Folia Canonica 4. (2001)
STUDIES - George Nedungatt: Who is to Administer Church Property? - The Answer of the Ecumenical Councils
118 GEORGE NEDUNGATT about the administration of Church property.Together with the canons of certain local synods they were later taken over and sanctioned by the ecumenical councils, especially by the Council of Nicea II (787) with its canons 1 and 12. The first canon of Nicea II runs as follows: We joyfully embrace the sacred canons and we maintain complete and unshaken their regulation, both those expounded by those trumpets of the Spirit, the apostles worthy of all praise, and those from the six holy and universal synods and from the synods assembled locally for the promulgation of such decrees, and from our holy fathers? Thus, through this conciliar reception and sanctioning, the Canons of the Apostles and the canons of the local synods have been invested with the authority of an ecumenical council. I. The Early Local Synods The legislations of the early local synods were put together under the title Apostolic Canons. According to Apostolic canon 41, it is the bishop who is to have charge of the temporal property of his diocese or eparchy, but he is to be assisted by presbyters and deacons: We ordain that the bishop have authority over the goods of the Church: for if he is to be entrusted with the precious souls of men, much more are temporal possessions to be entrusted to him. He is, therefore, to administer them all of his own authority, and supply those who need, through the presbyters and deacons, in the fear of God, and with all reverence. He may also, if need be, take what is required for his own necessary wants and for the brethren to whom he has to show hospitality, so that he may not be in any want. For the law of God has ordained that they who wait at the altar should be nourished of the altar. Neither does any soldier bear arms against an enemy at his own cost? The logic of the canon is as follows: One who has been judged worthy to be entrusted with the care of souls (cura animarum) may be trusted to have charge * 3 4 “apostolic” in the sense that in the one is expressed the genuine faith handed down from the first centuries, while in the other the authentic discipline (P-P. Joannou, Discipline générale antique, tome I, 2. Les canons des Synodes Particuliers (Pontificia Commissione per la Redazione dei Codice di Diritto Canonico Orientale, Fonti, fase. IX), Rome 1962, 1-2. 3 N. P. Tanner (ed.), Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols., London, Sheed and Ward, 1990, vol. 1, 138-139. 4 Joannou, Les canons (nt. 2) 28-29. For an English version of the Canons of the Apostles and the local synods, see H. Percival, The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. 14), Grand Rapids 1899; reprint 1979. The translation given here and in the following notes is adapted from Percival (pp. 596-597) in the light of the later and more critically accurate Greek text in Joannou.
