Communal Right In Perfect Theocratic Society
Chapter 4
Accessory and occasional rights in Church society - Christianity
957. The Church militant is one because she has one invisible head, one visible head, one faith, one baptism, and one Spirit animating and uniting her through charity in a single family with God, her sole Father. Her obligations are identical; her internal means of action (grace) is the same for all, her hope and her end the same. But she is an organic body, made up of different members and organs, each of which is composed of several individual persons. Consequently, there are many subjects of right in the Catholic Church. They can be enumerated as follows:
1. The universal Church in its totality, with the pope as its head, is a
subject of right.
2. The clergy (the teaching Church) in its totality, with the pope at its head,
is a subject of rights.
3. All the faithful (including churchmen in their role as members of the
faithful) are a subject of rights.
4. The clergy are divided into various bodies such as dioceses, parishes,
special ecclesiastical and religious societies. All these bodies are particular
subjects of rights.
5. Every clerical body is composed of individual persons, and these also are
particular subjects of rights.
6. The faithful are also divided into nations, provinces, municipalities,
parishes, and special religious and pious societies, all of which are
particular subjects of rights.
7. Every corporate body amongst the faithful is composed of individuals who are
subjects of rights not only as human beings, or under some other rational
quality, but as faithful members of the Catholic Church.
958. All these subjects of rights are inserted and incorporated into one
another as members of a single body, composing the Church militant. Hence, all
the rights of her members and of her organs (in so far as they are her organs)
have their source in the Church considered as one simple body. The rights
themselves are ordered and subordinated in the same way as the greater and
lesser parts of the Church.
These parts, which receive their life from the unity of the Church, do not
detract from this unity. In the same way, the various subjects of rights do not
detract from the unity of the single subject of rights which is the entire body
of the Catholic Church and her visible head. Local or personal obligations
resulting from titles of common justice are, of course, always excepted.
959. Each of the subjects mentioned must be able to acquire all rights not incompatible with their state, provided there is a just title for doing so. But individuals can only acquire rights as members of the faithful either in so far as they represent theocratic society (as trusted members) or in so far as the Church herself confers rights as necessary elements for their subsistence. In theocratic society, temporalities are never absolutely proper to individuals, strictly speaking, but always remain social benefits.
960. Finally, the titles of rights are often accidental facts. In this case, when the subjects of rights distinguished in theocratic society have an accidental fact as their title to rights, the rights themselves are accidental and occasional. Examples of such rights are those founded on grants of temporal jurisdiction made by the Church to rulers, or on donations. These rights are accidental, not essential to the Church, whoever their subject may be. There is no need to enlarge on this. Instead I offer a general conclusion to what has been said about Right in theocratic society.