The Pope’s New Clothes

Fifty Years after the Second Vatican Council

The Commission on Faith and Order and the Second Vatican Council

Sex and the Catholic Church in Guatemala

The aim of this article is to reflect on the nature of the structural sins in the present times and to offer light on the structural virtues that are in urgent demand for sustainable development of persons and peoples. Our analysis begins in Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate. In the encyclical, the pope analyses oversimplification of the human reality by ideologies. The simultaneity of moral underdevelopment and a consumeristic super-development, epistemological gulf between faith and reason, erosion of social capital with the shifting of religion to the private sphere, and the collapse of the human ecology beneath the deterioration of environmental ecology are some of the social sins that Benedict XVI points out in the encyclical. Towards the end of the first section, we attempt to show how Benedict XVI understands that these social sins are also the sins of persons and how the personal is derived into the social. In the second section, we try to develop on the proposals for the structural virtues in Laudato Si’. The starting point is Pope Francis’ vision of integral ecology, which is in continuity with Benedict XVI’s finding that human ecology and environmental ecology are interconnected. After a brief analysis of Pope Francis’ thoughts about the current situation of epistemology, we try to understand the dimensions of the common good, law, and personalism in Laudato Si’, from which we can derive threads for the structural virtues.

For centuries the dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox churches has been marked by disputes and conflicts. It was impossible, and still remains troublesome, to clearly identify the reasons for this. Some tend to blame the Vatican for its excessively ‘obtrusive’ intention to establish its hierarchy in the East. Others tend to claim that it is the Russian Orthodox Church that has triggered conflicts in its pursuit to unify the Orthodox churches and ‘dethrone’ the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic and Orthodox denominations have mainly been clashing in Central and Eastern Europe, where new factors generating conflicts are constantly emerging, whether religious or – more frequently – political (e.g. the historical conflict between Catholic Poland and Lithuania and Orthodox Russia; or the establishment of Catholic dioceses in the Russian Federation, which the Moscow Patriarchate considers to be the canonical territory of the Eastern Church). Sometimes it may even seem that the dissenting denominations do not even try to communicate. The pontificate of John Paul II was ecumenical, but it did not produce the results the Vatican would consider desirable with respect to the Orthodox Church. At present we can observe slow changes in the behavior of religious leaders – Benedict XVI and the Patriarchs of Moscow (Alexii II, followed by Cyril I). The authors of the paper present selected issues in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue during the pontificate of John Paul II and the present Pope – Benedict XVI, and they attempt to answer the question of what changes have recently taken place in the mutual relations of the two denominations, and whether the steps taken stand a chance of resulting in a permanent conciliation.

Laudato si (2015) is a landmark encyclical in the teachings of the Catholic Church concerning the environment. While the Church has issued encyclicals before on social teaching, and briefly mentioned the environment in previous encyclicals, this is the first time that social teaching has been put deeply into the context of an encyclical devoted primarily to the environment. This calls for a reassessment of the peoples’ perceptions on how they care for the environment in the Philippine context. A case study was conducted in a rural area near Metro Manila in the Province of Rizal. This paper reports the views of 47 respondents (N=47) from Purok 1A, Hapay na Mangga, Barangay Dolores, Taytay, Rizal, Philippines, aged from 18 to 60 years old. The Descriptive results of statistics and thematic analyses of respondents’ responses were based on the Care for the Environment Scale (CES) developed by the researcher in this study. The CES revealed significant differences in the perceptions of the respondents about how they care for their environment. This case study illustrates how this research can be used to inform all the people to initiate programs based on the ethics of care and the encyclical Laudato si. References Boyce, C., & Neale, P. (2006). Conducting in-depth interviews: A guide for designing and conducting in-depth interviews for evaluationinput. Retrieved on January 12, 2019, from http://www2.pathfinder.org/site/DocServer/m_e_tool_series_indepth_interviews.pdfCaritas Internationalis. (2009). Climate justice: Seeking a global ethic. Vatican City: Caritas Internationalis Press.Cobb Jr., J. B., & Caster, I. (eds.). 2015. For our common home: Processrelational responses to Laudato si’. Anoka, MN: Process Century Press.Cuomo, Ch. (2011). Climate change, vulnerability, and responsibility. Hypatia, 26: 690–714.Das, J. and B.C. Acharya, 2003. Hydrology and assessment of lotic water quality in Cuttack city, India. Water, Air, Soil Pollut., 150: 163-175. DOI: 10.1023/A:1026193514875Henson, R. (2006). The Rough Guide to Climate Change. London: Rough Guides Ltd.Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Practical research: Planning and design (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, PearsonEducation, Inc.Lonergan, B. (1971). Insight and method in theology. Toronto: Toronto University Press.Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. (2004). Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican City: Libreria EditriceVaticana.Pope Paul VI. (1967). Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio.26 March. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope Paul VI. (1976). Message for the 1977 World Day of Peace. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope John Paul II. (1990). Peace with God the creator, Peace with all of creation. Message for the World Day of Peace.1 January.Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope Benedict XVI. (2009). Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate. 29 June. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope Benedict XVI. (2010). If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation. Message for the 2010 World Day of Peace.1 January.Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope Francis. (2015a). Encyclical Letter Laudato si’: On care for our common home. 24 May. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice VaticanaPope Francis. (2015b). Presentation of the christmas greetings to the Roman Curia. 21 December. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Sandler, R. (2005). Introduction: Environmental virtue ethics. In Sandler, R., Ph. Cafaro (eds.) Environmental Virtues Ethics(pp. 1–14).Lanham, MD:Rowman & Littlefield.Sarantakos, S. (2013). Social research (2nd ed.). Australia: Macmillan Education.Schaeffer, F.A. (1970). Pollution and the death of man: The Christian view of ecology. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.Whyte, Kyle Powys and Chris Cuomo. (2017). Ethics of caring in environmental ethics: Indigenous and feminist philosophies” inThe Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics. Stephen M. Gardiner and Allen Thompson (eds.) DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199941339.013.2 Yisa, J. and T. Jimoh, 2010. Analytical studies on water quality index of river landzu. Am. J. Applied Sci., 7: 453-458. DOI:10.3844/ajassp.2010.453.458Yu, L. and N.N.B. Salvador, 2005. Modelling water quality in rivers. Am. J. Applied Sci., 2: 881-886. DOI: 10.3844/ajassp.2005.881.886

The Roman Catholic Church, thru the Supreme Pontiff, prides herself in her prophetic vocation. Just like the prophets of old, the Church speaks whenever there are social issues that threatens the people of God. Currently, all people are facing the ecological crisis as characterized by unprecedented natural weather patterns (climate change), loss of species of both flora and fauna, desertification and the like. As a crisis, it needs an immediate response. This response is the main focus of this research. Hence, this research aimed to fulfill the following objectives: to describe the current ecological crisis; to identify the Church’s traditional and scriptural basis in responding to the challenges of the ecological crisis; to examine the different Church’s encyclical and teachings as responses to ecological crisis; and to propose recommendations to alleviate the present ecological crisis. The social action cycle of Mater et Magistra was used as framework in identifying the origins of the crisis (context), followed by identifying diachronically the response of the Church drawing from the scripture, tradition (conscience), and examining synchronically the response of the Church’s encyclical with special emphasis on Laudato Si, concluding with concrete recommendations (consciousness) to help alleviate the present ecological crisis. Thus, the result showed that the current ecological crisis is characterized by ‘excessive anthropocentrism’ which is a clear misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the human and nature relationships. Moreover, a clear interpretation of the Biblical truth must be preserved. Lastly, the Catholic Social Teachings, specifically the Laudato Si, indicated that there is a need for a “Dialogue”, among various sciences, to respond effectively to the ecological crisis. References Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9, 27-40.Christiansen, D and Grazer, W, (Eds.). (1996). And God saw that it was good: Catholic Theology and the environment. USA: United States Catholic Conference.Hornsby-Smith, M. P. (2006). An introduction to catholic social thought. New York: Cambridge University Press.Jenkins, Willis. (2008). Ecologies of grace: Environmental ethics and Christian Theology. London: Oxford University Press.Josol, A. M., CSsR. (1991). “What is happening to our beautiful land,” in Responses to the Signs of the Times: Selected Documents: Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. Quezon City: Claretian, pp. 306-320.Leavy, Patricia. (2017). Research Design. New York: The Guilford Press.McDonagh, S. (1987). To care for the earth: A call for a new theology, London: Geoffrey Chapman. O’Murchu, D. (2004). Quantum theology: Spiritual implications of the new physics (Revised Ed.). NY: The Crossroads PublishingCompany.Pope Benedict XVI. (2010). If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation. Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace. http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedictxvi/en/messages/peace/documents/hf_benxvi_mes_20091208_xliii-world-day-peace.html Pope Francis. (2015a). Laudato si (On care for our common home). Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope Francis. (2015b). Pope Francis I speech to the Filipino audience in the year 2015. University of Sto. Tomas-Manila.Pope John XXIII. (1961). Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress). Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope John Paul II. (1987a). Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (The concern of the church for social order). Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope John Paul II. (1990b). Peace with God the creator, peace with all of creation. Message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II for the celebration of the World Day of Peace. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paulii/en/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_19891208_x xiii-world-day-for-peace.html.Pope John Paul II. (1979c). Redemptoris Hominis. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope John Paul II. (1991d). Centesimus Annus. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope Leo XIII. (1891). Rerum Novarum (Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor). Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Pope Paul VI. (1971). Octogesima Adveniens (The eightieth anniversary). Libreria Editrice Vaticana.Rozzi, R., et al. (2013). Linking ecology and ethics for a changing world: Values, philosophy, and action, Springer, 1, Switzerland.Rozzi, R., et al. (2015). Earth stewardship: Linking ecology and ethics in theory and practice, Springer, 2, Switzerland.White, Lynn. (1967). The historical roots of our ecological crisis. Science 155: 1203-1207. http://www.cmu.ca/faculty/gmatties/lynnwhiterootsofcrisis.pdfWilliams, C. (2010). Ecology and socialism: Solutions to capitalist ecological crisis. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Open AccessEditors’ CommentAnnette Leis-PetersAnnette Leis-PetersSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:Mar 2021https://doi.org/10.13109/diac.2020.11.1.3SectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail AboutThe issue 1/2020 that you have now opened digitally was planned as an “open issue” – which means all five of the articles were freely sent to and brought through our review and publishing process. It can never be predicted exactly which of the articles in the process will be part of the next open issue of the journal. Each article has its own timeline depending on the possibilities of the authors and the very decisive peer reviewers who work with the text. When it was decided which articles would be part this issue it came as a surprise how closely they were connected thematically. The theme of the issue could have been “Diaconia in the public and political sphere,” a subject that each of the five articles relates to in one way or another.The first article of Johanna Kallio, Hannu Lahtinen and Hanna Wass from the University of Helsinki/Finland is a quantitative study that asks how the voting behaviour of deacons in Finland differ from other professions in the same social class in general and from social workers in particular. Interestingly, the authors find some discrepancies! The next two articles are analyses of publications, statements and informative literature of diaconia or religious organisations regarding their role in the public sphere. Thorsten Moos from the Protestant University of Wuppertal/Bethel in Germany examines public materials of Diakonie Deutschland, the German umbrella organisation of all diaconal institutions and services, from the perspective of public religion. He identifies four levels of diaconal negotiations with the public (organisations, convictions, individual motivations and symbols) and studies how diaconal responses, memorandums or blogs communicate on these four levels. Bjørn Hallstein Holte’s article is the first COVID-19 related research published in Diaconia. Holte is based at VID Specialized University in Norway and studies health protection information about the coronavirus that the Islamic Council of Norway has provided for its members. For his analysis Holte uses the concept of religious organisations as public spaces and Niklas Luhmann’s concept of communicational permeability.The fourth article written by Jakob Egeris Thorsen at the University of Aarhus, Denmark and the fifth article by Tron Fagermoen at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society are theological reflections about the role and voice of diaconia in the public sphere. Jakob Egeris Thorsen’s article is a plea for more (explicit) Christian identity in the work of diaconia in the Danish secularised context. He leans his considerations on the arguments of Charles Taylor, Pope Benedict XVI and Jürgen Moltmann. Tron Fagermoen revisits the Swedish theologian Gustav Wingren to understand what kind of language diaconia could and should use in postsecular and pluralist society. He argues that Wingren’s dialectical approach to universalistic and particularistic faith communication goes beyond the bilingualism that many of the other contributors to this discourse opt for. That all five articles of this issue circulate around the role and communication of diaconia and religion in the public sphere (or ask how deacons relate to the politics) is a clear indication for the comprehensive social changes that are going on at the moment. It is very likely that we will read more about these changes in future issues of Diaconia.May I use the opportunity to remind you of the Diaconia review section, for which Kaia Schultz Rønsdal ([email protected]) and Erica Meijers ([email protected]) are responsible. Please do not hesitate to contact Kaia and Erica if you have suggestions for reviews or want to review a publication yourself. And please do contact the editorial secretary Jeremy Heuslein ([email protected]) or myself ([email protected]) if you have any suggestions or reflections about possible issues of the journal or the future of the journal in general. With best wishes for a good reading,Annette Leis-Peters Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Download book coverVolume 11Issue 1December 2020 ISSN: 1869-3261eISSN: 2196-9027HistoryPublished online:March 2021 Information© 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Theaterstraße 13, D-37073 GöttingenThe journal shall appear twice a year. It is an open access publication licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License, accessible at DOI 10.13109/diac.2019.10.issue-1. For a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/license/by-nc-nd/4.0/.PDF download

In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si?: On Care For Our Common Home, Pope Francis I confronted environmental issues and clarified the Roman Catholic Church?s position on global warming. In the United States, Laudato Si?, rattled conservative Americans who had falsely assumed that the Roman Catholic Church shared the conservative philosophy on the environment, property, and the economy. Perhaps more forcefully than his predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Francis criticized the ?sanctity of the free market,? the worship of property, the obsession with consumerism, the self-centered individualism that is too callous to care about the poor and underprivileged in the world, and the dismissive attitude that the environment is something that can be turned into profit without consequences and with the blessing of Christian ?doctrine.?Ironically, Laudato Si? also reaffirmed many conservative principles such as the legitimacy of property, the right of sovereign nations to conduct their own policies, the sanctity of life (including that of the unborn), the concern with scientific experiments on human embryos, and that he hails the work of scientists, engineers, and businesses when they work for the betterment of humanity. Despite outcries by certain conservatives that Francis?s encyclical is virtually a call on Catholics to vote for the Democratic Party in the next election, neither side can claim the Catholic Church as its natural ally. Indeed, the Church has always sailed an independent course.

The role of religion in the public sphere has given rise to much discussion in recent times. Debate has focused mainly on the work of political scientists and philosophers on the relations between secular and religious reasons. The voices of religious figures themselves have been almost completely absent from these debates, perhaps as a representative example of the separation that secular societies make between rational and religious reasons. This paper explores the discourse of one such religious leader, Pope Benedict XVI, on religion in the public sphere through the analysis of two discussions sustained consecutively with secular thinkers Jurgen Habermas and Marcello Pera one year prior to Benedict's papacy. The author argues that the Pope's concem with injecting the Christian voice into the public discourse fails to address other religious voices. Benedict's model of the European public sphere incorporates Christian rationality into public reason, yet reproduces an asymmetry between Christians and other believers parallel to that which the liberal state has created between secular and religious citizens.

Benedict XVI, the present pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, published Caritas in Veritate in June 2009. This third papal encyclical of his is distinguished from his others that dealt with the area of theology commonly known as “constructive” or “systematic.” In this most recent publication, Benedict XVI moves his writing into a rich historical arena known as Roman Catholic social teaching. Building upon a solid tradition of popes tackling political, social, and economic issues, Benedict XVI tackles acute contemporary concerns. The key areas Benedict XVI addresses in this encyclical are globalization, the economy, technology, and the environment. Germane to this text, this chapter will seek to explain how globalization is described and critiqued by Benedict XVI in this pivotal letter of his pontificate. While globalization will be the primary focus, because of the interrelationship between the aforementioned topics, attention obviously will also to be given to the other primary areas.

The Church and the Secular Establishment:A Philosophical Dialog between Joseph Ratzinger and Jürgen Habermas Virgil Nemoianu Abstract Virgil Nemoianu is William J. Byron Distinguished Professor of Literature and Ordinary Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He is the author or editor of over fifteen books and has published approximately six hundred scholarly articles, reviews, and presentations on four continents. He is a member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. January 19, 2004: Professor Jürgen Habermas speaking with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the Bavarian Catholic Academy in Munich. Used by permission. © Katholische Akademie in Bayern 2004. [End Page 16] Dialogs between leading thinkers of the Roman Catholic Church and other philosophies, theologies, or bodies of opinion and power are not a novelty. In fact, it would be correct to say that they have been a characteristic of the Catholic tradition over centuries or millennia, and that they constitute a salient difference between Catholicism and most other confessions or religions. Intersections and combinations with Platonism and Aristotelianism date from the very beginnings of Christianity. The Catholic Church or some of its leading intellectuals have responded in nuanced and complex ways to philosophies such as rationalism (Descartes), the classical and romantic movements, phenomenology, and even extreme left- and right-wing ideologies. One small example of such a dialog was a very few years ago the exchange of public letters between Archbishop and Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini and the semiotic critic and philosopher Umberto Eco. Some of these dialogs have proved to be highly fruitful and enriching, while others turned out to be dead ends or even deleterious. We can leave history the privilege to make detailed judgments on each of these, but we can also agree, I think, that this incessant [End Page 17] process maintained the healthy liveliness of Catholic intellectual life. That is why the discussion between Jürgen Habermas and Joseph Ratzinger (as the future Pontiff Benedict XVI was called at the time and as I shall call him throughout this presentation) stirred unusually high waves in European intellectual life. It is perhaps redundant, but I will nevertheless introduce the two figures by short summaries of their careers and views. Overview of the Work of Joseph Ratzinger and Jürgen Habermas Joseph Ratzinger's academic career covered the period 1953–77. In 1977 he became archbishop of Munich and Freising, soon thereafter cardinal, and by 1981 he moved to Rome in the high position of Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he held for twenty-four years, although he continued to write, publish, or give public lectures and scholarly papers, over and beyond the production of official doctrinal documents and statements. During his years of doctoral and post-doctoral studies (doctorate and "Habilitation" under the German university rules), between 1953 and 1959, he worked on Saints Augustine and Bonaventure. He taught at the universities of Bonn, Münster, Tübingen, and Regensburg, and he was also one of the cofounders of the extremely important quarterly theological journal Communio. This journal was the brainchild of Hans Urs von Balthasar, arguably the greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century, and continues to appear in twelve languages and variants. It is somewhat difficult to assess accurately the number of publications by Ratzinger, since some of them tend to overlap and the versions in different languages are not always identical. Nevertheless, we can speak about approximately twenty-five books. It is clear that Ratzinger's thinking derives from that of Hans Urs von Balthasar: a mode of thought that is extremely difficult to assign to either ecclesiastical "conservatives" or "liberals," a thinking that goes back to the Patristic sources of Christianity, beyond its medieval [End Page 18] structures and somewhat distanced from the pre-Vatican II neo-Thomism (though not necessarily hostile to it), and a mode of thought that admits the importance of the Beautiful at the level of the True and of the Good. However, unlike Balthasar, and even his close counterpart the Jesuit priest (and eventually cardinal) Henri de Lubac, Ratzinger was more decisively steeped...

SOMMARIO: 1. Riforma del Terzo settore e servizio della carita nella Chiesa - 2. La riforma del Terzo settore e le nuove sfide per gli enti ecclesiastici - 3. Il Motu proprio “Intima Ecclesiae natura” e l’evoluzione dell’ordinamento canonico - 4. Il Codice del Terzo settore e la sua applicazione agli enti ecclesiastici - 5. Implicazioni per gli enti della Chiesa: l’esigenza di trasparenza - 6. Il principio della trasparenza nella dottrina canonistica - 7. Il “patrimonio destinato”: implicazioni nell’ordinamento canonico - 8. Attivita diverse e controlli canonici: la sfida della governance e della gestione in un contesto concordatario - 9. Osservazioni conclusive. Catholic Church entities and the reform of the Third sector in Italian legislation. Canonical implications ABSTRACT: This paper deals with the canonical implications of Italy’s recent Third sector reform in Italian legislation (d. lgs n. 117/2017) for Catholic Church entities and/or agencies for charitable purposes. It starts with some preliminary remarks on the recent evolution of Canon Law concerning the discipline of charitable organizations and agencies that followed the Motu proprio Intima Ecclesiae natura, issued by Pope Benedict XVI in December 2012. It then examines the general framework of the new regulation of non profit organizations in Italian law, emphasizing the pros and cons (opportunities and risks) of its application to religious entities, particularly those connected to the Catholic Church, which in Italy traditionally enjoy a special discipline safeguarding their canonical structure and purposes. The paper then focuses on the impact of the new civil regulation that allows a wide range of charitable initiatives on behalf of religious organizations, on the governance of Catholic Church entities, which are submitted to the directives and authorizations of ecclesiastical authorities. Finally, it draws some conclusive remarks on the need to update and reform some administrative rules and praxis concerning the administration and finance of charitable institutions in Canon Law.

Pope Benedict XVI’s Letter to the bishops, priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful of the Catholic Church in the People’s Republic of China, issued in 2007, is primarily theological and pastoral in nature. However, it contains also some important canonical issues, such as, the (Chinese) state control over bishops and the so-called Bishops’ Conference; the issue of the independence of the Catholic Church in China from political power, with the background of the open and underground groups; the appointment and ordination of Bishops; the formation of the clergy, the religious and the lay faithful; the work of evangelization; religious freedom and the continuous search for “dialogue” with the government, the impending review of ecclesiastical circumscriptions and provinces, the abolition of the extraordinary faculties or privileges conceded to date to the Church in China, etc. In the present study, these issues are systematically analyzed vis-à-vis the provisions of the Code of Canon Law and the current situation in China. The reader may find in these pages not only valid insights towards the solution of actual conflicts between the two polarized sides confronting the Catholic Church in China today – the so-called “open” and “underground” communities, but also some key elements to uncover hidden elements of the Letter and thus contribute to a better understanding of it.

Pope Benedict XVI’s Letter to the bishops, priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful of the Catholic Church in the People’s Republic of China, issued in 2007, is primarily theological and pastoral in nature. However, it contains also some important canonical issues such as, the (Chinese) state control over bishops and the so-called Bishops’ Conference; the issue of the independence of the Catholic Church in China from political power, with the background of the open and underground groups; the appointment and ordination of Bishops; the formation of the clergy, the religious and the lay faithful; the work of evangelization; religious freedom and the continuous search for “dialogue” with the government, the impending review of ecclesiastical circumscriptions and provinces, the abolition of the extraordinary faculties or privileges conceded to date to the Church in China, etc. In the present study, these issues are systematically analyzed vis-à-vis the provisions of the Code of Canon Law and the current situation in China. The reader may find in these pages not only valid insights towards the solution of actual conflicts between the two polarized sides confronting the Catholic Church in China today – the so-called “open” and “underground” communities, but also some key elements to uncover hidden elements of the Letter and thus contribute to a better understanding of it.