Aggregate of Faithful Joined by a Hierarchy is the first canonical element in the CCEO definition of a Church sui iuris: a stable Catholic body linked according to law and expressly or tacitly recognized by supreme authority.
The three limbs of canon 27
A Church sui iuris is first an aggregate of Christian Faithful, not a rite, language, nation, or historical memory considered alone. Second, those faithful are joined by a hierarchy according to law. Third, the supreme authority of the Church recognizes the body expressly or tacitly as sui iuris. All three limbs belong to the canonical definition.
Aggregate should not suggest a loose crowd. The faithful share ecclesial life under bishops and other hierarchs through a canonical order, sacramental worship, discipline, and patrimony. The phrase according to law distinguishes ecclesial self-government from a faction's unilateral declaration that it has become an autonomous Catholic Church.
Joined by hierarchy
Hierarchy includes the competent patriarch, major archbishop, metropolitan, other hierarchs, synods, councils, and eparchial bishops according to the class and law of the Church. Not every Church sui iuris possesses the same organs. Canonical type governs competence; antiquity or ceremonial precedence cannot substitute for law.
Recognized by supreme authority
Recognition can be express or tacit, but it belongs to the Supreme Authority of the Church. Tacit does not mean presumed from internet usage or ethnic consensus. Historical acts, pontifical recognition, promulgated law, and the Church's official practice supply evidence for the status of a concrete body.
What the definition does not mean
A Church sui iuris is not identical to a Rite. Rite in the CCEO is the liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary patrimony of a people; more than one Church sui iuris can share a ritual tradition. Nor is every diocese or eparchy a Church sui iuris, although each is a Particular Church.
Sui iuris here does not mean sovereign, independent of the Roman Pontiff, or self-owning in every civil-law sense. It names a canonical autonomy within Full Communion. The Church's supreme authority and the proper authority of the patriarch, major archbishop, metropolitan, synod, and eparchial bishop operate according to their distinct competencies.
Classification and edge cases
A small Church sui iuris can coincide territorially and institutionally with a single eparchy or exarchate, while a large patriarchal Church contains many Particular Churches across and beyond its proper territory. Numerical size does not decide the category. Recognition, hierarchy, and law do.[1][2]
Separated Eastern Churches can be true Particular Churches but are not Catholic Churches sui iuris because canon 27 is a category within Catholic communion. Conversely, a Catholic community does not become another Church sui iuris merely because it celebrates an Eastern rite. Liturgical use, canonical ascription, Particular Church, and recognized autonomous Church remain distinct.[3][4]
References
- 1.Lumen gentium — Vatican II's dogmatic constitution on the one Church, baptismal incorporation, visible bonds, episcopal ministry, and particular Churches
- 2.Responses Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church — The CDF's ratified responses on subsistence, ecclesial elements, separated particular Churches, and communities lacking apostolic succession
- 3.Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canons 7–41 — The promulgated Eastern code defining Christian faithful, full communion, Churches sui iuris, rites, and canonical ascription
- 4.Communionis notio — The CDF letter on visible and invisible communion, its Baptismal and Eucharistic roots, and universal and particular Churches