Why Does the Catholic Church have so many Rules!?

Question: Why does the Catholic Church have so many rules!?

This is a common question/complaint from both Catholics and non-Catholics alike.  Many people perceive the Church as overly strict and rule-laden.  Why does the Church place these seemingly burdening laws upon its members?  A few responses might be in order.

First, for some people this critique of the Church may be a simple parroting of a common objection they’ve repeatedly heard over the years, perhaps without really reflecting on it.  A few times I have (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) asked the person to list which rules they mean.  Let’s sit down with pen and paper and list which rules it is we object to.  There are, after all, only ten Commandments and six Precepts of the Church.  Which shall we do away with?  The one about murder?  Adultery?  Stealing?  This is a bit of a sarcastic response, but it gets to the heart of the question: rather than just resent some abstract idea of “so many rules,” what specifically is the objection?

Well, in truth there are more rules than just the Ten Commandments and the Precepts of the Church.  Universal Church law, the Code of Canon Law, has 1752 canons!  What could possibly necessitate so many laws?  Consider for a moment that the current NFL rule book runs 88 pages.  88 pages of rules just to play a game with an oblong ball!  If it takes 88 pages to lay out the rules of a game, isn’t it reasonable that a certain complexity would grow around the life of an organization with 1.1 billion members worldwide?  That’s worth considering: what kind of system of rules should one expect to unite 1.1 billion people?  Given the scale of the Church as an organization made of human beings, one should not be surprised that a body of law has grown up around it for the sake of unity and good order.

It may not be rules in general that a person has a problem with, but the idea that certain rules are arbitrary or unreasonable.  That’s a different story.  We can all agree we should have rules in the world, from traffic laws to rules of Scrabble.  But we object to rules and laws that are contrary to reason or which place pointless restrictions on our freedom.  So the question should be, is this particular rule reasonable or unreasonable?  This takes some exploration, openness, and study.  For instance, the Church gives a handful of requirements for a person to be a baptismal sponsor (godmother or godfather).   The Church requires, for example, that the sponsor be at least 16 years of age and a fully initiated Catholic (baptized, confirmed, and practicing their faith).  This often causes new parents consternation, especially if they’ve already asked their 13-year-old Lutheran niece to be the godmother.  But are these rules really arbitrary or unreasonable?  The Church is simply ensuring that a baptismal sponsor be sufficiently mature, and that the person sponsoring someone for initiation into the Church be themselves fully initiated members.  At face value both of those requirements are quite reasonable.  In my experience this is the case with nearly all the rules some find objectionable. 

Finally, it may be beneficial to question why one objects to a given rule.  We only resent the speed limit or a stop light when we have left ourselves less than enough time and want to speed.  We only tend to resent rules we want to break.  We dislike rules when our hearts are not in conformity with the rule.  If our heart is in conformity with the rule, we don’t feel oppressed by it, and in a sense are free from that rule.  Most us don’t “need” the fifth commandment to tell us not to murder our spouse.  We don’t find that rule oppressive because our heart is already in conformity to the rule.  So our dislike of rules may signal material for our examination of conscience.