Models of Exercise of Pastoral Care in Parishes according to the Canon Law of the Catholic Church

Abstract

The author of the paper starts by describing the most fundamental elements of a parish, by emphasizing the fact that during the last decades the Catholic Church, especially in the West, has had to face the question of how to organise the pastoral care of the faithful with a decreasing number of priests. This is not just a mathematical question concerning the appropriateness of the ratio of the number of parishes to the number of priests. The author emphasizes the fact that there are also some principles that the Catholic Church tries to maintain. Some of them are formulated in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and have been integrated in the canon law of the Catholic Church. The norms of canon law have two dimensions. They are structured in an Eastern part, with the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, promulgated in 1990 and applying to the Eastern Catholic Churches, and in a Western part, contained in the Code of Canon Law of 1983 which is in force for the Latin Church. When it comes to basic principles in the field of pastoral care, both Codes are pretty similar. Apart from them, some other documents have been published by the Holy See. We will refer to these in due course. The present study will treat successively two questions. First, that of the principles according to which pastoral care should be provided. Secondly, the question of the different models envisaged by both Codes.