El Orden de los Clérigos o Ministros Sagrados. Formación, Incardinación Y Estatuto Jurídico Persona by Tomás Rincón Peréz (review)

464 the jurist See recognitio of council decrees. The concluding part three explores the theological relevance of such councils to the conciliar doctrine of communio . It also examines the importance of regional expressions of collegiality and thoughtfully compares and contrasts such councils and episcopal conferences. It is surely true but regrettable that particular councils are a relatively low, if non-existent, priority in official ecclesiastical and even in academic circles. However, D-M has made an interesting case for at least giving such councils a serious second look. The work is reasonably comprehensive in its use of conciliar, papal, and curial sources; it also provides the reader a very useful listing of secondary sources, theological and canonical. This reviewer found the work quite valuable in his own research and commends it to other canonists and theologians probing the implications of the Church as a communio. Thomas J. Green School of Canon Law The Catholic University of America Washington, DC EL ORDEN DE LOS CLÉRIGOS O MINISTROS SAGRADOS FORMACI ÓN, INCARDINACIÓN Y ESTATUTO JURÍDICO PERSONA by Tomás Rincón Peréz, Pamplona: EUNSA, Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, S.A., 2009. This text offers a synthesis of the canonical norms governing “clerics” or “sacred ministers” and thus provides a unified and logical treatment of this subject, which is addressed by numerous direct references in various books of the Code of Canon Law. The first part of the text consists of four chapters and focuses on general questions: doctrinal principles and foundational concepts; historical perspective and, in particular, conciliar treatment of the subject; and concluding with a treatment of the ministry of clerics in distinction to that of the laity. Part two addresses the topic of formation of “clerics or sacred ministers;” and in six chapters the author treats historical antecedents, the seminary as a juridic person; admission to the seminary; the means utilized to provide seminary formation, including the roles of the diocesan bishop, the rector, professors, spiritual directors and confessors. The author devotes a chapter to the important role of spiritual directors and the freedom of the seminarians and then concludes with a discussion of the teleology of seminary formation: ordination to priesthood. In the third part of the text, the author addresses incardination issues in five chapters, including an important chapter concerned with sacerdotal service in dioceses other than that of incardination. In the fourth part, the author addresses the personal juridic state of the presbyter—cleric, including rights and obligations and the canonical state of the permanent deacon. In his last chapter, the author discusses the loss of the clerical state. The text offers a good overview of the law governing the clerical state and presents the material in a logical and coherent way. Numerous contemporary issues, most particularly the crisis involving the sexual abuse of minors by clerics, have encouraged a closer examination of the formation of future clerics in the Church, the content and officials of seminary formation; the assessment of seminarians’strengths and weaknesses, and formation for a life of celibacy. In addition, the service of clerics in dioceses other their own raises issues of the interpretation of the canon law on faculties, the right to celebrate Mass publicly and civil (secular) law issues such as civil liability. But as important as these issues are, the text, by highlighting the sacramental dimension of the cleric—that is, the cleric as asacredminister—emphasizesthesacramentalbondbetweenapresbyter and his bishop. Such a bond is more than ever necessary, given the developing crisis in morale among presbyters. From this specific perspective, this reviewer believes the distinction between the legal state of a cleric and a sacred minister is much more important than the author emphasizes in his text. Canon 207 §1 states “By divine institution, there are among the Christian faithful in the Church sacred ministers who in law are also called clerics; the other members of the Christian faithful are called lay persons.” While not wishing to obfuscate the fundamental and essential unity between a cleric and a sacred minister, such a unity cannot and must not minimize the fundamental difference between the individual as a cleric and as a sacred minister. This difference involves divine law...