A master class by the renowned Brazilian canonist, Prof. Dr. Edson Luiz Sampel, opens the second academic semester in the Institutes of Theology and Philosophy of the Clerical Society Virgo Flos Carmeli.
Newsdesk (15/08/2022 11:40 AM, Gaudium Press) Prof. Dr. Edson Luiz Sampel [1], a renowned Brazilian canonist, opened the second semester of this academic year to the theology students of the Theological Institute of São Tomás de Aquino (ITTA) and the philosophy students of the Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosophical Institute (IFAT), both based in Mairiporã, São Paulo.
The aula magna dealt with the role of the laity in today’s society, not restricting it to the spiritual sphere, but emphasizing its implications in the temporal sphere, according to the second paragraph of canon 225 of the Code of Canon Law.
Basing himself also on recent ecclesiastical documents, the canonist pointed to the genuine extra-ecclesial role of the lay faithful, warning of the centralization of the inter-ecclesial aspect in many lay people today.
He also pointed out that the overwhelming majority of Catholics are effectively lay people. In addition to discoursing on the term “lay” itself, he closed such semantic considerations by coining a positive definition of “lay” in the following terms: “He is a member of the Catholic Church who fully lives secularity and, by virtue of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, participates in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ.”
This was followed by a profound discourse on the primacy of the perfecting of the temporal order in the lay office, with a view to “Christianizing” the different social acts, according to his distinctive expression. As he stated: “Nowadays, secular values are no longer under religious guardianship and it is therefore up to the laity to create the impact of faith on these values”. This presupposes an optimistic vision of the world.
He also emphasized how the lay witness acts by attraction, and configured the objective of the apostolate of the laity as: “To transform the world, by injecting the ideals of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ into the structures of society”.
In addition to exemplifying with concrete cases the whole theme of the exposition, he noted that there is a struggle between the “culture of life” and the “culture of death” in the “societal fabric”, that is, it is under the auspices of the laity holding public positions to act according to the dictates of the Gospel, fighting so that “laws are not promulgated that, despising human dignity, undermine the very root of social coexistence”.
He ended the conference imploring the blessing of the Blessed Virgin for those who were beginning a new academic semester.
At the end of the lecture, he was warmly applauded.
By Fernando Mesquita
[1] Lawyer. Doctor in Canon Law by the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome. Assistant judge of the Interdiocesan Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Uberaba. Member of the Brazilian Society of Canonists (SBC). Professor of the Higher Institute of Canon Law of Londrina.
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
