The Revised Code of Canon Law: Some Theological Issues

Abstract

promulgating the revised Code of Canon Law, Pope John Paul II consistently highlighted its relationship to the Second Vatican Council. He noted the original inspiration of Pope John XXIII to convoke an ecumenical council and to reform the 1917 Code of Canon Law, as well as the intense interest of the Council fathers in such legal reform. Both the conciliar enterprise and the Code revision process were motivated by a profound concern to renew Christian life in the midand late-twentieth century. Furthermore, John Paul II viewed the revised Code as a noteworthy effort to translate the richness of conciliar doctrine into canonical language—however difficult, if not impossible, such a task is. This is especially true for the Council's image of the Church, to which the revised Code should constantly be referred as a primary point of reference. There should be a profound complementarity between the Code and the Council, especially the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium and the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes. The key ecclesiological themes of the Council should be among the fundamental criteria for interpreting and implementing the revised Code in practice. Among the significant elements of conciliar ecclesiology noted in the apostolic constitution were the following: the Church as the people of God and hierarchical authority as service; the Church as a communion, with its implications for the relationship between the universal Church and the particular churches and between collegiality and the primacy; the participation of all believers in the threefold office of Christ, with its implications for their duties and rights, especially those of the laity; and the Church's commitment to ecumenism. The apostolic constitution concluded with the hope that the revised Code would be an effective instrument in aiding the Church to progress