FROM THE PRELATE. 87 world, and charity and understanding part, we seek to respond with gen­ towards all mankind. erosity. T wo decades after its first steps, my Yesterday marked the end of the thoughts go in first place to Cod, to liturgical time ofChristmas, and in our thank him for the countless benefits hearts there remain indelibly sculpted that he has poured down on us and the the figures from the nativity scene­ abundant fruit that we have gathered with the Child Jesus, Mary Most Holy up till now. Thanks also to our Lady, and St.Joseph at the center-who rep­ Sedes Sapientiae, to whose maternal resent in an ineffable way Cod's love for care we have entrusted each of our uso Let us continue now on the path steps. Thanks also to Sto Josemaría, that the Holy Father John Paul n set who, aboye all with his prayer, set down for us when he dedicated this year to the foundations upon which the uni­ the Holy Eucharist: Jesus' sacrifice on versity has risen. the Cross is renewed each day on our altars pro mundi vita, for the life of the Thanks also to our Supreme Pon­ world. He is present in our midst and tiff, John Paul n, whom we have seen remains in the tabernacle so that we spending himself day after day for the may turn to him with confidence and good of the Church without concern so that, knowing and loving him to the for himself The Pope has so often ex­ point of identifying ourselves with him, pressed his concern for fostering a truly we may sanctifY our ordinary work of human culture and has followed with seeking and transmitting the truth and his fatherly gaze the development of learn to be witnesses to that truth at our university since its birth. every moment in our lives, in order to bring all men and women his message 1 would also like to take this occa­ of peace, truth and love. sion to express my deep personal thanks and that of all involved in the Univer­ sity to Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Budapest Causes of the Saints, who is present February 7, 2005 with us today, for the decisive role that he played as Secretary of the Congre­ At the international symposium of gation for Catholic Education, in Canon Law, in the Peter Páz­ granting the title ofPontifical Univer­ mány Catholic University sity to our institution. THE EXERCISE OFTHE POWER OF COVER­ Looking to the future, we are all NANCE IN PERSONAL aware that we must persevere in our PRELATURES efforts to attain ever more fully the ends that characterize the university. 1 warmly thank the rector of the To do so, we count on the help of university, Professor Cyorgy Fodor, Cod who will never fail us if, on our and the president of the Institute of 88 Q ROMANA, JANUARY - JUNE 2005 Canon Law, Professor Géza Zu­ you that the Second Vatican Council minetz, for their gracious invitation to confronted with great pastoral sensi­ participate in this conference dedi­ tivity the most diverse questions cated to the so-called "territorial-per­ about the nature, life and needs of the sonal jurisdictional circumscriptions." Church. The subject entrusted to This conference is one of many im­ me-the exercise of governing power portant international gatherings or­ in personal prelatures-can be under­ ganized by this university.1 The for­ stood precisely from this pastoral per­ mulatian of the topic, intentionally spective so central to the Council. As broad, permits us to consider here the we know, Vatican II presented a def­ diverse expressions of power and ju­ inition of particular Churches in risdiction of a personal type that exist which territorial factors played no in the same territory, even though role (cf. Christus Dominus, no. 11). In they deal with different manifesta­ addition, it suggested the usefulness tions of canonicallegality, since each of establishing special dioceses or of them derives from entities of a dif­ personal prelatures, international ferent theological nature. seminaries, and other institutions of this type, to carry out particular pas­ The organizers have asked me to toral initiatives on behalf of different consider the exercise of the power of social groups (cf. Presbyterorum Ordi­ governance in personal prelatures, and nis, no. 10; Ad Gentes, no. 20, note 4, to transmit, using general categories, the no. 27, note 28). The norms of the juridical experience of the only personal Code of Canon Law of 1983 bring prelature existing at this time, Opus together, in canon s 294-297, these Dei, to the extent that one can make pastoral aspirations of the Council in­ this jump from the particular to the sofar as personal prelatures are con­ general. As you know already, these cerned. 1 am sure that our Eastern prelatures are ecclesiastical jurisdictions Rite brethren understand very well of a predominantly statutory configura­ this position about personal jurisdic­ tion, in the sense that the few general tion, since a great part of their canon­ norms provided in the Code of Canon Law allow the statutes, sanctioned by ical regulations fall within this frame­ the Holy See for each of them, to con­ work, and we aH are weH aware of figure, as pastoral needs dictate, very di­ their constant service to the Church. verse prelatures, although all of them Their presence here today is, also for willlogically possess the necessarily me, a motive for joyo common elements foreseen by the Codeo From very early on, Sto ]osemaría Escrivá, through his constant prayer 1 think it important, at the begin­ and mortification, sought a canonical ning of this presentation, to remind figure of this type. The founder of 1. Cf. "Territorial ita e personal ita nel Diritto Canonico ed Ecclesiastico. 1I Diritto canonico di fronte al Terzo millennio." Atti dell'XI Congresso Internazionale di Diritto Canonico e del XV Congresso Internazionale de/la Societa per il Diritto de/le Chiese Orientali, Budapest, September 2-7, 2001, edited by Peter Erdi:i and Peter Szabó, Budapest 2002. FROM THE PRELATE. 89 Opus Dei was sure that he would be 1. Personal prelatures as part of the heard by almighty Cod, through the hierarchical structure of the Church: spe­ intercession of our Lady. But it was cial characteristics andjuridical experience only from heaven that he was able to see realized the appropriate canonical As we know, personal prelatures solution that he had so long desired for represent a new figure in the Church, the theological and pastoral reality en­ and therefore they have the special trusted to him. The figure of the per­ characteristics of any new institution.3 sonal prelature as suggested by the Second Vatican Council had, in effect, Personal prelatures, as such, were been delineated in general terms in the already present in the Second Vatican canonical set up of the new Codeo And Council's decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, in what refers specifically to Opus Dei, and were introduced into canonicallaw it had be en configured by the Apos­ from the time of the first pontifical tolic Constitution Ut Sit and by the document making the conciliar deci­ particular statutes or "Codex iuris par­ sions operative: the motu proprio Ec­ ticularis Operis Dei," approved by this clesiae Sanctae (in no. 1, 4 of its first Apostolic Constitution. This juridical chapter).4 >From this first document, figure permitted Opus Dei to be fitted personal prelatures are situated within into the framework of canon law in a the ambit of the hierarchical structure manner adequate to its proper nature, of the Church which, on the basis of an something that undoubtedly was for ecclesiastical jurisdiction of a personal its own faithful, both priests and laity, type, seeks to provide a flexible instru­ and for many other people in the ment to meet specific pastoral needs of Church, a motive for thanksgiving to various types. Cod and to the Church.2 Departing from the territorial cri­ In this conference, 1 will make ref­ teria which as a general rule the Latin erence to the elements that all personal Church makes use of to organize its prelatures necessarily share, within the own activities, the Church's history tes­ specific framework of the subject pro­ tifies to frequent recourse to personal posed to me. Nevertheless, we will first structures in order to solve particular need to look at sorne of the central problems of various types. It is obvi­ characteristics of the type of structure ously not possible to provide a detailed we are considering here. historical record here, but 1 would like 2. On this question, see Amadeo de Fuenmayor, Valentin Gomez-Iglesias, José Luis IlIanes, The Canon­ ical Path of Opus Dei: The History and Defense of a Charism, Prineeton 1994, pp. 389 ff. 3. For this topie see espeeially Pedro Rodríguez, Iglesias particulares y prelaturas personales, Pamplona 1985; José Luis Gutiérrez, "Le Prelature personali," in lus Ecclesiae 1, 1989, pp. 467-491; Amadeo de Fuen­ mayor, Escritos sobre Prelaturas personales, Pamplona 1992; Gaetano Lo Castro, Le prelature persona Ji, 2 nd ed., Milan 1999; Valentin Gómez-lglesias-AntonioViana-Jorge Miras, El Opus Dei, Prelatura personal. La con­ stitución apostólica Ut sit, Pamplona 2000. 4. Cf. Eeclesiae Sanetae, 1. 4, of August 6, 1966, AAS 58 (1966) 757-787. The study of the new figure in this period has been earried out by Javier Martínez Torrón, La configuración jurídica de las Prelaturas person­ ales en el Concilio Vaticano 11, Pamplona 1986. 90 • ROMANA, JANUARY - JUNE 2005 to recall in the present context, in line did not further, at least initially, a cor­ with a recent monograph,5 how a pro­ rect understanding of this figure.