Folia Canonica 4. (2001)
STUDIES - John D. Faris: A Canonical Examination of the Acquisition, Consequences and Loss of Membership in a Church - A Catholic Perspective
138 JOHN D. FARIS outside that community governed by the Successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him.7 With this revolutionary insight, the Catholic Church was finally able to recognize the communio that existed among all those baptized in Christ. Although no official term has been adopted to designate the broad communion comprising all Christians, the title of Church of Christ can be assigned to it in conformity with the usage of the Council. Catholic Communion of Churches While acknowledging that gifts of grace and sanctity lie beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church, the Second Vatican Council, in keeping with tradition, affirmed the fullness of ecclesiality within the Catholic Church and delineated three criteria necessary to be included in this communion: the same faith, the same sacraments and the same government (i.e., recognition of papal primacy).8 In addition to delineating the three criteria of the same faith, sacraments, and governments, the Council articulated still another facet to the conciliar articulation of Church. The Orientalium Ecclesiarum (1965) describes the Catholic Church in a manner that is still unfamiliar to the majority of Catholics; the Catholic Church is a communio ecclesiarum, a “communion of churches:” [The Christian faithful] combine into different groups, which are held together by their hierarchy, and so form particular churches or rites. Between those churches there is such a wonderful communion that this variety in the Universal Church, so far from diminishing its unity, rather serves to emphasize it.9 According to this conciliar statement, the Catholic Church can be described as a Catholic Communion of Churches, precisely 22 Catholic churches, denoted in certain council documents as particular churches (Ecclesiae particulares).10 The Council describes this communion of particular churches as follows: 7 “This is the sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic....This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible confines. Since these are gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.” Vatican II, Lumen gentium, n. 8. 8 For further information on this subject, see J. D. Faris, A Communion of Catholic Churches: Terminology and Ecclesiology, Brooklyn, NY 1985. 9 Orientalium Ecclesiarum, n. 2. lOThe Second Vatican Council employed the term “particular church” equivocally. In Lumen gentium, the term is employed to designate the diocese (see nn. 23, 27 and 45) and broader ecclesial groupings (n. 13). Christus Dominus also employs the term to refer to the
