cormacburke.me.ke - English, Personalism

Personalism, Individualism, 'Communio' (Osservatore Romano (English Ed.), April 28, 1993)

webmaster — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:57:29 +0000

"Communio" is the central and dominant theme of Vatican II, which presents the Church as the communion of the People of God, open to all men: a divine force to gather them into one. "The Church, in Christ, is in the nature of sacrament - a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men" [Lumen Gentium 1.]. And the Council issued a powerful call and laid down the inspirational guidelines for renewing the Church and the world through this sense of "communio" [cf. Relatio Finalis of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, Dec. 7, 1985: Enchiridion Vaticanum 9, 1800-1809.].

Renewal, Personalism and Law (Onclin Chair Lecture, Louvain 1995)

webmaster — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:56:59 +0000

Renewal.

The Second Vatican Council was aimed at formulating principles for the renewal of ecclesial life in all its aspects. More than thirty years later, varying evaluations of the results are made. Some persons, perhaps feeling that renewal was a dangerous idea in itself, hold that in any case it went off the tracks from the start. Others think that it ran into too much entrenched opposition from conservative forces, and is now largely dead-ended, an ideal or a dream they no longer really believe in. For others again, it remains a program of hope, which is still being attempted or needs to be attempted. Pope John Paul II is evidently one of these; he is a firm believer in renewal and, as I see his ministry, it is being constantly spent in seeking to bring it about.

Renewal and Personalism in Canon Law (Forum 7 (1996) 327-340)

webmaster — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:56:22 +0000

Renewal.

Married personalism and the «good of the spouses» (Angelicum 75 (1998), pp. 255-269)

webmaster — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:55:06 +0000

Self-giving is the basic notion of christian personalism, as is so succinctly expressed in that key phrase of Gaudium et Spes: "man can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself" (GS 24). In these pages therefore the idea of marital self-donation - mutually made and mutual accepted in all sincerity - has largely guided our consideration of personalism as present in the matrimonial canons of the new Code. Before ending these brief considerations, I wish to turn again to that other significantly personalist term, the "bonum coniugum" or the "good of the spouses", which c. 1055, the opening canon of the Title on Matrimony, presents (along with procreation) as an end of the conjugal institution.

Personalism and the "bona" of marriage (Studia canonica 27 (1993), 401-412)

webmaster — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:53:19 +0000

An assumption at times found in current canonical writing is that Church thinking has been dominated for centuries - right up to Vatican II - by an "institutional" understanding of marriage, and that this is now gradually but surely giving way to a more personalist understanding. In the institutional understanding the social aspect of marriage is emphasized and, concretely, its role as an institution for propagating the human race. This understanding has roots that stretch far back into the past. A lot of its strength developed from the doctrine of the three-fold matrimonial "bona" and, later, from the elaboration of the contractual concept of matrimony and from the requirement of canonical form.

Marital and Family Commitment - a personalist view (Homiletic and Pastoral Review, June 1994)

webmaster — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:52:47 +0000

This century has seen an ongoing debate within the Church about the ends of marriage. A traditional understanding presented these ends in a clear hierarchy or order of importance: a "primary" end (procreation) and two "secondary" ends (mutual help and the remedy for concupiscence). Early on in the century a feeling began to emerge that this understanding was too exclusively centered on the procreative function of the marital relationship, while it neglected "personalist" aspects or values also characterizing this relationship, and of which modern times have become more aware: love between man and woman as the main motive for marrying, the promise of personal happiness or fulfillment that marriage seems to offer, the human values felt to underlie physical sexuality.

Canon Law and Married Personalism (Canon Law Society of Australia & New Zealand, 1996/2, 57-61)

webmaster — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:59:13 +0000

The Autumn 1995 issue of your Newsletter carried an article on my jurisprudence by Prof. Rik Torfs, a translation of a paper that he presented some four or five years ago at a Flemish Canon Law Workshop. The trouble in responding to this article is that it is somewhat dated - certainly as regards the present state of discussion between myself and my respected friend and sparring partner, Prof. Torfs.