Divine Law and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy

Abstract

As the editors state in the introduction, discussions about religion in disputes these days tend to be dominated by the challenge that certain radical interpretations of Islam pose to the liberal “Western” state, a challenge that is eagerly transferred to the whole of Islam by interested circles. Only on second thought or because of special circumstances do we think about the disputes that are still—or again—provoked by another global player with a universal religious program—the Catholic Church. It sometimes gets involved and even intervenes in disputes about such controversial issues as birth control, abortion, gay marriage, and research with embryo stem cells. Again, we are inclined to think that this concerns disputes between the Catholic Church on the one side and state institutions, public figures, and all types of formal and informal groups on the other. The Catholic Church appears as a monolithic block with a law of its own, immutable for centuries, especially since the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope was established in 1870—and this is what it tries to be. But if we look more closely, we find that there are religious disputes both with and within this Church. It is of particular interest that there is even an ongoing dispute concerning one of the core instruments of Church law with which the permanence, continuity, and eternity of its contents should be secured, that is, the institution of divine law.