Derecho y pastoral. La Justicia y la función del Derecho Canónico en la edificación de la Iglesia

Abstract

To explain the existing harmony between the legal and pastoral dimensions of the social reality of the Church is a difficult task, especially when one takes into consideration the ambiguity of the term pastoral which, apart fron its technical significance, has been the object of tactical, vulgarized and equivocal use. In any case, the author not only shares the view that this term makes reference to the order of actions through which the Church finds its place in History by fulfilling its mission, but also accepts the most widely accepted meanings of the term: a) material meanings: pastoral action is synonymous with ecclesiastical o christian action, ministerial or priestly actionand introductory or leading action. b) formal meanings: pastoral action is synonymous with efficacious action, an intermediary action between God and man, an action shaped by the condiyionings of the hie et nune and a planned action. Subsequently the importance of the meanings accepted in the historical and doctrinal evolution of pastoral Theology is analysed so as to detect what the conception of Canon Law, in the minds of the members of the pastorate, is. In order not to fall into «cientifismo» on analysing the «edifying actions of the Church» one has to start from the authentic nature of the pastorate, that is, from the pastorate as a manifestation of the nature of the Church ... because it is in this way that the reality of the «pastoral» concept is found; thus the pastorate refers to the very and exclusive dynamics of the priestly ministry, in such a way that Pastoral Theology ought to make itself, as far as science is concerned, into a reflection on «the ministerial actions of the priestly hierarchy». Nevertheless, as the term has today come to be used as a purely scientific concept (and not as a concept per se), three orders of realities have clearly been distinguished to show that there is nonexus of efficient and formal causality; the scientific order (pastoral theology), ontological and sacramental personal realities (pastorate) and the acquisition of the salus animarum. (pastoral efficacy); but one conclusion is crystal clear: that in the transplantation of technical notions and methods of the profane sciences into the Church, the prevalant and absolute principie is the respect for the nature of the Church and the peculiar characteristics of her realities. With these explanations the point of convergente of the Pastora te and Canon Law is delimited; the Canon Law is the nature of the Church, because pastorate and legality are dimensions of the only reality which is the Church, rather than separate realities. The real contribution of Law to the historical edification of the Church is the dimension of justic;e, which affects the entire «Mysterium Ecclesiae», so that it cannot be said that before the legis'lature of the human ecclesiastical Law there exists an «ajuridical camp a priori»; likewise there doesn't exist an «adivine camp a priori»; and neither do the historical and concrete realities appear void of all norms and all exlgencies of justice. The author next writes about the hypertrophy which the term pastoral has undergone in the attempt to understand and solve all the facets of the mystery of the Church exolusively and solely under thls perspective; thls pastorate has led to confusion and the violation of the very formalities of other sciences among which Canon Law needs a special mentlon. Later on, the characteristic traits of the actual patarate are described: substitution of orthodoxy for orthopraxls, loss of clarity in the essential difference between the common priest and the ministerial prlest, hlstorlclty and sociology in the appreciation of the efficacy, In History, of the salvation found in the Church. Finally, the author deduces the following conclusions, concerning the analysis of the relatlonship between Pastorate and Law: 1) in order that a pastoral action might be authentically an action which edifies the Church, It has to be a just action a priori. 2) Canon Law, as a guardianship of Identity, unity and social order of the Church, Is a necessary leit motiv of pastoral activity.