228. Subsidiarity and the Episcopal Conferences

Last week’s post examined subsidiarity and delegation in canon law. Today’s post examines subsidiarity and the Episcopal Conference.

As a recap, the principle of subsidiarity in canon law means that the Church entrusts matters to the lowest competent authority and allows higher authorities to intervene only when the lower level cannot adequately fulfil the task.

Although some countries had conferences of bishops at the national and supranational levels, the 1917 Code did not mention Episcopal Conferences. The Second Vatican Council formally established the Episcopal Conference as an ecclesiastical body for the universal Church in 1965 (Christus Dominus, 37). In 1966, Pope Paul VI, through the motu proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae, issued practical directives to clarify the implementation of the Council’s decision regarding the establishment and functioning of the conferences. The 1983 Code further defined the operation, authority and responsibility, while Pope John Paul II, with his 1998 motu proprio Apostolos Suos, clarified the theological and juridical nature of episcopal conferences and their teaching authority.

Canon 447 states: “A conference of bishops, a permanent institution, is a group of bishops of some nation or certain territory who jointly exercise certain pastoral functions for the Christian faithful of their territory in order to promote the greater good which the Church offers to humanity, especially through forms and programs of the apostolate fittingly adapted to the circumstances of time and place, according to the norm of law.”

In line with subsidiarity, the Episcopal Conference, as a legislative body, can issue general decrees when the universal law prescribes it or by special mandate of the Holy See (Can. 455 §1). Moreover, once issued, the general decree binds every member of the Conference.

Among the functions of the Episcopal Conference are the following

1. To organise the programme for priestly formation and formation for permanent deacons for each nation (Cann. 236 & 242 §1).
2. To establish the age and qualification of lay persons for the ministries of lector and acolyte (Can. 230 §1).
3. To establish suitable ecclesiastical dress to be worn by clerics (Can. 284), and to determine and propose to the Apostolic See adaptations for sacred vestments that correspond to the needs and the usages of their regions” (GI, 342, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 128).
4. To establish public associations of Christ’s faithful for national associations (Can. 312 §1).
5. To ensure that suitable and worthy provision is made for emeritus bishops (Can. 402 §2), and to lay down norms to help diocesan bishops provide appropriate maintenance and residence for retired priests (Can 538 §3).
6. To lay down norms regulating the statutes of the presbyterial council (Can. 496).
7. To lay down norms for expounding Christian teaching on radio or television (Can. 772 §2).
8. To lay down norms determining the requirements for clerics and members of religious institutes to take part in radio and television programmes which concern catholic doctrine or morals (Can. 831 §2).
9. To issue Catechisms for its territory with the previous confirmation of the Holy See (Can. 775 §2)
10. To establish norms concerning the arrangement of the catechumenate (Can. 788 §3)
11. To issue general norms concerning the formation and education in the catholic religion taught in school (Can. 804 §1)
12. To permit Catholics, in cooperation with the separated brethren, to prepare and publish versions of the scriptures, with appropriate explanatory notes (Can. 825 §2).
13. To prepare versions of liturgical books in vernacular languages and to approve and publish liturgical books for their region after confirmation of the Apostolic See (Can. 838 §3).
14. To decide whether baptism is conferred by immersion or by pouring (Can. 854).
15. To determine the criteria for granting general absolution (Can. 961 §2).
16. To issue norms regarding the confessional (Can. 964 §2).
17. To enact a law regarding the promise of marriage (Can. 1062 §1).
18. To lay down norms concerning the questions to be asked of the parties, the publication of marriage banns and other appropriate means of enquiry to be carried out before marriage (Can. 1067).
19. To establish a higher age for the lawful celebration of marriage (Can. 1083 §2).
20. To draw up its own rite of marriage in line with local custom and Christian spirit (Can. 1120).
21. To prescribe the manner for declarations and promises for mixed marriage (Can. 1126).
22. To establish norms so that the dispensation from the canonical form of marriage is granted uniformly (Can. 1127 §2).
23. To approve a national shrine and its statutes (Can. 1231 & 1232).
24. With the approval of the Holy See, to suppress certain holy days of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday (Can. 1246 §2).
25. To determine abstinence from some other food to be observed on all Fridays (Can. 1251).
26. To determine more particular ways in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed (Can. 1253).
27. To lay down norms on how the faithful are to support the Church (Can. 1262).
28. To draw up rules regarding collections, which must be observed by all (Can. 1265 §2).
29. To see that a fund is established for the social security of clerics, where there is no properly organised system of social provision (Can. 1274 §2).
30. To determine what are regarded as acts of extraordinary administration (Can. 1277).
31. To establish the minimum and maximum sums for alienation of goods (Can. 1291 §1).
32. To determine norms about the leasing of ecclesiastical goods (Can. 1297).
33. To establish guidelines for an order to pay a fine or a sum of money for the Church’s purpose as an expiatory penalty (Can. 1336 §2, 2°).
34. To decide if lay persons can be ecclesiastical judges (Can. 1421 §2).
35. To permit diocesan bishops to appoint sole judges when it is impossible to constitute a college of judges (Can. 1425 §4).
36. To constitute, with the approval of the Apostolic See, one or more tribunals of second instance (Can. 1439 §2).
37. To establish norms for agreement, for mutual promises and for arbitral judgements (Can. 1714).

To further promote subsidiarity and in response to the tensions between Episcopal Conferences and the Holy See regarding the translation of vernacular liturgical texts, Pope Francis, in 2017, modified canon 838 through the Apostolic Letter Magnum Principium. He modified paragraph two, changing “review their vernacular translations” to “recognise adaptations approved by the Episcopal Conference”. He also modified paragraph three, changing ‘prior review of the Holy See’ (praevia recognitione Sanctae Sedis) to ‘after confirmation of the Apostolic See’ (post confirmationem Apostolicae Sedis). As little as this may seem, it is a significant change because Episcopal Conferences argued that the Holy See cannot know the vernacular language more than the Conference itself.

In 2022, Pope Francis through the apostolic letter, Competentias quasdam decernere, further introduced some changes to the 1983 Code and 1990 Eastern Code to “foster collegiality and pastoral responsibility” of Episcopal Conferences, “to respect the principles of reasonableness, effectiveness and efficiency”, and “to encourage a more rapid and effective pastoral governance on the part of local authority.” The changes boiled down to the word ‘approval’ (approbatio), which was replaced by ‘confirmation’ (confirmatio).

 May God continue to help us🙏🏾

K’ọdị🙋🏾‍♂️