Thoughts and Excerpts: Receiving the Council by Ladislas Orsy, Post 5, Reception of Laws

Most of us don’t usually get fired up about the topic of canon law but it is the operations manual for the church so if there is to be change in the structure of the church it will happen in the domain of canon law. Orsy has some very interesting things to say about reception of canon law and the underlying theology of this reception. This is a long post but worth the read for anyone interested in Church reform.

Orsy widens the context of the understanding of canon law by stipulating that you not only have to look at what the laws are, but how they are received (e.g., whether people pay attention to them). Given the situation today, that Church authorities no longer legitimize belief because the truth of belief has passed from the institution to the believer, this is a very apt discussion.

He says we need to talk about how laws are received because “those in authority are less and less able to issue peremptory commands and obtain facile compliance.” You can say that again. “People, within and without the church, want to know the reason for a law; they want to understand the good that it intends to achieve; they want to implement it intelligently and freely. Such an attitude is no more than an assertion of human dignity, a stance that the church, no doubt, wishes to honor.” (p. 57) Well ya’d think.

His focus is to figure out the correct theological pattern of reception, because you can look at reception (or non-reception) as information to determine whether you should think about reversing laws that have not been received. The poster child for this is Humanae Vitae but it is not the only example.

He reminds us that the church is organic and unfinished. “It is like a growing human being: to live, develop, and prosper, it needs to reach out for those things that can nourish its life–we call them values. The purpose of laws is to prompt the community to appropriate those values; the reception of the laws is the process by which the community comes into the possession of the same values. (The laws speak of intended values; reception means the acquisition of values.) (p. 60)

The Abstract and the Practical

Orsy describes how the reception of laws is an exercise in communio.

He says laws are abstract, like designs, but they are “received and implemented in the concrete world of human history.” (p. 55) “The overall priority, however, belongs to the world of existence because God is existence itself. The reception of laws takes place in the existential world, the place of concrete, particular and personal events. There the people of God can turn an abstract, universal, and impersonal norm into a force of life that help sustain and nourish the community.” (p. 56)

Then he compares the reception of laws to the building of a cathedral. “The process of building was the act of reception. In the church, the lawgivers are like the architects. The law-abiding people are like the builders.”

He points out the primacy of the existential: “the cathedrals could never exist without the laborers, no matter how good the designs may have been. The living body of the church could never function without those who are putting into practice its norms, laws, and rules, no matter how well such directives are conceived.” (p. 56)

“In this living church, the reception of laws takes place in the existential order where the energies of life flow, where historical events succeed each other, and where intelligent and free persons are called on to make responsible decisions.” (p. 59-60)

Lawgivers and Receiver

Effectively the lawgivers are the pope and the bishops. The lawgiver exists for the community. “Whatever he has, including the special charism of his office, he has it for the sake of the whole.” (p. 61)

“The receivers are the people of God: grace-filled, intelligent, and free persons.” But their first obligation is to God. “A Christian is bound to God by a “from-person-to-person” obligation. All duties that emerge in his or her life are specifications of this unique overriding bond. (This is really the best key to understanding the nature of canon law: it specifies an already existing personal obligation in the faithful. For this reason, even if canon law looks like civil law and can be studied as civil law, it can never be received in the same fashion as civil law. A Christian subject always responds to his or her personal God.”) (p. 63)

What is Reception?

“… a dynamic process brought forward by those immense energies that circulate in the community of the faithful. They are moved by a desire implanted by the Creator into the human heart to seek the good …” (p. 65)

It is an integrated process:

1) perception of the law

2) quest for understanding – what is the value that the law intends to promote

3) “The third movement in the process is its climax: the law meets the conscience of the receiver. It reaches that luminous part of the person where he or she is bound to God. There, a sovereign judgment will have to be made over the law, a judgment for which the person responsible to his or her Maker and to no one else.” (p. 66)

If there is disharmony for whatever reason, the conflict must be resolved before any action is taken. “The gist of this doctrine is the affirmation of the primacy of conscience over the law: no Christian must hold otherwise.” (p. 66)

4) “The fourth movement follows after the conscience has accepted the law and has integrated its demands with the obligation that binds the person to God. The lawgiver’s intention becomes the receiver’s decision. He or she is willing to act, that is, to reach out for the value that the law wants. This is, before and above all, an obsequium to God, ‘honoring God,’ and only secondarily an act of obedience to the law.” (p. 67)

5) “The fifth movement on the part of the receiver is then the action itself, the implementation of the law in the world of concrete, particular, and personal events.” (p. 67)

When Law Meets Life

When law meets life, “This is a new moment in the life of the law. For the first time, the abstract norm meets the turmoil of concrete events. The law is tried in the crucible of life, as an old saying in jurisprudence goes.” (p. 68)

There may be harmony or there may be conflict. “It arises when the law imposes an action for the acquisition of one value, but in the concrete order the same action is destructive of another value.” Bingo. (p. 68)

“An easily recognizable sign that the reception is going well is peace in the community. The purpose of a law is always to bring order into the life and operations of a group. When the law does this, and does it in the right measure, the group responds with contentment. … When the opposite happens–that is, the process of reception triggers restlessness, discontent, even resistance–in a well-informed, intelligent and responsible community, it is time to examine anew the suitability of that piece of legislation.” (p. 69)

“When, on the wake of the reception, joy and gladness abound, the concentration on faith, hope, and love increases, and the sense of unity is strengthened, then the law is doing good service to the community. For good people to have wise laws is a liberating experience. Contrarywise, if a law brings sadness and sorrow, distraction from the exhilarating experience of God’s presence, and undue preoccupation with temporal structures and institutions, it is time to question the law.” (p. 69-70) Bingo.

The Process of Reception in Light of Vatican II

The following insights of Vatican II are key to the understanding of the process of reception of laws that he has laid out.

The priority of the people of God – “…the concept of ‘people’ comprehends all, the hierarchy and the laity. Besides, a body is always prior to any of its members, even to the head. The same spirit animates my discourse: the need to recognize the priority of the people of God in building the church.” (p. 70)

The sensus fidei, sense of faith of the people – “The Council describes how the people share in the prophetic office of Christ, how they have the capacity to penetrate their faith with correct judgment, and apply it more fully to daily life (see LG12). (p. 71)

The historical character of the revelation – “The Word of God, eternal and immutable, has entered into our universe, temporal and changeable. The word has, therefore, a historical character; the Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei verbum) leaves no doubt about that. If that much is true of the Word itself, how much more it must be true of the human laws in the church!” (p. 71)

The primacy of conscience – “The Council articulated clearly–with all due qualifications– the absolute primacy of the dictates of conscience. Yet, the far-reaching implications of this doctrine concerning the obligations of the faithful within the church have received scant attention in theological writings.” (p. 71) Indeed ~ we need to get up off our collective asses.

The correct hierarchy of virtues – “Innumerable texts could be quoted from the Council to show how it honors the supremacy of the theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. All other virtues are organically subordinated to these three.”

“Obedience to a human law (even if it is ecclesiastical law) cannot be a supreme virtue: obedience can be authentic only when it functions in subordination to the theological virtues.”  (p. 71)  amen.

“What we need now is to find the concrete criteria to judge actual processes of reception as they take place in the existential order so that we can differentiate between authentic acts and aberrations. Inspiration for finding such criteria could be found in Congar’s well-known work True and False Reform in the Church; the reception of a law, too, could be true or false. Relevant material could be gathered also from Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine: more than half of the work is on the question of how genuine developments can be distinguished from corruptions.” (p. 72-3)

Tags: canon law, Orsy, structures of governance