Folia Canonica 5. (2002)
STUDIES - W. Becket Soule: Hermits in Current Eastern Catholic Legislation; CCEO cc. 481-485
HERMITS IN CURRENT EASTERN CATHOLIC LEGISLATION 155 During the process of the drafting of the CCEO, the working group charged with drafting and revising the canons on monks reported that “although there is no doubt that in the eastern tradition the hermit is a part of the institution of mo- nasticism, and that the force of the wish to recall that institute to a more intense life is worthy of every attention, since the eremitical life has contributed so much in the past to the spiritual development of Christianity, and has produced countless examples of sanctity, nevertheless the present situation must be taken into account, which risks prejudicing the development of the eremitical life, since it is bound so closely to the monastic institute.” As a result of these considerations, it was decided “to retain the outlines already sketched out in the schema for the common Code for all eastern Churches, in which the hermit is considered a monk. Yet, on the other hand, it is decided to formulate a canon in which, in the same common Code, a path will be opened for the his particulare to involve itself in the development of another form of eremitical life which does not belong to the figure of the monk.”23 Along with the institution of the consecrated virgin (which, initially, did not appear in the schema of the Eastern Code, although it was contained in CIC c. 604), it was decided to include the possibility of “ascetics” (non-monastic hermits) in a canon which would provide a way for particular law to give these forms greater specificity.24 To this end, chapter IV of CCEO Title XIII treats of new forms of religious life which may be introduced by particular law, among which are the consecrated life of ascetics who imitate the eremitical life, consecrated virgins, and consecrated widows (c. 570). Although the CCEO provides for several different kinds of monasteries, only members of a monastery sui iuris, or a monastery which is governed by its own typicon and does not depend on any other monastery (c. 433 §2), may become hermits. Members of filial or subsidiary monasteries are thus excluded from entering this sort of life; the present formulation also marks a departure from the previous legislation of Postquam Apostolicis c. 313 §4, which provided that any member of any religious institute had an opportunity to become a hermit as long as it was not contrary to the proper law of that religious institute.25 This is a further difference from the legislation of the CIC, since in the Latin Church a hermit belongs to no institute of consecrated life at all, but rather depends solely on the diocesan bishop. 23 Nuntia 16 (1983) 57. 24 Cf. Nuntia 16 (1983) 57-58. 25 Pujol deems this restriction in the current CCEO to be a discrimination which does not correspond to the authentic Eastern tradition, which has always been “liberal” regarding the practice of the eremitical life. C. PUJOL, La vita religiosa orientale, Rome 1994, 345.
