The Democratic Constitution of the Dominican Order

G e n e r a l C h a p t e r	B o l o g n a '9 8
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The democratic constitution of the Dominican Order:

An alternative model in a hierarchically constituted Church?

Manuel Merten OP
Email: op-teut-prov@netcologne.de

1. Biblical Prelude:

...I would like to begin my statement with a quotation from Holy Scripture, to provide it, as it were, with a biblical prelude.

"You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one Master, and you are all brothers. You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted."⁽¹⁾

2. Bombshell in Canon Law

After such a biblical-musical prelude, a glance in the score of the CIC hits us like a bombshell, even when one loves the Pope and the Church from the bottom of one's heart: "The office uniquely committed by the Lord to Peter, the first of the Apostles, and to be transmitted to his successors, abides in the Bishop of the Church of Rome. He is the head of the College of Bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the Pastor of the universal Church here on earth. Consequently, by virtue of his office, he has supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, and he can always freely exercise this power."⁽²⁾ "There is neither appeal nor recourse against a judgement or a decree of the Roman Pontiff."⁽³⁾

3. When Churchiness damages the Church

With the biblical prelude as Jesus' mission for his Church still in my ear, I must confess that I have a hard time with such a legal text, despite the historical understanding that I give myself credit for. As an example of where such an understanding can lead, I found the following text in a book of meditations written around the middle of this century, which was endowed with official ecclesiastical permission to print: "Jesus placed the Pope above the prophets, above the forerunners... above the angels... Jesus placed the Pope on the same level as God. The Pope is God on earth."⁽⁴⁾ That is, and that despite the ecclesiastical permission to print that was granted, heresy.

Of course, one could point out to me that I have chosen a very extreme example. Nevertheless, it is clear, since it is taken from an author who with certainty loves his Church, that one can harm the Pope and the Church by an excess of (supposed) churchiness and loyalty to the Pope. Even in the realm of Mother Church, the truth is not immune from becoming a mistake, if one forgets the relativity of all the derived powers: "you have only one Master, and you are all brothers/ sisters." The ecclesiastical authority to bind and loose, including the hierarchies who act in persona Christi, are just as much bound by the Lord of the Church and his instructions as by the embedding in the community of all the faithful. It is the great merit of the Second Vatican Council that this was made clear.

In view of the indisputable fact that worldly concepts of power and government, from the legal system in ancient Rome to absolutism and feudalism, acted as godparents to the development of the church's understanding of management and hierarchy, it is not only permissible but rather imperative to ask the question: Does the ecclesiastical constitution do justice to that which Jesus Christ wanted and showed us by his example? In the words of Leonardo Boff: "Has the Church as institution passed the power test?"⁽⁵⁾

I cannot pursue this question either historically or systematically, but I think that many of you who are present here share the view that some ecclesiastical announcements and some of the official acts that are based thereupon have until now succumbed to the temptation to declare something as "once and for all divinely given", where, considering some of the long since outdated ecclesiastical declarations of former times, more discretion might be appropriate. Trust in the credibility of the Church is at stake here.

4. The Dominican Order - a service of reform of and in the Church

Is the association between the Church and power a risk for the Church? There have always been reform programmes which have arisen in the Church itself to tackle both the evident and the less evident risks in the Church. Many of these are linked with the stories of the foundation and development of the religious orders. An example, which shows that this is also valid for the structural approach to management power, is the almost eight-hundred-year-old constitution of the Order of Preachers. Here it is important to stress that our democratic constitution is not at all beyond or outside the hierarchical constitution of the Catholic Church, but is situated in the centre of it and is completely legitimated through it. Are we Dominican brothers and sisters conscious of the fact that we have here a sort of living proof that it is not only theoretically possible to democratise the hierarchical structures of the Church, but also that through us the Church has practised "Democracy" for many centuries. I suspect, however, that this is unknown to many "hierarchs".

5. Bologna - The Cradle of the democratic Constitution of the Order of Preachers

Let us transport ourselves back into the year 1220. For the Pentecost of that year Dominic convoked a Chapter in Bologna, hardly by chance, as Marie-Humbert Vicaire observes, since Bologna is the "home of the most dynamic of all his communities and at the same time a centre of studies of canon and civil law."⁽⁶⁾

Let us listen to Jordan of Saxony: "In the year of our Lord 1220 the first General Chapter of this Order was celebrated in Bologna, in which I myself participated. I was dispatched from Paris with three brothers; for Master Dominic had instructed us by letter that four brothers from the Paris house should be sent to the Chapter at Bologna. At the time that I was sent, I had not yet been two months in the Order. During this Chapter it was decided, with the common consent of the brothers, that the General Chapter should be celebrated one year in Bologna and in the next year in Paris... A lot of other things were also decided, which are still valid to this day."⁽⁷⁾

So began that which still distinguishes us and makes us an example in the Church: we love democracy and are confident that it is a suitable form of government for the Church. We are proud that that is so because we mean to intone the melody of the "biblical prelude" with credibility: Only one is Master - the Lord himself. All the others are brothers. It is truly a programmatic principle when Jordan of Saxony states: in Chapter things are arranged ... and decided with the common consent of the brothers".

I am touched to be standing in the place where Dominic said to the assembled brothers: "I deserve to be removed from my office, because I am incapable of exercising it and too weak."

Such a quotation makes it clear that Dominic did not understand this Chapter as a gathering to which he convened his spiritual sons in order to give them orders or spiritual direction. In his statement he assumes the following: the organ in the order that is equipped with the highest management authority is not he himself, the founder, but the group of assembled preacher brothers.

With this understanding of the management and structure of the order of preachers, the Chapter of 1220 in Bologna has presented us with a jewel. It belongs just as much to our charisma to preserve and develop this jewel, and to make it fruitful both for the Church and in the Church, as to carry out the service of preaching. I believe that both elements are directly connected. Otherwise, how could Pedro de Cordoba have given such a striking answer, testifying to inner freedom, to the Viceroy: "the monastery is the sermon"?

6. Democracy in the Ordo Praedicatorum - a Learning Model for the Church

I am deeply convinced that we live out our vocation in the Church when we go on the offensive with that which we ourselves experience as so liberating and in accord with the Gospel, as a learning model. For all the weaknesses that we can see in our ranks, it remains true to say that the "ecclesiola" Dominican Order, the little church in the large church, fares well with its democratic management and structural model and has several good solutions for a brotherly and sisterly togetherness in its supply of experiences. We Dominicans can truly fill a Communio theology with a lot of practical experience.

A few years ago I held the festive speech on the occasion of a school anniversary. Since this school is run by the Dominican Order, I was invited to talk about our Order's constitution. Amongst other things, I talked about offices held for a limited period, elections and ballots, councils and chapters, etc. Several bishops were among the guests at the festivities. And now I return to my suspicion that many of the "hierarchs" do not know that a completely legitimate democratic church model exists in the middle of the hierarchically constituted Roman Catholic Church.

At any rate, after my speech the bishops who were present admitted: "What you have just said was unknown to us". One of them went further than to admit this. He said, and not at all off the record: "Do you know, Father, we could learn a lot from that in the German Bishops' Conference and indeed not only there..."

7. Develop democracy further

Let us assume for a moment that my thesis is not incorrect, that it is part of our charisma to show the Church, for the good of the Gospel, what possibilities there are for a democratic development of its management structures. If that is so, then there are, of course, consequences for ourselves as well. As the democratic Avant-garde in a hierarchically constituted Church, which here and there and from time to time seems to be not lacking in absolutist-feudalistic tendencies, it is our function to locate as well those potential risk areas in our democracy and to consider how we can counteract them. It is without question valid to apply, as an analogy, the words of St. Paul to the Galatians to the democracy in our Order: Christ has freed us to for the liberty of democracy. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. But be careful, or this liberty of democracy will provide an opening for self-indulgence. Serve one another, rather, in works of love.⁽⁸⁾

Timothy, in his latest circular letter to the Order, had a lot to say about the chances and risks relating to democracy. In the work of this Chapter, we can with thanks pick up the thread of this and build upon it.

In our opinion, we should do this on a formal level, for example by considering the possibilities for a stronger democratic legitimation of the socii magistri ordinis. But above all we should do this on the level of content, so that our democracy gets on closer terms not only formally but also above all with the inspired perfection of God's Spirit.

I am glad that we have now the opportunity to attempt to bring together some of the experiences that all of us have gained under such different conditions, and to make them useful for the whole Order, in the tradition of the first Chapter in Bologna, and supported by almost 800 years of democratic experience. I hope and wish that we shall be able here and now to decide with the common consent of the brothers such things that can long retain their validity.

1. Mt 23:8-12 (Jerusalem Bible version)
2. Can. 331 (CIC 1983)
3. Can. 333 §3 (CIC 1983)
4. L. Bertetto, S. Giovanni Bosco, Meditazioni, Turin 1955, p. 90
5. Leonardo Boff, Kirche: Charisma und Macht - Studien zu einer streitbaren Ekklesiologie, Düsseldorf 1985, 4th Edition, p. 96 ff.
6. Vicaire, Marie-Humbert, The Genius of St. Dominic, Nagpur (India) o.J., p. 41
7. Master Jordan, Das Buch von den Anfängen des Predigerordens, translated from the Latin by Sr. Mechthild Dominika Kunst O.P., Bücher für Glauben und Leben: Dokumentarische Reihe Volume 1, here: nr. 86 and 87, p. 49
8. compare Gal 5:1 and 13

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