The meaning of "societas perfecta"?

[steffenlaursen]

What does the dogma of the Church as a “societas perfecta” mean? Especially, what does “perfect” mean in this context?

Which writings elaborate on this dogma? What should I be reading to get the “official” position on the issue?

And how does it relate to 2.VC and Lumen Gentium in particular? Is there a discrepancy?

• Steffen

 

[eelpis]

What does the dogma of the Church as a “societas perfecta” mean? Especially, what does “perfect” mean in this context?

Which writings elaborate on this dogma? What should I be reading to get the “official” position on the issue?

And how does it relate to 2.VC and Lumen Gentium in particular? Is there a discrepancy?

• Steffen

Read Mystici Corporis , on the Church by Pius XII.
vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061943_mystici-corporis-christi_en.html

“Hence, this word in its correct signification gives us to understand that the Church, a perfect society of its kind, is not made up of merely moral and juridical elements and principles. It is far superior to all other human societies;[117] it surpasses them as grace surpasses nature, as things immortal are above all those that perish.[118] Such human societies, and in the first place civil Society, are by no means to be despised or belittled; but the Church in its entirety is not found within this natural order, any more than the whole man is encompassed within the organism of our mortal body.[119] Although the juridical principles, on which the Church rests and is established, derive from the divine constitution given to it by Christ and contribute to the attaining of its supernatural end, nevertheless that which lifts the Society of Christians far above the whole natural order is the Spirit of our Redeemer who penetrates and fills every part of the Church’s being and is active within it until the end of time as the source of every grace and every gift and every miraculous power. Just as our composite mortal body, although it is a marvelous work of the Creator, falls far short of the eminent dignity of our soul, so the social structure of the Christian community, though it proclaims the wisdom of its divine Architect, still remains something inferior when compared to the spiritual gifts which give it beauty and life, and to the divine source whence they flow.”

There is no discrepancy with Lumen Gentium IMHO.

 

[Genesis315]

It means that Church is a completely independent society deriving its authority and rights directly from God–it is not dependent on the state or a creature of the state.

Here is a couple explanations of it in the negative (that is, the errors of those who deny it is a perfect society):

From Leo XIII’s Immortale Dei

Lastly, they treat the Church with such arrogance that, rejecting entirely her title to the nature and rights of a perfect society, they hold that she differs in no respect from other societies in the State, and for this reason possesses no right nor any legal power of action, save that which she holds by the concession and favor of the government.

From the Syllabus of Errors, promulgated with Bl. Pius IX’s encyclical Quanta Cura (the following is an erroneous proposition):

1. The Church is not a true, perfect, and wholly independent society, possessing in its own unchanging rights conferred upon it by its divine Founder; but it is for the civil power to determine what are the rights of the Church, and the limits within which it may use them.

Lumen Gentium affirms this by saying the rights and authority of the Church come from God and the Church is not a creature of any state.