In exercising their rights individually and in associations, the Christian faithful must take into account the common good of the Church as well as the rights of others, says Church law.
In exercising their rights, individuals and groups are bound by moral law to respect the rights of others.
The Second Vatican Council spelled out the situations when individual rights may be limited: (1) for the common good of the Church, not the broader common good of all; (2) avoiding unnecessary conflicts with the rights of others; and (3) the duties of Christ's faithful towards others.
Ecclesiastical authority can regulate the exercise of individual rights in view of the common good. This should not be understood as an arbitrary use of authority, but as a protection against possible abuses arising from alleged rights. The Vatican II Council's teaching is that "man's freedom should be given the fullest possible recognition and should not be curtailed except when and insofar as it is necessary."
According to "Guadium et spes," also known as the "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World":
"Modern man is on the road to a more thorough development of his own personality, and to a growing discovery and vindication of his own rights. Since it has been entrusted to the Church to reveal the mystery of God, Who is the ultimate goal of man, she opens up to man at the same time the meaning of his own existence, that is, the innermost truth about himself. The Church truly knows that only God, Whom she serves, meets the deepest longings of the human heart, which is never fully satisfied by what this world has to offer.
"She also knows that man is constantly worked upon by God's spirit, and hence can never be altogether indifferent to the problems of religion. The experience of past ages proves this, as do numerous indications in our own times. For man will always yearn to know, at least in an obscure way, what is the meaning of his life, of his activity, of his death. The very presence of the Church recalls these problems to his mind. But only God, Who created man to His own image and ransomed him from sin, provides the most adequate answer to the questions, and this He does through what He has revealed in Christ His Son, Who became man. Whoever follows after Christ, the perfect man, becomes himself more of a man. For by His incarnation the Father's Word assumed, and sanctified through His cross and resurrection, the whole of man, body and soul, and through that totality the whole of nature created by God for man's use.
"Thanks to this belief, the Church can anchor the dignity of human nature against all tides of opinion, for example those which undervalue the human body or idolize it. By no human law can the personal dignity and liberty of man be so aptly safeguarded as by the Gospel of Christ which has been entrusted to the Church. For this Gospel announces and proclaims the freedom of the sons of God, and repudiates all the bondage which ultimately results from sin; it has a sacred reverence for the dignity of conscience and its freedom of choice, constantly advises that all human talents be employed in God's service and men's, and, finally, commends all to the charity of all. ...
"The Church, therefore, by virtue of the Gospel committed to her, proclaims the rights of man; she acknowledges and greatly esteems the dynamic movements of today by which these rights are everywhere fostered. Yet these movements must be penetrated by the spirit of the Gospel and protected against any kind of false autonomy. For we are tempted to think that our personal rights are fully ensured only when we are exempt from every requirement of divine law. But this way lies not the maintenance of the dignity of the human person, but its annihilation."
In addition to outlining the basic obligations and rights of all the Christian faithful, Church law also focuses on the rights specific to lay people. By reason of their baptism, the laity are to engage in the Church's mission to promote the Gospel and the knowledge of Christ in their daily lives and work, "so that the divine message of salvation is made known and accepted by all persons everywhere in the world" (canons 224-225).
They may do so as individuals or in groups. The Church hierarchy is to support and assist such actions while seeing that Church doctrine is observed.
Lay persons have the right, as described by the Second Vatican Council, to form associations for different apostolates. These may be run at their own discretion with various forms of canonical status.
Furthermore, the laity have the moral obligation, not a legal one, to seek the Kingdom of God in temporal affairs and give witness to Christ and the spirit of the Gospel. As is stated in "Lumen gentium", Vatican II's "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church": "They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity" (31).
Editor's note: This series about the rights and obligations of the Christian faithful, as set forth in canon (Church) law, has been written especially for the Catholic News Herald by Mercy Sister Jeanne-Margaret McNally. Sister Jeanne-Margaret is a distinguished authority on canon law, author of the reference guide "Canon Law for the Laity," and frequent lecturer at universities and dioceses. A graduate of The Catholic University of America with multiple degrees including a doctorate in psychology and a licentiate of canon law (JCL), she is a psychologist for the Tribunal of the Diocese of Charlotte and a judge in the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Miami.