Riassunto

The article examines the relationship between the power of governance and the power of the Magisterium. The historical excursus explores the salient moments of this topic: the lack of a clear distinction in the first millennium (within the single framework of the so-called “sacred right”), the distinction between the potestas ordinis and the potestas iurisdictionis as the cornerstone of the classical canonical systematization, the instantiations of a specific configuration of the power of the Magisterium and its theological and canonical reception, the conciliar notion of the sacra potestas and the perplexities regard- ing the persistence of the traditional twofold or threefold division. The status quaestionis examines the prospective laid out by the Code of Canon Law currently in force together with certain magisterial and normative developments posterior to the Code, as well as with the relevant doctrinal positions of contemporary canonical science (regarding the question of the twofold, threefold, or other typology of division). A more accomplished constitutional rationality develops the implications of the sacramental matrix of the power of the Magisterium (apostolicity, ecclesiality, and catholicity), verifies the content of the function of teaching and arrives at a complex unitary vision of the threefold munus (docendi, sanctificandi, gubernandi). A mature setting of the hierarchical framework views the aspect of power and the prerogatives of the pastors in light of the good of the Word and the needs of the People of God, promotes the aggregative meaning of the Magisterium as the fulcrum of the whole ecclesial community and stimulates the cumulative gathering of the ministry and the directive and guiding role of capital offices.