The Interpretation of the Codex Canonici Iuris 1983 with due regard to the Mystery of the Church

The Second Vatican Council mandated that the teaching of canon law take the mystery of the Church as set out in the Council’s dogmatic constitution « Lumen gentium » into account (Optatam totius, n. 16).  Pope Paul VI and John Paul II insisted upon the foundation of the canon law in the Mystery of the Church.

     Klaus Mörsdorf (1909-1989), Antonio María Rouco Varela (b. 1936), Eugenio Corecco (1931-1995), Remigiusz Sobański (1930-2010) and Ludger Müller (1952-2013) responded to the conciliar and papal mandates.  These canonists writing in German do not agree on the application of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s definition of law – “an ordinance of reason for the common good…” (Summa Theologiae, Ia IIae, q. 90, a. 4) - to canon law.  No clear consensus on the rational basis of the canon law, the common good to which the canon law is directed, or the juridical character of the canon law is evident in their debate.  They also make different assumptions regarding the philosophical and theological nature of analogy, and its use in elaborating the nature of the canon law.  It is noteworthy also that the theories of Mörsdorf, Corecco, Rouco Varela and Sobański on the foundation of canon law do establish practical principles for the interpretation of the Codex Canonici Iuris of 1983.

     In this dissertation the following two questions will be answered.  Firstly, what are the implications of the doctrine of the Mystery of the Church for identifying the rational basis of the canon law and the common good of the Church to which the canon law is directed?  Secondly, what practical principles for the interpretation of the Codex Canonici Iuris of 1983 follow from the requirement that the canon law must be comprehended within the Mystery of the Church?