New book offers insight on ecclesial communities

The law of the Church should be seen as something that empowers and can help build community, according to a new study of canon law.

A Novus Habitus Mentis: Canon Law as Empowerment of Communio with particular application to selected new ecclesial communities and associations by Sr M. Bonaventure Higgins was formally launched at All Hallows College.

Sr Bonaventure, a member of the Sisters of Mercy and former principal of Our Lady of Mercy College in Beaumont, Dublin, analysed how canon law, in line with Vatican II’s call to a “new habit of mind” relates to new communities and movements in the Church.

Her book considers the community of Sant’Egidio, the Neo-Catechumenal Way and Cenacolo Community as examples of modern and practical expressions of the Church’s option for the poor, the suffering and the marginalised in today’s world.