Paven tydeliggjør kirkeloven for teologer på avveier

Pave Johannes Paul II har foretatt tilføyelser i kirkeloven som tydeliggjør at katolske teologer må forsvare også de bindende trossannheter som ikke uttrykkelig er blitt erklært som dogmer. Dette skjedde ved det apostoliske skriv «Ad tuendam fidem» (latinsk original, engelsk oversettelse) av 18. mai, som ble offentliggjort den 30. juni. Skrivet innleder med å si at for å forsvare den katolske kirkes tro mot visse troendes irrlære, særlig innen visse fagteologiske kretser, er det nødvendig å innføye noen nye bestemmelser i kirkeloven. Det gjelder kan. 750, som får et nytt ledd der det understrekes at man er forpliktet også på de tros- og moralspørsmål som er blitt fastlagt «på definitiv måte». Det gjelder selv om de ikke er blitt uttrykkelig gjort til dogmer. Tilleggets ordlyd er tatt fra den trosbekjennelse og embedsed som bl.a. sogneprester, teologer og biskoper avlegger ved embedstiltredelse, og som fikk sin nåværende utforming i 1989. Det er også foretatt en justering i den kirkelige strafferett slik at den nye kan. 750.2 uttrykkelig inkluderes. Det innebærer at f.eks. en teolog som hårdnakket fastholder et tros- eller moralstandpunkt som tilhører den nevnte kategori, risikerer kirkestraff.

Samtidig som det apostoliske skriv ble fremlagt, ble det også presentert en forklarende anmerkning fra prefekten for Vatikanets kongregasjon for troslæren, kardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Selve det apostoliske skriv gir ingen konkrete eksempler på hva slags trossannheter som faller i den aktuelle kategori. Men kardinal Ratzinger nevner blant annet læren at prestevielse er forbeholdt kun menn, og at eutanasi er moralsk utillatelig. Dette er eksempler på områder der kirken har uttalt seg definitivt om, men der det fremdeles er katolske teologer som aktivt går inn for et annet syn.

I og med at den nevnte embedsed som er i bruk allerede inneholder de aktuelle presisteringer, og Vatikanets Troskongregasjon allerede på annet vis har hatt de fornødne disiplinære kirkerettslige virkemidler til disposisjon, består det nye i at bestemmelse nå blir del av den alminnelige kirkelov i stedet for at de kun var nedfelt i underordnede rettsinstrumenter.

Kathpress, CWN, Vatikanets hjemmeside, Vatikanradioen

Explanatory note on motu proprio "Ad Tuendam Fidem"

VATICAN CITY, JUL 1, 1998 (VIS) - The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith yesterday issued an explanatory note in English, French and Spanish, which accompanied the text of Pope John Paul's Motu Proprio "Ad Tuendam Fidem" (To Defend the Faith).

The note was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., respectively prefect and secretary of the congregation. With this Motu Proprio, several "commas" or paragraphs are inserted into the latest canon law codes for both the Eastern and Latin Churches: these paragraphs refer to the "profession of faith" and the oath of fidelity of those who exercise an ecclesiastical teaching ministry.

Following are excerpts from this note:

"From her very beginning, the Church has professed faith in the Lord, crucified and risen, and has gathered the fundamental contents of her belief into certain formulas."

"In the course of the centuries, from this unchangeable nucleus testifying to Jesus as Son of God and as Lord, symbols witnessing to the unity of the faith and to the communion of the churches came to be developed. In these, the fundamental truths which every believer is required to know and to profess were gathered together."

"In recent times too, in her pastoral care for souls, the Church has thought it opportune to express in a more explicit way the faith of all time. In addition, the obligation has been established for some members of the Christian faithful, called to assume particular offices in the community in the name of the Church, to publicly make a profession of faith according to the formula approved by the Apostolic See."

"This new formula of the 'Professio fidei' restates the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and concludes with the addition of three propositions or paragraphs intended to better distinguish the order of the truths to which the believer adheres."

"The first paragraph states: 'With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the Word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.' The object taught in this paragraph is constituted by all those doctrines of divine and catholic faith which the Church proposes as divinely and formally revealed and, as such, as irreformable.

"These doctrines are contained in the Word of God, written or handed down, and defined with a solemn judgment as divinely revealed truths either by the Roman Pontiff when he speaks 'ex cathedra', or by the College of Bishops gathered in council, or infallibly proposed for belief by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.

"These doctrines require the assent of theological faith by all members of the faithful. Thus, whoever obstinately places them in doubt or denies them falls under the censure of heresy, as indicated by the respective canons of the Codes of Canon Law.

"The second proposition of the 'Professio fidei' states: 'I also firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.' The object taught by this formula includes all those teachings belonging to the dogmatic or moral area, which are necessary for faithfully keeping and expounding the deposit of faith, even if they have not been proposed by the Magisterium of the Church as formally revealed."

"Every believer, therefore, is required to give firm and definitive assent to these truths, based on faith in the Holy Spirit's assistance to the Church's Magisterium, and on the Catholic doctrine of the infallibility of the Magisterium in these matters. Whoever denies these truths would be in a position of rejecting a truth of Catholic doctrine and would therefore no longer be in full communion with the Catholic Church."

"The Magisterium of the Church, however, teaches a doctrine to be believed as divinely revealed (first paragraph) or to be held definitively (second paragraph) with an act which is either defining or non-defining. .. In the case of a non-defining act, ... such a doctrine can be confirmed or reaffirmed by the Roman Pontiff, even without recourse to a solemn definition."

"The third proposition of the 'Professio fidei' states: 'Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.'

"To this paragraph belong all those teachings -- on faith and morals -- presented as true or at least as sure, even if they have not been defined with a solemn judgment or proposed as definitive by the ordinary and universal Magisterium."

"A proposition contrary to these doctrines can be qualified as erroneous or, in the case of teachings of the prudential order, as rash or dangerous and therefore 'tuto doceri non potest'."

"To the truths of the first paragraph belong the articles of faith of the Creed, the various christological dogmas and marian dogmas; the doctrine of the institution of the sacraments by Christ and their efficacy with regard to grace; the doctrine of the real and substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the sacrificial nature of the eucharistic celebration; the foundation of the Church by the will of Christ; the doctrine on the primacy and infallibility of the Roman Pontiff; the doctrine on the existence of original sin; the doctrine on the immortality of the spiritual soul and on the immediate recompense after death; the absence of error in the inspired sacred texts; the doctrine on the grave immorality of direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being.

"With respect to the truths of the second paragraph, with reference to those connected with revelation by a logical necessity, one can consider, for example, the development in the understanding of the doctrine connected with the definition of papal infallibility."

"A similar process can be observed in the more recent teaching regarding the doctrine that priestly ordination is reserved only to men. The Supreme Pontiff, while not wishing to proceed to a dogmatic definition, intended to reaffirm that this doctrine is to be held definitively, since, founded on the written Word of God, constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium."

"The doctrine on the illicitness of euthanasia, taught in the Encyclical Letter 'Evangelium Vitae', can also be recalled."

"Other examples of moral doctrines which are taught as definitive by the universal and ordinary Magisterium of the Church are: the teaching on the illicitness of prostitution and of fornication."

"As examples of doctrines belonging to the third paragraph, one can point in general to teachings set forth by the authentic ordinary Magisterium in a non-definitive way."

MP/PROFESSION FAITH/... VIS 980701 (1140)