The Canonical Legislation of the Selection of Bishops in the Period from the Council of Trent up to the 1983 Code of Canow Law

Abstract

The Council of Trent, which took place in the midst of the 16th century, was an important reform in the history of the Church. Through the debates carried out for Tridentine council sessions, the Church hierarchy addressed the theme of bishops' designation. The result was the issuing of normative resolutions that were of great relevance to the ecclesial context of the time. In the aftermath of the Council regulations, numerous pontifical guidelines of a juridical nature emerged to regulate the requisites for the selection of candidates to the episcopacy, notwithstanding the fact that what had been defined in the Concilium Tridentinum and by later popes did not apply to the whole Church, on account of the so-called concordats signed between the Church and modern states. These agreements binding the ecclesiastical authority and the states were not uniform, but each one had peculiarities in accordance with each specific reality. In some cases, the Roman pontiff would become unable to act, and total benefit and privileges were given to the temporal powers. Amid this intricate state of affairs, the 1917 Code of Canon Law was promulgated, and represented a great victory for the Church by legislating that only the Roman pontiff would be entitled to designate the bishops, respecting the ius particulare. In the Second Vatican Council, the theme of episcopal designations was dealt with by the Decree Christus Dominus, which required that every episcopal appointment be made by the pontifical authority. Shortly thereafter, Pope Paul VI issued documents which would govern the matter until the arrival of the 1983 Code of Canon Law with new regulations relative to the designatio episcoporum.