Folia Canonica 5. (2002)
BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEWS 333 G. NEDUNGATT (ed.), A Guide to the Eastern Code. A Commentary on the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (Kanonika 10), Pontifical Oriental Institute, Roma 2002, 976 pp. The Corpus of Canon Law comprising the Codex Juris Canonici (=CIC) for the Latin Church and the Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium (=CCEO) for all the Eastern Catholic Churches, along with the Constitution Pastor Bonus regulating the Roman Curia forms an instrument for the achievement in the Churches of God of the tranquillity of order. The codes lend hand to the service of the economy of the salvation of souls (animarum salutis oeconomia) constituting the supreme end of all ecclesiastical laws. Every canon was elaborated with constant regard for the human person who has a Father in heaven and who has been redeemed by Christ. The Christian-faithful is at the center of every single canon of the entire corpus juris canonici. From every article it is clear that the human person is respected in all his/her rights, above all the fundamental ones, among them that of preserving the Christian identity in which he/she is born. In particular, the Eastern Code has as a peculiar work, the sacred respect for the ritual legacy, “the liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary heritage, which is differentiated by the culture and the circumstances of the history of peoples of every autonomous Church” (CCEO can.28). From this perspective, it seems clear why in the Churches of God one speaks of the “laws of sacred discipline” or of the “sacred canons,” which were specified and confirmed by the ecumenical councils. The “holy fear” (=awareness, respect and reverence) of the canons has always pervaded the whole Christian East, and down to the present day it constitutes the most solid base for the existence of the various autonomous Churches. A Guide to the Eastern Code is the first commentary in English on the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches edited by Professor George Nedungatt of the Pontifical Oriental Institute of Rome. It is the result of the cooperation of twenty scholars from various countries and Churches. The volume contains thirty chapters corresponding to the thirty Titles of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Being a concise commentary it could not devote much space to comparing the Eastern Code with the Latin Code. This limitation, however, has been remedied to some extent by the companion volumes by Jobe Abbass, Two Codes in Comparison, (1997) and Victor Pospishil, Eastern Catholic Church Law (1996). Professor Lorenzo Lorusso, of the Ecumenical Institute of Bari has prepared two very useful Tables of Correspondence of Canons. The first table shows the canons of the CCEO in correspondence with those of the Codex Juris Canonici Orientalis (=CICO), calculated to show the evolution of the former Eastern leg-
