el papa Francisco deja de lado muchas de tradiciones protocolarias propias de la Sede Apostólica a lo largo de los siglos y nos manifiesta un cambio de época que afecta, de forma singular, a instituciones como el Estado de la Ciudad del Vaticano, la Santa Sede y propia la Iglesia Católica, tal y como veremos en la nueva Constitución Apostólica, cuya publicación está prevista para febrero de 2015._________________________Catholic Church has carried out several reforms of the Roman Curia, semper reformanda, in accordance to the requirements of the new times, the ecclesiastical life and the conciliar spirit. Pope Paul VI accomplished the adaptation to the Second Vatican Council through the Apostolic Constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae. Pope John Paul II reform, the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus, meant the accommodation to 1983 Code of Canon Law. The reform of the Roman Curia undertaken by Pope Francis puts aside many ceremonial traditions of the Apostolic See, showing us a change of an era affecting, particularly, to institutions as the Vatican City State, the Holy See and the Catholic Church itself, as we´ll see in the new Apostolic Constitution, to be published in February 2015.


Author(s):  
Hiermonk Ioann ( Bulyko) ◽  

The Second Vatican Council was a unique event in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Initiated by Pope John XXIII, it was intended to make the Roman Catholic Church more open to the contemporary society and bring it closer to the people. The principal aim of the council was the so called aggiornamento (updating). The phenomenon of updating the ecclesiastical life consisted in the following: on the one hand, modernization of the life of the Church and closer relations with the secular world; on the other hand, preserving all the traditions upon which the ecclesiastical life was founded. Hence in the Council’s documents we find another, French word ressourcement meaning ‘return to the origins’ based on the Holy Scripture and the works of the Church Fathers. The aggiornamento phenomenon emerged during the Second Vatican Council due to the movement within the Catholic Church called nouvelle theologie (French for “new theology”). Its representatives advanced the ideas that became fundamental in the Council’s decisions. The nouvelle theologie was often associated with modernism as some of the ideas of its representatives seemed to be very similar to those of modernism. However, what made the greatest difference between the two movements was their attitude towards the tradition. For the nouvelle theologie it was very important to revive Christianity in its initial version, hence their striving for returning to the sources, for the oecumenical movement, for better relations with non-Catholics and for liturgical renewal. All these ideas can be traced in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and all this is characterized by the word aggiornamento.


Exchange ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 209-237
Author(s):  
Stan Chu Ilo

Abstract This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the African palaver as a model for participatory dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church. The African palaver is the art of conversation, dialogue, and consensus-building in traditional society that can be appropriated in the current search for a more inclusive and expansive participatory dialogue at all levels of the life of the Church. I will develop this essay first by briefly exploring some theological developments on synodality between the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis and some of the contributions of the reforms of Pope Francis to synodality in the Church. Secondly, I will identify how the African palaver functions through examples taken from two African ethnic groups. I will proceed to show how the African palaver could enter into dialogue with other new approaches to participatory dialogue for a synodal Church.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (157) ◽  
pp. 110-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Bruce

AbstractIn 1963 the Second Vatican Council voted overwhelmingly to introduce the vernacular into Roman Catholic worship. The Irish hierarchy decided that both Irish and English speakers should be catered for in the reformed liturgy. Within a few years John Charles McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin, had gained a widespread reputation as having gone further than his fellow bishops in the provision of masses in Irish. At the same time he was criticised for his lack of enthusiasm towards other areas of liturgical reform. This dichotomy stemmed from McQuaid’s deep dismay at the church’s new ecumenical direction and the possibility that it would lead to shared worship between Catholics and Protestants. Yet, as a senior prelate in the Catholic Church, he was obliged to implement each of the Council’s decrees, including those concerning the liturgy. McQuaid’s response was to introduce Vatican-approved changes to the mass, while simultaneously protecting the traditional liturgy he cherished. So he tried to re-establish the Latin rite on the same terms as those he had arranged for the Irish mass. Had he succeeded, the result would have been a reduction in the use of an English vernacular which he found offensive to his Catholic sensibilities.


2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 143-159
Author(s):  
Anna Gołębiowska

In the article, the contemporary interpretations of the can. 1095 of the new Code Of Canon Law, which undergone several modifications, were shown. Both the issue of formulating the definitions of mental disorders in the canonical law and the question of “lack of capacity” and psychological capacity for assuming the essential obligations of marriage (as defined by the Church) were explained. Moreover, various opinions of authors on capacity to enter into marriage were presented. Some research on psychological causes which make a person not able to assume the essential obligations of marriage were pointed out. At the same time, there is an explanation of the purpose of marriage according to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, which resulted in the extension of the list of causes due to which the declaration of nullity might be applied for.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Bogusław Śliwerski

Pedagogy of the Primate of the Millennium, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński An analysis of source texts and selected biographical studies of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński was carried out from the perspectives of the processes of secularization taking place in Poland in the year AD 2020, the radical attacks of left-wing politicians on the Catholic Church and its relationship with the current governing coalition known as the United Right [Zjednoczona Prawica]. This strikes at the foundations of the Second Vatican Council and the role of the Polish Church in regaining the nation’s freedom from socialist domination in 1989. The author therefore recalls not only the exceptional merits of the Polish Primate during the period of totalitarianism of the „People’s Poland” [Polska Ludowa], but also his message to educator-practitioners, parents, and scientists.


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