Contenuti per la categoria: Autonomia e libertà delle Chiese

The “Church Mission” in the Concordats after the Vatican Council II

ABSTRACT: The Concordat Policy of the Holy Seat went through an unexpected development after the Vatican Council II. The agreements subscribed over the last decades have indeed engaged with lots of European Countries, and the range expanded to the African and Asia continent. The new geography designed to this agreements also matches with innovations in the structure and content of them. This essay aims to analyze this innovation and its strict connection with the documents of the Vatican Council II, enlightening how this has determined a more theological view of the objectives through which the freedom of the Catholic Church defines and details itself. While the concordats of the first half of the past century accompanied, followed and enlarged the trajectory of the Church rights towards spiritualization, this new phase is, indeed, characterized by a theological placement of the interests, whose freedom is indeed the object of the protections granted by the Concordats, which are briefly expressed by the lemma “Church Mission”, found in the first articles of the Concordats. This lemma, in the conciliar texts, is characterized not only by a theological dimension, but also by its direct connection with religious freedom.

Sommario: 1. Una premessa - 2. I precedenti e il contesto dottrinale - 3. I documenti conciliari - 4. La “missione della chiesa” negli accordi concordatari tra XX° e XXI° secolo - 5. Per qualche annotazione conclusiva.

Vatican geopolitics, political institutions and episcopal ordinations in the People's Republic of China. Reflections on State-Church Relations

ABSTRACT: The agreement between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China, concluded in 2018 ad experimentum, has been extended until 31-12-2024.Relations between the Vatican and the Holy See do not follow a linear trend, due to the recurring attempts of some Chinese clergy-so-called patriot clergy-to accept appointments as Diocesan Ordinary without the mandate of the Holy See. In such cases, the relevant regulatory provisions entail excommunication latae sententiae. This contribution, analysing some historical precedents such as the struggle for the endowments and the separation of the constitutional clergy in the period of the French Revolution, proposes an interpretation of the events to understand the Holy See's attitude in the remission of the excommunication to the patriot bishops: the realisation that Catholicism was no longer a phenomenon limited to the European world. The centre of gravity of the Church's influence is irreversibly declining towards non-European areas.

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Introduzione al tema - 3. Ius publicum ecclesiasticum sinicum - 4. L’accordo del 2018 tra Santa Sede e Repubblica Popolare Cinese - 5. Il primo quadriennio di applicazione. Riflessioni critiche - 6. Storia e controstoria - 7. Le radici medievali dei rapporti tra Chiesa e Stato: tra Gregorio VII ed Enrico IV - 8. L’età moderna. Le aperture del vescovo G.B. Chiaramonti per una 'democrazia cristiana'. Gli 'articoli organici' del periodo napoleonico - 9. Storia e modernità nelle relazioni tra Chiesa e Repubblica Popolare Cinese.

SOMMARIO - 1. L’emancipazione dei culti tollerati e la condizione giuridica degli ebrei piemontesi al momento dello Statuto Albertino - 2. Primi tentativi di riordino delle Università israelitiche (1849-1856) - 3. Il progetto di Riforma degli ordinamenti amministrativi ed economici del culto israelitico (1857) - 4. La Sinistra radicale in dissenso. Riccardo Sineo e i ‘diritti di libertà’ degli israeliti - 5. Alla ricerca di un juste milieu.

The Organic Law for the Piedmontese Israelite Communities of 1857. The debate and the choices of the Subalpine Parliament

ABSTRACT: This essay aims to reconstruct the story of the enactment of the organic law for Piedmont's Israelite Communities (n. 2325), which in 1857 the Subalpine Parliament approved at the end of a close political debate. In the aftermath of the emancipation - granted in 1848 by Charles Albert to the religious minorities, Waldensian and Israelite, present in the Kingdom of Sardinia - the leaders of the Israelite Communities asked the Savoy government to regulate by law the legal-administrative structure of the community institutions. It was only through a legislative measure, in fact, that the Israelite Communities would be able to retain the privilegia fisci, such as the right to levy taxes on their members and to collect communal taxes through tax-collecting rolls, which until then they had exercised under special pre-statutory provisions. The organic law passed by Parliament recognized the Israelite Communities as necessary corporations, each of which included all Jews residing in the municipality of erection, thus incardinating them into the order of the State, which exercised control and protection over them.

ABSTRACT: The article analyzes the recent Latvian Law by which the State unilaterally declares the autocephaly of the Latvian Orthodox Church. The latter was previously under the Patriarchate of Moscow and all Russias. In addition, the study illustrates the changes made to the Law of Latvia, on the legal status of this Church. Much emphasis is put on the violation of the principle of separation, enshrined in art. 99 of the Latvian Constitution, further addressing the tendency to change the ecclesiastical policy of the European Union as a result of the war in Ukraine.

SUMMARY: 1. The State proclaims by law the autocephaly of the Latvian Orthodox Church - 2. Birth and development of the Latvian Orthodox Church - 3. The Religious Freedom Law and its amendments - 4. The Law on the Latvian Orthodox Church and the amendments made by the Saeima in 2019-2022 - 5. State legislative intervention, separatism and the Constitution - 6. Separatism, secularism and neo-jurisdictionalism in the European Union.

It is lawful for the faithful to decide to no longer attend those who leave the religious community, and the announcement of the resignation to the faithful does not affect the rights of the resigning person

SOMMARIO: 1. Il fatto - 2. Il punto in diritto - 3. La decisione - Sulla lesività dell’annuncio - 4. La decisione - Sull’ostracismo che sarebbe derivato dall’annuncio - 5. Conclusioni - Appendice.

Abstract: A resigning member who declares that he no longer wishes to be a member of the religious organization but at the same time does not wish to cease his membership of the same confession, is not liable to compensation for psychological and economic damage following the ratification of his resignation and its communication to the local faithful. According to the court, a member's resignation (an associative aspect) corresponds on a confessional level to no longer being considered a member of the confession. Therefore, the damaging nature of the public announcement is excluded. The general principles of law legitimize the actions of the religious organization, which also has constitutional protection in that the internal life of the religious body is regulated by its statutes, as no state interference is admissible. So-called ostracism on the part of members has no legal relevance, since it is rather the free choice of each individual to associate with someone or not, and this right is neither punishable nor harmful. The religious organization that suggests ostracizing behavior does not violate any rights as such teaching falls within the sphere of the lawful. The religious organization that suggests supposedly ostracizing behavior does not violate any legal norms, nor does it harm the interests of those who decides to cease his membership.

SOMMARIO: 1. La crisi della Respublica Christiana e la nascita della Chiesa territoriale di Stato - 2. La politica ecclesiastica della Church of England - 3. Dal Toleration Act del 1689 al sincretismo religioso anglicano - 4. Sinodalità anglicana e corresponsabilità nel governo ecclesiale - 5. Osservazioni conclusive.

The discipline of the religious factor in the Church of England: perspectives on constitutional inclusivism

ABSTRACT: The Church of England reproduced the characteristics of national churches in which rulers were free to choose the religion to be professed and subjects obliged to observe it. This condition persisted until 1689 when William III of Orange passed an ʹact of tolerationʹ by which a certain religious freedom was fostered, albeit in embryonic form, effectively paving the way for the stabilization of the different sensibilities, theological and ecclesiological, present in the aforementioned ecclesial reality and currently converged in the High Church, Low Church and Broad Church. In this regard, it is worth recalling the positive factors that these components have offered to today's Anglican Church, among which the right of ecclesial reorganization, inclusivism and lay participation in ecclesiastical government undoubtedly stand out. In the latter direction, therefore, must be understood the Synodical Government Measure of 1969 by which a parallel constitutional structure, inspired by the revaluation of the synodal element, through which the ʹequalʹ participation of bishops, presbyters and laity in the potestas gubernandi was ensured in the Church of England, alongside the secular hierarchical chain that reaches from the sovereign down to the faithful, was introduced. Indeed, it is no accident that the Anglican Church "is episcopally led and synodically governed”.

SOMMARIO: 1. La nozione di ministro di culto nell’ordinamento italiano - 2. Origini storiche della figura civilistica del ministro di culto - 3. Principi ispiratori dell’attuale normativa sui ministri di culto - 4. La normativa sui ministri di culto: le fonti - 5. Disposizioni restrittive sui ministri di culto - 6. I ministri di culto nel diritto penale - 7. I ministri di culto nella legislazione pattizia - 8. Ministri di culto e giurisdizione confessionale, tra autonomia e tutela dei diritti - 9. Il sostentamento dei ministri di culto - 10. La remunerazione del ministro di culto: natura della prestazione e tutela giurisdizionale - 11. Le molteplici attività socialmente rilevanti dei ministri di culto - 12. Problemi, vecchi e nuovi, e prospettive di riforma - 13. Osservazioni conclusive.

The ministers of religion in Italian law

ABSTRACT: This contribution analyses the status of ministers of religion in the Italian legal system. It starts from a description of the historical foundations, which lies in Nineteenth-century liberal legislation, and arrives at a synthetic representation of the regulations currently in force in the unilateral State law and in the Concordat and Treaty legislation. The regulatory evolution, which is still in progress, describes the transition from a uniform and homogeneous concept of minister of religion, inspired by the Catholic priest and placed at the basis of a mostly restrictive legislation, to a more articulate and comprehensive one, reflecting the growing confessional pluralism of Italian society and the assertion of the right to religious freedom. This new approach represents the premise for a legislation that increasingly aims at protecting and promoting the status and the manifold activities of ministers of religion, particularly in the context of the strong enhancement of the Welfare State and of the Third sector. Finally, the article focuses on some problematic issues of the current legislation and on the apparent paradox that, in the face of a more favorable State legislation, nowadays the status of the minister of religion, and in particular that of the Catholic priest - who still represents the main reference for Italy’s legislation - is undergoing a strong identity crisis in the ecclesial order, thus posing a series of problems also for society at large.

SOMMARIO - 1. L’ente ecclesiastico: una figura soggettiva complessa - 2. Il diritto speciale nella disciplina dell’ente ecclesiastico - 3. La specialità derivante dal carattere bilaterale della normativa sugli enti: il caso emblematico della responsabilità amministrativa derivante da reato - 4. L’espansione del diritto comune nella disciplina dell’ente ecclesiastico - 5. La specialità di regime degli enti ecclesiastici nell’evoluzione dell’ordinamento - 6. Diritto speciale e diritto comune nella riforma del Terzo settore.

 Ecclesiastical bodies between special rules and general law

ABSTRACT: This contribution examines the relationship between special law rules of a treaty nature and general law in the Italian discipline of civilly recognized ecclesiastical bodies, in particular those of the Catholic Church, which still represents most part of these entities. This aspect is examined with respect to the latest regulatory evolution, in particular the reform of the Third sector, which tends to confirm the duplicity of regime of ecclesiastical bodies. It also highlights the growing attention and protection of the normative peculiarities of this category of legal entities by the State legislator.

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Il caso del Montenegro: identità nazionale e identità religiosa - 3. La costruzione di un’identità nazionale - 4. Prodromi di un divorzio annunciato - 5. Personalità giuridica delle Chiese e patrimonio religioso - 6. Beni culturali contesi - 7. Verso una risoluzione dei contrasti con la Chiesa ortodossa serba? - 8. Patrimonio culturale montenegrino e ruolo delle organizzazioni internazionali - 9. Conclusioni.

 Religious freedom, cultural heritage and identity: the case of Montenegro

ABSTRACT: With the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, the Balkan populations found themselves having to face the necessity of replacing their common Slavic origins with national identities that found a solid point of reference in religion. The cultural heritage, at first common thanks to Tito's unifying work, became again the heritage of the single nationalities and the object of ethnic-local identity claims. In this situation, the anchorage to cultural heritage and the particular care taken by governments to claim its management and control, become instruments of identity whose effects inevitably reverberate on the delicate balance between the religious communities present in the different territories. The case of Montenegro shows the complicated relationship between the protection of cultural heritage, national identities and religious belonging to the different components of Orthodoxy, each of which claims exclusive and unique ownership over their respective territories, thus contributing to rewrite the contents of cultural heritage, reducing it to an increasingly local dimension. Thanks to the work of international organizations such as UNESCO with "its" world heritage and the Council of Europe, which is working to promote diversity and dialogue in the field of cultural heritage, this regains its dignity, respecting the citizens' feelings and their quality of life.

ABASTRACT: This contribution introduces the special issue and focuses on the content of its first section, including contributions by Javier Martínez-Torrón (and related comments by Pierluigi Consorti), Maksymilian Hau, Valerio D’Alò, Giuseppina Scala and Matteo Giannelli.