Folia Theologica 1. (1990)
Péter Erdő: The Theological foundations of Canon Law according to the works of John Henry Newman
118 P. ERDŐ and of the unity of the Lord. The Church also participates in the nature of the Only Principle, of the supreme value and is distinguished by the characteristic note of unity.10 * The content and the meaning of this unity is represented by Newman in various ways, even by means of expressive analogies. In fact of he speaks God as monad11, because the word "unity" seems to him too insignificant and weak to express this divine property. The "one" is above all the contrary of other numbers. The Supreme Being cannot become simply contrary to creatures. And this special type of unity, in an analogous way, also characterizes the Church. This same idea is also be found in a much earlier statement of the author, in which he states that the unity of the Church in the Catholic sense is analogous to that which unites the Father with the Son according to the Nicene Creed.12 13 This rather special understanding of the unity of the Church is confirmed by the fact that Newman speaks expressly of the Church as an institution with monadic existence.1 Another aspect of unity is indicated by the name person that Newman applies to the Church.14 The personality, in fact, signifies a unity of action. So also the present Code of Canon Law declares that the; "Catholic Church and the Apostolic See have the nature of a moral person by divine law itself" (Can 113.1). The personal aspect of the Church, however, is not exhausted in the name or in the quality of "person" applied to the Church as such, but it means that the Church is " fundamentally constituted by the connection of grace and individual men as established by God, and that she is assembled in one body only".15 The Church is therefore a unity that is born of souls, of persons and of the grace of God. And it is precisely in this context of the personal aspect that Newman uses the terminology coming from the New 10. Dev 257-258; cf. 1 Clem 5-6 An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (=G A), Westminster, Md. 1973, 51. 12. LD XIV, 402. 13. Certain Difficulties, felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching ( = Diff), II, Westminster, Md 1969, 208. 14. Stray Essays on Controversial Points, Variously Illustrated, S.L., 1890, 58. 15. CONGAR 97.
