The Parish: Theological and Canonical Parameters

THE PARISH: THEOLOGICAL AND CANONICAL PARAMETERS1 Thomas J. Green* This article will attempt to clarify certain fundamental theologicalcanonical dimensions of the parish according to official church teaching as expressed in Vatican II and especially in the 1983 code.2 The author hopes thereby to put the canonical-civil law observations of his workshop colleagues in a somewhat broader theological-canonical context.3 At the end of this text a brief bibliography highlights some sources the author found particularly valuable in preparing these reflections.4 (A) Introduction This text stresses the nature of the parish as a principal Eucharistic community of the faithful involving clergy and laity (and perhaps religious ) even prior to our consideration of its leadership figures, who are especially called to foster its mission. In a certain sense the parish is the fundamental ecclesial community, the lowest level constitutional form of church organization. It is the backbone of that organization and is baThe Jurist 69 (2009) 213–236 213 * School of Canon Law, Catholic University of America 1 This article is a slightly modified version of an introductory presentation given on April 4, 2008 at the annual spring canonical seminar in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the School of Canon Law and entitled “Getting Civil Law Right: Canonical Criteria for Parish Civil Structures.” 2 While the aforementioned seminar presentation focused on the Latin code, the author provides appropriate references here to the Eastern code for completeness sake. The text will cite the Latin code as canon or canons with the canon number(s) and the Eastern code as CCEO, c or cc. with the canon number(s). 3 See the immediately following articles by Attorney Mark Chopko and Dr. Phillip Brown, S.S. 4 The author was especially influenced by the reflections of a Belgian canonist Alphonse Borras cited in the bibliography. See Alphonse Borras, Les communautés paroissiales. Droit canoniqiue et perspectives pastorales. (Paris: Cerf, 1996) 31–85. The author also found rather helpful a July 2006 interdisciplinary session at Loyola University of Chicago entitled “Can You Tell Me What a Parish Is?” For the text of the seminar papers , see Chicago Studies 46 (2007) 3–141; 147–237. Finally the author appreciates the extensive work on the parish done by James Coriden of the Washington Theological Union, especially his comments on the rights and obligations of parishes as juridic persons . See, e.g., idem, The Parish in Catholic Tradition: History, Theology, and Canon Law (Parish in Tradition) (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1997) 59–81. 214 the jurist sically oriented to responding to the Church’s call to be a sacramental sign of human salvation, a light to the nations (Lumen gentium). It is central to the discovery and ongoing nurturing of the spiritual identity of most Catholics. The parish is surely a much more comprehensive reality than its key leadership figure the pastor despite the two codes’ focusing most of their attention on his varied service to his fellow believers.5 There is a post-Vatican II shift away from a somewhat more institutional view of the parish in the 1917 code, which did not describe the parish as such given its emphasis on the pastor and the means of his support . However, canon 216 spelled out certain fundamental elements: a territorial subdivision of diocese, a church building, a specified group of people, and a pastor. That code viewed the pastor-parishioner relationship in terms of the former’s actively providing pastoral care for the latter who were viewed as somewhat passive recipients of such care. It seems rather important that our present codes no longer view the parish primarily as an institution for pastoral service, a branch office of a large diocesan corporation. Hence we need to avoid viewing the parish from a significantly business-oriented perspective with the pastor’s being viewed as a branch manager subordinate to the bishop as the diocesan CEO.6 Following Fox, who spoke at the aforementioned July 2006 Chicago symposium on the parish,7 one might discuss the parish from a triple frame of reference: a) conciliar teaching on the Church, especially the theme of communion strongly emphasized by recent popes8 b) a reading of the noteworthy signs...