Code of Canon Law promulgated by John Paul II gave the secular in church the possibility to take part in the service of managing, teaching and sanctifying. Canon 228 seems to be the most significant and fundamental code rule to apply the canonical mission. The first point informs: „Persons who are found suitable are qualified to be admitted by the sacred pastors to those ecclesiastical offices and functions which they are able to exercise according to the precepts of the law”. The following paragraph states: „Persons who excel in necessary knowledge, prudence, and integrity are qualified to assist the pastors of the Church as experts and advisors, even in councils according to the norm of law”. Code of Canon Law of 1983, which in a very synthetic way formalises the preparation for marriage, draws the attention to some significant pastoral elements and, which is important, leaves the initiative in all not specified matters to specific conferences of Bishops and ordinaries of place. Polish Episcopal Conference meeting the expectations of the teaching of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican and code norms published „Family Pastoral Directory”, which became the legal foundation for the requirement of demanding the sanction of competent power for family life counsellors to serve in Church, which formally means having missio canonica. Polish dioceses respectively are developing the norms relative to the requirements set for family life counsellors during diocese synods or outside of them.
The teaching of the Catholic religion in Polish schools is subject to the competent ecclesiastical authority. In the diocese the issues related to the teaching of religion are subject to the diocesan Bishop or and others who, even if only temporarily, are placed in charge of some particular church or a community equivalent to it. The right to appoint or approve teachers of religion in polish schools belongs to the local Ordinary. The application of authorization of religion teacher to teach religion belongs to the pastor of the parish in which the school is situated. Granted authorization also called „missio canonica” authorizes the school authority to sign a contract of employment with the religion teacher. In some cases canonical mission may be withdrawn as a result of resignation, transfer or removal or deprivation. The loss of the canonical mission entails the removal of religious teacher from his position. The local Ordinary may withdraw granted canonical mission in certain cases by ecclesiastical law. The church authorities shall immediately notify the school principal of the fact withdrawal of the canonical mission.
On 22 February 1998, the Congregation for the Clergy published the Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons. The document, which is divided into four parts, presents the juridical status of the Deacon, together with his ministry, spirituality and ongoing formation. According to the Directory, the diaconate has its source in the consecration and mission of Christ, wherein the Deacon is called to participate. Through the imposition of hands and the prayer of consecration, he is constituted a sacred minister and a member of the hierarchy. This condition determines his theological and juridical status in the Church. At the moment of Admission to Candidacy, all prospective Deacons are obliged to clearly express, in writing, their intention to serve the Church for the rest of their lives in a given territorial or personal circumscription, or in an Institute of Consecrated Life, or a Society of Apostolic Life, who have the faculty to incardinate. Acceptance of this written request is reserved for the competent Ordinary of the candidate. Incardination is a juridical bond that has ecclesiological and spiritual value in that it expresses the ministerial commitment of the Deacon to the Church. By virtue of the Order received, Deacons are united together in sacramental fraternity. The status of Deacons also comprises specific obligations and rights, envisioned in cann. 273- 283 of the Code of Canon Law, where it speaks about the obligations and rights of clerics. The Directory recalls the tri-partite description of diaconal ministry given at the Second Vatican Council: service of the Liturgy, the Word and of Charity. Deacons can preside at the Liturgy of the Word, administer Baptisms, conserve and distribute the Eucharist, assist at and bless marriages in the name of the Church, bring Viaticum to the dying, read the Scared Scriptures to the faithful, instruct and exhort the People of God, preside at worship and prayer services, administer sacramentals, preside over funeral and burial rites, together with performing works of charity and support. The document by the Congregation for the Clergy underlines that diaconal spirituality has its foundation in the sacramental grace that is engraved in the Deacon’s soul, calling him to a complete gift of his person in the service of God in the Church. This spirituality is eminently Christological as it is intimately characterised by a spirit of service. With the diaconate, one seeks to imitate Christ who came to serve and not to be served. The Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons highlights the importance of ongoing formation for Deacons. Commitment is required here in continuity with the supernatural calling to a ministry of service in the Church, which together with initial formation, form part of a singular and organic Christian and diaconal journey. The document delineates four stages of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral. The ecclesiastical norms recall that ongoing formation has the following characteristics: obligatory, universal, interdisciplinary, profound, scientific and propaedeutic of apostolic life. Deacons themselves are the primary agents of their ongoing formation, along their perennial journey of conversion. By their side stand the bishop and his Presbyterate, who have the task of helping them overcome any dualism or rupture between their secular lives and their diaconal spirituality, whilst also aiding them to respond generously to the demands and the responsibilities that the Lord has entrusted to them through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
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