The Pastoral Care of Civilian Personnel of the Presidency of the Italian Republic: From the Palatine Clergy to the Full Realization of Conciliar Ecclesiology

Abstract

Among the faithful under the jurisdiction of the military ordinary in Italy, according to some views, civilian personnel of the Presidency of the Republic should also be included: an affiliation that, although evidently eccentric with respect to its raison d’être, is still advocated by some in the name of an alleged continuity between the ordinariate and that ‘palatine clergy’ formerly entrusted with the spiritual care of the sovereign and his court. To assess the validity of such a reconstruction, however, an analysis through the lens of Canon Law cannot be avoided, which must be conducted in light of the characteristics that define the mission and organization of the military ordinariate, all within the indispensable framework established by conciliar ecclesiology. Both the former and the latter, in the end, prove to be not only misaligned with such an interpretation, but entirely incompatible with it.