Reconocimiento canónico e institucionalización de una nueva realidad eclesial. Las nuevas familias de vida consagrada

Abstract

This doctoral thesis (with international mention, in Spanish with abstracts in Polish) approaches the ecclesiastical legislation on the so-called new forms of consecrated life (NFCL) (c.605 of the CIC and c. 571 of the CCEO), which are ecclesial realities in the process of institutionalization that have emerged in recent decades, after the Second Vatican Council. Thus, the present work is framed within Canon Law (the first juridical discipline in the UNESCO classification). However, by studying the dialectic between association and authority, charism and institution, spontaneity and regulation, freedom and security, it can become a point of reference for the search for juridical solutions to similar problems that also exist in the order of the State. In the first chapter we have developed the historical trajectory, those theological and juridical elements that have converged to the birth of the new realities that we will mention as "Ecclesial Families of Consecrated Life" (EFCL), which starting from the baptismal consecration lived in communion and synodality give way to institutional realities in which are integrated the consecration of the priestly order, that of the sacrament of marriage and that of the profession of the evangelical counsels. They present a radical novelty, not only in structure but also in a way of living the call to follow Christ and the evangelizing mission. The second chapter presents the central elements and dialectical tensions that directly touch the birth and institutional recognition of these new canonical forms. Consequently, it will develop those principles, raison d'être and concrete lines that gave way to the final wording of canon 605, a completely new precept in the Law and where the terminology of a new form of consecrated life is used for the first time. It is considered as a door opened by the legislator to recognize the new signs of the presence of the Spirit and the charismatic richness of consecrated life in the Church. The third chapter deals with the trajectory, development and process of configuration and institutionalization of one of these new ecclesial realities: the Missionary Fraternity Verbum Dei. This institution received pontifical recognition and approval of its constitutions by decree of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in 2000. Among the conclusions reached, it can be highlighted that the main novelty from the juridical point of view in the NFCL has been constituted by the integration, in the same institute or juridical person, of branches that in the canonical tradition formed differentiated institutions, with spiritual connections by a common charism (the so-called "religious families") and some juridical bonds, but with their own juridical personality and their own government. To this is added that what in the religious families was a third order or lay association becomes part of the institute of NFCL, which implies the recognition of a new concept of "consecration", common to those consecrated in the traditional canonical sense (who are celibate, including clerics) and to those who are not (married and unmarried but not celibate). Finally, it must be recognized that the solutions offered by Canon Law to the challenge of free social creativity are not automatically transferable to the secular order, since these solutions are based on presuppositions that a non-denominational and democratic State does not share. However, there are also common bases in the dignity of the human person, in the principle of the free development of his or her personality and in the fundamental right to freedom of association.