Ecumeny and Law. Migration – Ecumenism – Integration (II) 

Tom 9 nr 2 (2021)

Ecumeny and Law. Migration – Ecumenism – Integration (II)
Tom 9 nr 2 (2021)

“Synodality is a style, it is walking together, and it is what the Lord expects of the Church in the third millennium” (Francis). The specific motto and wording of this study in the quoted “programme” thought of Pope Francis, articulated in the Address to Members of the International Theological Commission (2019). The Pope expresses appreciation for the extensive work of the Commission crowned with the “theological clarification” of the mentioned idea, and above all by demonstrating the importance in the perception of the mission of the Church today. If, in the opinion of the Holy Father, factual and competent expert argumentation, step by step, reveals the truth that “a synodal Church is a Church of participation and co-responsibility,” such a determination cannot remain without impact on the praxis of undertaking the most serious pastoral challenges of the present time — on various levels of realization: local, regional, and universal, including ecumenical commitment. This applies in its entirety to the creation of strategies and specific actions of the Church towards the growing phenomenon of human mobility, especially in its forms that manifest themselves as dramatic and devastating to families and individuals. What we mean here is the Church’s multi-track postulate — or more precisely: communion, synodal — efficiency (with its determinants: dynamics, efficiency, effectiveness), for which in 2016 Francis coined the term: “accompanying migrants”. Consequently, in recent years there have been a number of normative and operational activities of the present successor of St. Peter, which in our time — rightly called: “the era of migration” (Francis) — set a new trend of clothing/embellishing the aforementioned critical area of salus animarum with synodal accents. As it is showed in the study, a canonist, with the horizon of the principle of ius sequitur vitam before his eyes, cannot remain passive towards the pressing challenges delineated here. Indeed, within the orbit of the study of canon law a weighty question appears — what conclusions of a canonical nature stem from the “millennium” project of the realization of the Synodal Church Idea.

Refugees and migrants have always been of particular concern to the Roman Catholic Church and its pastoral care. Even if the large influx of refugees happening
in 2015 and 2016 is no longer the case, flight and migration are still relevant topics in Austria. The contribution deals with the historical development of canonical regulations, the situation of refugees and migrants in Austria, the legal basis, the implementation of asylum procedures and numbers, the statements of the Austrian Bishop’s Conference, the access to a Church or religious community and converting from one to another, the question of the Catholic Church’s necessity of salvation, regulations concerning catechumenate and the question of church asylum. It provides figures, data and facts, presents the canonical and state legal situation and analyses it. It tries to make weak points obvious and would like to provide help for future considerations.

This article deals with the pastoral care of migrants in the Czech Republic. It starts from a description of the ethnic composition of inhabitants of the Czech Republic and of permanently settled foreigners from 1918 to the present. It also acquaints the reader with the principles and individual structures of pastoral care for migrants coming from special Church documents and codes of canon law. On this basis, it presents specific structures existing in the Czech Republic and evaluates them.

The phenomenon of migration concerns 3.3% of the general population living in the world and its number is still increasing. In order to stop migration measures
are taken, which are largely against human rights to migration. The right to migration itself is denied. The activities that aim to restrict the right and not to regulate it become an alarming tendency. As a category of mixed rights, whose title is in the human nature (dignity), measure is positive regulation of exercising these rights as its internal element.

Given that “migration” is a global phenomenon, the international community as a whole had to provide it with a legal basis and to find global solutions, as proven à l’évidence by both the international and the European legislation and the “Global Compact for Migration” approved by the European Council. As is well known, the European Union legislation consists of the texts of its official instruments, such as conventions, treaties, declarations, etc., in which we also find, in fact, the principles stated in the international instruments, which have, indeed, the force of jus cogens for all the states of the world, concerning the universal human rights, including, thus, the rights of the migrants. However, even in terms of their policy regarding migrants, the member states of the European Union have not only applied the principles stated in these international instruments, but they also have enacted a special legislation, and they have taken concrete measures for the implementation of its rules. In the present article I offer the reader the possibility to become acquainted not only with the text of the legislation of the European Union regarding migrants, but also with the policy and the actions taken by the European states for the implementation of the international legislation, and of the European one regarding the social rights of the migrants as workers.

European states responded in different ways to tensions related to the increase in religious diversity, and the restrictions introduced were considered appropriate when they resulted from public security and the need to protect others, especially if the state presented a credible justification. On this occasion, the case-law of the ECHR developed two key concepts for the determination of the presence of religious symbols in public places: a powerful external symbol and an essentially passive symbol. An important achievement of the Tribunal is also the introduction of the concept of “improper proselytism.” Certainly, a further increase in religious diversity in Europe may lead to new areas of controversy, which will then be assessed by the ECHR. However, the existing instruments used by the Court, such as the idea of the Convention as a living document, the theory of the margin of appreciation or the analysis of the existence of the European consensus, enable it to develop its interpretation in this regard.

The increased emigration of Poles has caused numerous problems of legal and canonical nature, also relating to the activity of the Catholic Church. The article concerns the cross-border processing of personal data carried out by the Catholic Church entities in the context of the emigration of the faithful. Processing of the data of believers takes place, for example, in the formalities related to preparation for entering marriage. From the point of view of canon law the article deals with such issues as: the legality of the process of cross-border data processing, the obligations of the data controller carrying out such a process and the role of the supervisory authority.

Lucjan Świto: Zawarcie małżeństwa przez pełnomocnika w formie wyznaniowej ze skutkami cywilnymi w prawie polskim [Entering into a marriage by proxy in the denominational form with civil consequences under Polish law]. Olsztyn: Wydawnictwo UWM, 2019, 254 pp

Jiří Rajmund Tretera, Záboj Horák: Právní dějiny církví. Synagoga a církvev průběhu dějin [Legal History of Churches, Synagogue and Churches yesterday and today]. Praha: Leges, 2019, 288 pp.

Die Apostolische Exarchie in der Tschechischen Republik. Studien zur Geschichte, Gegenwart und Zukunft einer griechisch-katholischen Ostkirche [The Apostolic Exarchate in the Czech Republic. Studies on the history, the present, and the future of an Eastern Greek Catholic Church] [Eichstätter Studien — Neue Folge. Band 83]. Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 2020. 272 pp.

Notes on Contributors