www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Eparchial Approval for Social Communication

What does this canon mean:

Participation of the Faithful in areas of Social Communication
Can. 77 (CCEO c. 653) Sacred ministers and also other faithful, who habitually, temporarily or
occasionally make use of the instruments of social communication explaining that, which deals
with Catholic doctrine or morals, are obligated to receive written permission from the eparchial
bishop.
It is for the metropolitan or eparchial bishop to establish more detailed norms.

Does this mean that if anyone of the UGCC wishes to discuss the Catholic Faith through social media they need eparchial approval or does it simply mean that anyone who wishes to teach and present themselves as a teacher of authentic Catholic teaching through social media needs eparchial approval?

Thanks!!

Don't bother yourself with canons that are meaningless and unenforcible.

Luke 19:17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’

If I can't even be faithful in this little way then should I even start a blog about the Faith?

So, do you REALLY want to observe EVERY canon on the books? Truly? Been to the theater lately? Anathema! Have a Jewish doctor or dentist? Anathema! One can go on for hours and hours in this way, for the Church has the habit of agglutanizing canons, adding new ones but neglecting to delete or nullify old ones, which, though they fall into desuetude, are still on the books. The truth is, canonists think they can micromanage the faith through legislation, but the Holy Spirit is by nature an anarchist, and refuses to abide by the law in matters of faith and grace.

Would you like to quote the current Eastern Code before you accuse me of breaking the canons? Also if such old canons are still technically on the books are they comparable to recently published canons available on an eparchial website? Seriously?

And I wasn't aware the canonists promulgated the law under their own authority, silly old me thought that the hierarchy established by Christ gave force to the canons. For future reference I will also keep in mind that the Author of Divine Providence and the Lord of the Cosmos is in fact an "anarchist." [/sarcasm]

Since the Bishops were given by our Lord the office of teaching and governing I think I will use their canons as a reference point for how I ought to act. So does anyone here know what this canon applies to specifically? And anymore suggestions to potentially disobey my Bishop will continue to go into the circular file.

^Putting my legal and Orthodox background together, one could argue that even asking the question online prior to seeking your ruling hierarch's permission is violative of the literal meaning of the cited section.

After all, the western church is noted for its attempts to precisely formulate rules and regulations to cover many, if not most, aspects of Christian behavior. (The east has its own issues to be fair.)

However, I suspect that most Eastern Catholic hierarchs would view such a question from a casual user of social media in the fashion as his Orthodox counterpart would, were he to be presented with the Jewish doctor question.

For what it's worth, none of us ought to present our opinions about our respective faith as being authoritative unless we possess the faculty to so opine.That's just common sense. Most online followers of forums like this understand that and I suspect that the very rules governing this board state as much.

In other words, I wouldn't bother the bishop over this, but to be safe, ask your priest.

Thank you DMD for the thoughtful and reasonable response.