Local Church
Local Church is a Church ordinarily gathered around a bishop in a definite place—the theological expression normally corresponding to a diocese or eparchy, while canon law also recognizes specified equivalent Particular Churches.
Strict ecclesiological use
In the strict theological sense, a Local Church is ordinarily the bishop-centered Eucharistic Church present in a place: a diocese or eparchy. The bishop, presbyterate, deacons, religious, and lay faithful do not constitute separate Churches; together they form the one local realization in which the Universal Church is present with her essential elements. Latin canon law also treats specified territorial and missionary jurisdictions as equivalent Particular Churches even when their proper governor is not a diocesan bishop.[1]
Vatican II and later CDF texts use local and particular Church closely, especially when describing separated Eastern Churches. Local emphasizes concrete realization in a place; particular emphasizes that this Church is a distinct portion of the people of God within universal communion.[2]
Broader and informal uses
Catholic usage sometimes says local Church when speaking collectively about Catholic life in a country, cultural region, or ecclesiastical province. Context may make that usage harmless, but it does not turn a bishops' conference into a super-diocese or give it the sacramental identity of a Particular Church.
A parish can be called a local congregation in ordinary English, yet it is not normally a Local Church in this exact ecclesiological sense. It is a stable community entrusted to a pastor under the authority of the diocesan or eparchial bishop. The diocesan Eucharist around the bishop, not merely physical proximity, supplies the governing theological frame.
Communion prevents local self-sufficiency
A Local Church is not complete by withdrawing into itself. Its Eucharist is the sacrament of the whole Christ and therefore orders it to all other Particular Churches. Communion with the episcopal college and its head belongs internally to its fully Catholic condition.[3]
This is why Sister Churches is properly said of Particular or Local Churches, including Catholic and separated Eastern Churches with valid episcopate and Eucharist. The expression does not reduce the Universal Church to one sister denomination among others.[4][5]
References
- Back to citation Code of Canon Law, canons 368–374 — The Latin Code's definition of particular Churches and diocesan equivalents.
- Back to citation Lumen gentium — The Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution on the Church, especially nos. 8, 14–15, and 18–26.
- Back to citation Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church — The CDF's 2007 clarification of subsistit in, particular Churches, and ecclesial communities.
- Back to citation Communionis notio — The CDF letter on ecclesial communion and the relation of the universal and particular Churches.
- Back to citation Note on the expression Sister Churches — The CDF's binding terminological clarification on the proper subjects of the expression.