Each Christian faithful [the baptised (canon 204) and
in full communion (canon 205)] has the duty to be in communion (canon 209),
only then they could have the duties and rights of a Christian faithful. This
could be the gravest limitation of a faithful to exercise his/her rights (canon
204 and 205). However, even if a Christian faithful is in full communion, there
are few more limitations to exercise one’s rights. The
Canon 223 speaks of three limitations of a Christian faithful in exercising
his/her rights: common good of the Church, rights of others and one’s own
duties toward others. The Church authorities have the capacity to regulate the
faithful’s exercise of his/her rights keeping in mind the common good. Though
we call them as limitations, they are not something negative, rather, they
facilitate one to exercise one’s rights authentically.
The
first limitation is common good. All documents that came into existence after
second Vatican council express explicitly that common good should not be
understood in restricted sense as common good of the Church alone. GS 21 states that common good is the sum
total of the conditions of social life enabling groups and individuals to
realize their perfection more fully. Moreover, John Paul II states in
his book The Acting Person that when
we speak of the common good we cannot confine the meaning to the sense of good
of a small community alone, it is the good of the whole of humanity and the
universe.[1]
This canon presents that one has to always keep in mind whether his/her actions,
in the name of rights, are fostering
common good, hence, it remains a limitation (canons -212, 287 and 323)
The second limitation is the rights of the other. In
the name of exercising one’s right one cannot take for granted the rights of
others who have their own rights and dignity (canon 212). All are equal and
each one has their own rights and duties (canon 208). The third limitation is
one’s own duties towards others. In order to exercise one’s right, one need to
know what one’s lawful rights are. When one knows the right, he/she realizes
the duty they have towards others. By baptism we are incorporated in to the
church and so belong to each other and have the duty towards each other (canon
- 849) and must fulfil it (canons – 789 and 872). Hence, in exercising one’s
rights, one is always limited by the rights that he/she has towards others.
[1]
Karol Wojtyla, The Acting Person,
trans. Andrzej Potocki, ed. Anna Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: D. Reidel
Publishing Company, 1979), 280-281.
