CODE OF CANONS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES: TITLE XI -LAY PERSONS

 

CODE OF CANONS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES: TITLE XI -LAY PERSONS

CODE OF CANONS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES: TITLE XI -LAY PERSONS

 

TITLE: XI

LAY PERSONS

 

Can.399 – In this Code, the name of lay persons is applied to the Christian faithful whose proper and special state is secular and who, living in the world, participate in the mission of the Church, and are not in holy orders nor enrolled in the religious state.

Can.400 – In addition to those obligations and rights which are common to all the Christian faithful and those which are determined in other canons, the lay Christian faithful have the obligations and possess the rights which are enumerated in the canons of this title.

 Can.401 – It is above all the proper vocation of lay persons to carry out and to arrange temporal affairs according to God’s plan, to seek the kingdom of God and thus in their private, family, and politico-social lives to be witnesses for Christ and to manifest Him to others; also, shining in faith, hope and charity, to strive for just laws in society, and to be like leaven for the sanctification of the world.

Can.402 – Lay Christian faithful have the right to have recognized that freedom in the affairs of the earthly city which belongs to all citizens; when they exercise such freedom, however, they are to take care that their actions are imbued with the spirit of the gospel and take into account the doctrine set forth by the magisterium of the Church; but they are to avoid proposing their own opinion as the teaching of the Church in questions which are open to various opinions.

Can.403 - §1. With due regard for the right and obligation to preserve everywhere their own rite, lay persons have the right to participate actively in the liturgical celebrations of any Church sui iuris whatsoever, according to the norms of the liturgical books.

§2. If the necessity of the Church and genuine advantage so recommends, and when sacred ministers are lacking, certain functions of the sacred ministers may be committed to lay persons, according to the norms of law.

Can.404 - §1. In addition to catechetical instruction, which should be received from infancy, lay persons have the right and obligation of acquiring a knowledge, suitable to their capacity and condition, of the doctrine revealed by Christ and taught by the authentic magisterium of the Church, so that they may be able not only to live according to that doctrine, but also to announce it, and, if need be, to defend it.

§2. Lay persons also possess the right to acquire that deeper knowledge of the sacred sciences which are taught in ecclesiastical universities or faculties or in institutes of religious science by attending classes and obtaining academic degrees.

§3. Likewise, the prescriptions as to the required suitability having been observed, lay persons are qualified to receive a mandate to teach the sacred sciences from competent ecclesiastical authority.

Can.405 – Lay persons should study zealously their liturgical, spiritual, theological and disciplinary patrimony, so that mutual goodwill, esteem and unity of action between the lay members of different Churches sui iuris is fostered, and so that the variety of rites does not harm the common good of the society in which they live, but rather may daily lead more to the same good.

Can.406 – Lay persons, aware of the obligation set forth in can.14, should know that this obligation has a greater impelling force in those circumstances in which people can hear the Gospel and know Christ only through them.

Can.407 – Lay persons who live in the married state in accordance with their own vocation are bound by a special duty to work for the building up of the people of God through their marriage and their family.

Can.408 - §1. Lay persons who excel in the necessary knowledge, experience and integrity, should be heard as experts or consultors by ecclesiastical authorities, whether individually or as members of various councils and assemblies, whether parochial, eparchial or patriarchal.

§2. Besides those ecclesiastical functions to which lay persons are by common law admitted, they may be also admitted by a competent authority to other functions, excepting those which require holy orders or which are expressly forbidden to lay persons by the particular law of their own Church.

§3. Lay persons are fully subject to ecclesiastical authority in respect to the exercise of ecclesiastical functions.

Can.409 - §1. Lay persons who devote themselves permanently or temporarily to some special service of the Church are obliged to acquire the appropriate formation which is required to fulfill their function properly and to carry it out conscientiously, zealously, and diligently.

§2. They have a right to a decent remuneration suited to their condition; by such remuneration they should be able to provide decently for their own needs and for those of their family with due regard for the prescriptions of civil law; they likewise have a right that their own and their family’s pension, social security and health benefits be duly provided.

 

CODE OF CANONS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES: TITLE XI -LAY PERSONS