Canon Law and Ecumenism

Abstract

The Jurist 69 (2009) 171–189 171 CANON LAW AND ECUMENISM1 Walter Cardinal Kasper* Four years ago the Church commemorated the fortieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. In these days the Church commemorates the twenty fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law. These two events are intimately and intentionally linked to each other; and it is the task of this paper to reflect on the relationship between the two of them regarding the ecumenical commitment promoted by Vatican II and canon law. This presentation will focus in particular on the Church’s commitment to restore the unity of all Christians as one of the guiding principles of the council. The author will ask how this commitment was received in the Code of Canon Law and in the later juridical activities of the Church. The intention of this paper It is not the author’s intention to reflect on specific norms in the Code of Canon Law or on other post-conciliar legislative texts that address particular ecumenical questions, such as inter-confessional marriages, ecclesiastical funerals for baptized non-Catholic marriage partners, or the ecumenically crucial problem of communicatio in sacris. These questions are surely important for the everyday life of the Church and of many Christians, especially those who live in inter-confessional marriages and families, a notable problem especially in those local churches where there is a large number of non-Catholic faithful. But such kinds of questions, which were officially addressed in the 1993 Ecumenical Directory, are not within the area of the author’s direct professional competence. The author will concentrate rather on questions of principle, such as the general relation between ecclesial doctrine, in our case the doctrine * President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. 1 The present text was originally a lecture entitled “Diritto canonico ed ecumenismo” given by Walter Cardinal Kasper on January 11, 2008 at the Pontifical Salesian University (Pontificia Università Salesiana) on the occasion of the twenty fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law. The editor of The Jurist is especially grateful to Cardinal Kasper for permission to translate the text into English and publish it here. He also thanks Father Markus Graulich, SDB and Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, Belgium for their invaluable assistance in preparing the translation. 172 the jurist of the Second Vatican Council, and canon law, especially insofar as canon law has an impact on ecumenism. The author will not enter into the problems raised by some of our ecumenical partners coming especially from a Protestant tradition, who ask whether it is possible or even permissible to translate the gospel and ecclesial doctrines into juridical terms at all.2 According to the Catholic understanding codification is legitimate and even helpful for the purposes of a concrete realization and application of the gospel and ecclesial doctrines within the body of the Church and in its everyday life. Nevertheless, even for Catholic doctrine there remain open some questions regarding theology and canon law. For example, one may ask: in what sense and to what degree can and must canon law be understood as a juridical interpretation and application of church doctrines? Or can one perhaps note a transformation from one level to another level through canon law, a displacement that is not simply terminological? The author does not intend and is not in a position to give final answers to all these questions and to the questions which will be raised subsequently . Rather he desires to reflect concretely on the question: What does it mean for the Church’s juridical life that the Church at Vatican II committed itself explicitly and irrevocably to the promotion of the unity of Christians (UR 1, Ut unum sint [UUS] 3)? The purpose of this paper is to discover not only how the interpretation, drafting, and application of juridical norms can contribute to the implementation of the ecumenical thrust of the council, but also, and above all, how canon law itself can foster the restoration of the unity of Christians. The Commitment to Ecumenism The author’s intention to speak about the “commitment to ecumenism ” in relation to canon law...