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Document Details : Title: De plaats van de religieuze wet vanuit een katholiek-christelijke optiek Author(s): TORFS, Rik Journal: Tijdschrift voor Theologie Volume: 60 Issue: 1 Date: 2020 Pages: 61-75 DOI: 10.2143/TVT.60.1.3287413 Abstract : Canon law is not just religious law. It cannot be derived from holy texts or books only, since it also contains norms that are just legal, and thus theologically neutral. Yet, some parts of the system are considered to belong to divine law or the divine constitution of the Church, including among other issues the primacy of the pope or the position of bishops as successors to the apostles. The article focuses on some complex and not always resolved questions. Can there be a double hierarchy within canon law, a strictly legal as well as a merely theological one? Opinions about this issue are divided. Can divine law change? History shows it can. Is there a danger that divine law will be used as an instrument to close inner church discussion? The impossibility to ordain women to the priesthood as formulated in the apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis issued by pope John Paul II in 1994 offers an example of the latter. Are there in today’s canon law ‘hidden’ sources of divine law? Maybe there are, and they might explain the reluctancy of the Church to organize within its structures a true separation of powers. Finally, the question is asked whether divine law is compatible with the democratic state and the rule of law. There are some tensions, for instance when it regards compulsory celibacy and the legal position of women. Yet, most of the time a solution can be found. And let us not forget that freedom of religion in its own right is also part of the secular legal system. |
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