by

His Eminence the Most Reverend Cardinal

Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy

CANON LAW AT THE SERVICE OF PRIESTS

"Open my eyes that I may see the wonder of your law. Your orders are also my joy, your precepts advise me. Your justice is eternal justice and your laws are the Truth" (Psalm 118, 18.24.142). The Psalmist’s plea, together with his words of praise addressed at the Lord for Divine Law, a safe route for knowing and welcoming God’s redeeming will, introduce us to the subject of this 27^th international theological video-conference: "Canon Law at the service of priests".

A little more than twenty years have gone past since the late John Paul II – on January 25^th 1983 – promulgated the new Codex Iuris Canonici. Since then, the Church, and in particular her ordained ministers, have been able to experience the fecundity of New Canon Legislation that, continuing the previous juridical tradition, follows in legal language the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council, and in particular its ecclesiological doctrine.

The Church’s supreme law, the salus animarum, was the Council’s main inspirer and that for the reform of Canon Law that followed, as emphasised by the Blessed Pope John XXIII when announcing the indiction of the ecumenical Council and the hoped-for and expected updating of the Code of Canon Law which he perceived as the "completion" of the Council’s work (see. AAS 51, 1959, p. 68). In this sense, in his Apostolic Constitution Sacrae disciplinae leges, John Paul II emphasised that both the Council and the new Code were the result of: "one and the same intention, which is that of the renewal of the Christian life. From such an intention, in fact, the entire work of the Council drew its norms and its direction" (AAS, 75, 1983, par II, page VIII).

This is the pastoral dimension of the Law as the fundamental constitutive element of ecclesiastic law, a dimension that does not however impair the juridical aspects of the law itself; on the contrary, it confers it with meaning and importance. Canon Law’s pastoral characteristics are not in fact an addition, a sort of new gown or cosmetic change, but they allow one to understand that "within the mystery of the Church, law assumes the characteristics of a sacrament or the sign of the supernatural life of the faithful, outlining the path to be followed and promoting it" (see Principia quae Codicis Iuris Canonici recognitionem dirigant, no. 1, in Communicationes 1, 1969, p. 78).

On this subject, Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote: "finis iuris canonici tendit in quietem Ecclesiae et salutem animarum", emphasising to what extent Canon Law is indispensable to the Church and in particular to her ordained ministers. The Church in fact, divinely created as a visible society, as God’s People (see Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, no. 2), needs rules because it is a visible hierarchic and organised structure; and also because in exercising the functions entrusted to her by God, especially that of holy power and the administration of the sacraments, the Church may be defined and correctly regulated.

Chosen among men and ordained for the good of humankind in matters that concern God (see Heb. 5,1), priests in particular discover in Canon Law (see cann. 273- 293) the definition of their own identity, the definition of their rights and duties and the protection of ecclesial communion according to justice: they are united by the sacramental bond of Holy Orders with their brothers in the priesthood and with their own Ordinary who welcomes them, guides and defends them as a teacher , pastor and father, at the service of the universal Church and with a unity of intentions and feelings with the flock’s universal Shepherd, Peter’s successor (see cann. 330-572),"Vicar of Christ’s mercy"(St. Ambrose, Expositio in Luc., lib. X).

These are the most relevant aspects that will be shortly discussed in the papers presented by the Theologians. From a theological point of view they will emphasise that the Law of the Church is not a purely human positive law but law based on the ius divino. They will remind us that Canon Laws refer to a transcendent reality, a reality that does not consist in superfluous historical data or contingent institutions, but includes the fundamental and permanent elements, deeply rooted in the mystery of the Church: this is law that is part of the redeeming work with which the Church continues over time the mission of her divine Founder (see Decree Optatam totius no. 16; the Dogmatic Constitution. Lumen gentium no. 8).

Within a doctrinal framework, today’s papers will explain that the Church’s hierarchic, sacramental and juridical structure is needed, above all, as a means for communicating grace to all the members of God’s People and to increase their charity, faith and hope; and is also needed to acknowledge the different legitimate personal charismas of the faithful: the Holy Spirit, the Church’s soul and the essence of the New Law, as already taught by Saint Augustine (see De spiritu et lettera, 21), not only does not exclude but demands the existence of an adequate visible, institutional and juridical system. We will then be able to better understand how necessary it is for priests, in performing their ministry, to provide a clear answer to the unmotivated anti-juridical trends that expect even today to oppose charisma and institution, spirit and law, and more radically the juridical Church and the so-called prophetic Church.

Furthermore, the personalistic dimension of Council ecclesiology, emphasised in the Theologians’ papers, allow us to specify the irreplaceable service that the ecclesiastic Hierarchy is called upon to provide both for acknowledging the shared dignity of the christifideles, of God’s children regenerated in Christ and all called to sanctity, and also to encourage the shared responsibility of all the faithful in active participation in the redeeming mission that Christ has entrusted to His Church (see Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, no. 32), but also to extirpate the individualistic culture, nullified by democratic feelings and functionalism, often wishing to confuse ministries, roles, functions and responsibilities within the Church.

I wish to thank all those invited, reminding you that they are speaking live from ten nations in the five continents. Meditations will be held from Rome, from the head offices of the Congregation for the Clergy, by Professor Antonio Miralles and by Professor Paolo Scarafoni.

There will also be papers presented from Moscow by Professor Ivan Kowalewsky, from Manila by Professor José Vidamor Yu; from Taiwan by Professor Louis Aldrich; from Johannesburg by Professor Stuart Bate; from Bogotá by Professor Silvio Cajiao; from Sydney by H.E. Julian Porteous; and from Madrid by Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco;. I hope you all enjoy the conference.