Professional paper
Categories of the "General" and the "Particular" in the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council and in canonical usage
Bernarda Horvat
; University of Sarajevo - Catholic Theological Faculty in Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Observing the reality of the Church, thinking about her mystery and the incarnation of that mystery in a living reality, necessarily refers to tangible things. This
tangible character presupposes and requires canonical legal regulation as an indispensable dimension of the very nature of the Church. This reflection is framed by two
interdependent categories: the “general” and the “particular” in two interdependent
disciplines: ecclesiology and Church law. It is evident that these two categories overlap
and this becomes evident in any study of conciliar documents and their reflection in
canonical usage. This also becomes evident if we consider the consequence of these
facts for the concrete life of the Church in the reality of the universal Church and in
particular Churches.
Theological discussions and contributions before and after the Second Vatican
Council provide necessary conceptual clarification and are the indispensable foundation of the mystery of salvation to which the Church is called to serve in its fundamental task: to be “in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a
very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race”(LG 1,1). Of
particular importance is a fruitful discussion between Walter Kasper and Josef Ratzinger that highlighted fundamental attitudes towards the mutually interlinked relationship between the universal Church and the particular Churches. This discussion
showed that reception of the Second Vatican Council had been incomplete because the
usage of Church as “communion”, the relationship between the bishops of the particular Churches and the Head of the Congregation of Bishops and issues related to Eucharistic ecclesiology, is closely linked to the pastoral and practical activities of the
Church. Those activities, in their concreteness, depend on the correct understanding of
the complementarity of general law and particular law, based on a proper autonomy,
which should be accorded to a particular Church.
Keywords
Universal Church; particular Church; the Second Vatican Council; ecclesiology; fellowship (communion); Code of Canon Law (1983).
Hrčak ID:
265785
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2015.
Visits: 718 *