Editor's note: We are gratified to publish this series about the rights and obligations of the Christian faithful, as set forth in canon (Church) law, 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.
Canon 208 is a declaration of the principle of radical or fundamental equality. This means that all who have received baptism are equal members of the faithful. All the faithful are equal in dignity. This equality means equality regarding the enforceability of the law. One is not a member of the faithful to a greater degree for having received the sacrament of orders or an ecclesiastical office. For example, the obedience the faithful owe to the hierarchy is as just and as much a right as the respect the hierarchy owes to the rights of the faithful.
This follows the teaching of Vatican II: "If therefore in the Church everyone does not proceed by the same path, nevertheless all are called to sanctity and have received an equal privilege of faith through the justice of God. And if by the will of Christ some are made teachers, pastors and dispensers of mysteries on behalf of others, yet all share a true equality with regard to the dignity and to the activity common to all the faithful for the building up of the Body of Christ. For the distinction which the Lord made between sacred ministers and the rest of the People of God bears within it a certain union, since pastors and the other faithful are bound to each other by a mutual need. Pastors of the Church, following the example of the Lord, should minister to one another and to the other faithful. These in their turn should enthusiastically lend their joint assistance to their pastors and teachers. Thus in their diversity all bear witness to the wonderful unity in the Body of Christ. This very diversity of graces, ministries and works gathers the children of God into one, because 'all these things are the work of one and the same Spirit.'" ("Lumen Gentium," 32).
All forms of discrimination in the basic rights of a person is forbidden.
This canon states further that participation differs "according to one's condition and function." There is diversity among the People of God; different levels of responsibility exist. Some enter matrimony and have children, some become clerics, and other become consecrated religious, each with added responsibilities and obligations.
Difficulties arise when there are not adequate structures available to encourage involvement, or actually prevent involvement in one's area of life or in the Church. Some may not know their rights and obligations. The idea is that the interrelationship of all the faithful shows the unity of the one Body of Christ.