Folia Theologica 1. (1990)
Péter Erdő: The Theological foundations of Canon Law according to the works of John Henry Newman
THE THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CANON LAW 117 interior life. In this context the Church appears as an instrument of divine activity.5 Thus sacramentality refers to the whole Church and expresses its fundamental role. Following Newman’s ecclesiology the sacramental principle requires that, in the order of the Incarnation, the divine economy of salvation aims at the harmony of truth and grace with the established juridical structures.6 In the context of this sacramentality it seems entirely appropriate that our author emphesizes an expression of ancient tradition7: the sacramentum unitatis. This refers to the sacramental function of unity, and makes use of the fundamental structures that bring forth, express, and effect the sacramental unity of the Church, above all in the Roman Pontiff, and the See of St. Peter.8 The deduction of the principle that unites what is visible and what is invisible in the Church by the Incarnation of Christ in one of the points on which Newman is in agreement with the Roman school of his time, and especially with the reasoning of those who considered the truth of the Incarnation to be the fundamental idea of Canon Law.9 3. Unity and visibility The sacramental principle, as we have seen, realizes itself in the unity of the Church. But this unity, a distinctive note of the true Church, has yet more profound roots. As it is confirmed with reference to the teaching of St. Clement, in the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, the untiy of the Church is a consequence of the unity of God 5. Cf. STERN, J., The institutional Church in Newman’s Spirituality, in Newman-Studien X, Nürnberg 1978, 80-87. 6. Ibid. 96-97; cf. Parochial and Plain Sermons (=PPS), 1868. Ill, 221-225. 228. 230. 255-257. 263-365, etc. 7. Cf. S. Cypr., Cathol. Eccl. unit. 6-7; etc. 8. Cr. The Letters and Diaries of J. H. Newman, ed. C. S. Dessain, London-New York 1961 ss. (=LD), XX, 305-306; cf. Sermons preached on Various Occasions, Westminster, Md. 1968 (=SVO), 191; Dev 148-149. 154-155. 9. CF. e.g. S. M. VECCHIOTT1, Institutiones canonicae ex opribus Ioannes Card. Soglia excerptae, 16 Augustae Taurinorum 1876,1, III.
