By Father Matthew Crane
Often, the Catholic Church is caricatured as a bit of a fossil trapped in amber, an unchanging monolith, lumbering through the ages. Indeed, I myself have quipped, though I can’t remember who I first heard say it: “The Seven Last Words of the Catholic Church will be, ‘We never did it that way before.’”
However, because she, the Church, provides for it in her law, we have to recognize that the Catholic Church does understand herself as an organism that can change. Defined doctrines are further defined, in greater detail, while not denying what has already been understood in the past.
Institutional structures are established and then pass out of favor, only to be resurrected again when found to be suitable to a new and different time. Liturgical actions fall out of favor or lose their ability to communicate meaning, just as custom and culture raise up new expressions. Laws, themselves subject to dizzyingly frequent revision, govern and guide these movements.
The Church’s laws come from the experience and wisdom and self-understanding of her legislators. Viewed in that sense, Canon Law gives a bit of a window into the Church’s mind, namely that she considers herself an institution that can change. Further, she understands certain changes as of greater gravity and impact – these are more heavily regulated, with more members of the Church having to weigh in – while she considers other changes relatively simple, even routine, and they require more limited consultation or even none at all.
For instance, while the Church may add to the number of priests that she has, she can’t do it without jumping through a whole lot of hoops. A man needs to discern the call when he is not in the married state (c. 1042, 1º); he needs to be of sound mind (c. 1041, 1º), baptized and confirmed (c. 1034 §1), and having completed all the required steps of formation established by the pope, the local bishops’ conference
and the seminary (cc. 235, 239 §3, 241-243, 247-250, 258).
Clearly, adding a priest to the Church is a serious, carefully considered change. To add a parish, on the other hand, the local diocesan bishop merely needs to have a plan for it and consult the presbyteral council (c. 515 §2).
Similarly, if one should, sadly, want to remove a priest from the ranks of the priesthood, one has to get the intervention of the pope or at least one of the dicasteries assisting him in Rome (cc. 290, 1708-1712). Again, changing the number of priests is a big change, according to the mind of the Church, requiring activity from the very top of her hierarchy. On the other hand, to change the number of parishes by merging a few of them together, the one particular thing procedurally necessary is that the local diocesan bishop has a plan and consults the presbyteral council (c. 515 §2).
Now, I readily admit that the mind of this or that member of the Church might differ from the mind of the Church in this regard. For more than a few individuals, changing the number of parishes is considered a decision equivalent in impact and gravity to a nuclear event,
and I realize that it does not eliminate the grief, nor swiftly change the mind, but even in the midst of struggle, I think it is valuable to remember that, according to the mind of the Church, changing the number of parishes in a diocese is a simple, even routine sort of change, compared to changing the number of priests.