Recent Papal Legal Thought: The Doctrinal/Pastoral Axis

Abstract

I note with interest the relative absence of research into papal legal thought and I observe that much of the recent and contemporary debates in the Western Latin Church and in other churches and Christian communities revolve around upon what is meant by ‘doctrine’ and ‘pastoral’ as regards the adherence to law and general Christian teaching and practice in recent papal legal thought. In this paper I will argue that the doctrinal/pastoral axis provides a foundational means to locate and therefore to understand recent – some would say seismic – calls for the development of both terms since they provide, as I will demonstrate, the key to interpreting the ‘signs of the times’ – a perennial call especially of the Roman Catholic Church to track, at least to some extent, the working of God in human affairs. The problem with this particular axis is a simple one: ‘doctrine’ is viewed as virtually unchangeable and can only be added to when it is deepened, and ‘pastoral’ is seen as meeting the lived needs of the Christian faithful, and others; the recent and current debates in the Roman Catholic Church occur when one is in conflict with the other and so I seek to illuminate these debates on the basis of an examination of the legal thought of the recent incumbents of the See of Peter: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis