Posted on 05/03/2002 10:46:17 AM PDT by patent
VATICAN CITY, MAY 2, 2002 (VIS) - Today in the Holy See Press Office, Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger and Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez and Archbishop Julian Herranz presented the Apostolic Letter In The Form Of Motu Proprio "Misericordia Dei" On Certain Aspects of the Celebration of the Sacrament of Penance.
Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, highlighted the personal nature of the Sacrament of Penance as underlined in the document. This means that both guilt and pardon "must be entirely personal." This aspect has become confused over the last few decades as recourse to collective absolution "came ever more frequently to be considered as a normal form of the Sacrament of Penance: an abuse that has contributed to the progressive disappearance of this Sacrament in some parts of the Church."
The cardinal said that "the obligation of confession is instituted - as the Council of Trent says - by the Lord Himself and is constituted by the Sacrament, thus it is not left to the disposition of the Church. It is not, then, in the Church's power to substitute personal confession with general absolution."
Cardinal Medina, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, stressed that "the ministry of reconciliation is not a privilege or exercise of power, it is the expression of the pastoral responsibility that each bishop and priest assumed before God the day they were ordained. It is their dutiful service to their brothers and sisters."
"The Motu Proprio 'Misericordia Dei' underlines the traditional teaching of Church doctrine according to which the only ordinary way to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance is that of a full confession of sins to a priest, followed by personal absolution. So-called 'collective' or 'general' absolutions are to be considered as extraordinary and exceptional, to be used only and exclusively when threatened by death or when it is physically or morally impossible to celebrate the Sacrament in the ordinary way."
Archbishop Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, indicated that this legislative document represents "an act of ecclesial governance that is not only judicious and timely but also fully responsive to John Paul II's Magisterium on the value of justice as a primary requirement of charity and, at the same time, as inseparable from mercy in the Church's legal code."
Two dimensions are highlighted in the Motu Proprio: "The fundamental right of the faithful to receive from their pastors the Sacraments instituted by Christ," and the duty of the latter to "establish and secure the unfailing application of canonical and liturgical laws that ensure the valid and legal celebration of the Sacraments."
Archbishop Herranz affirmed that the norms of this document concern "the only ordinary way" to receive divine forgiveness for grave sins, in other words "individual confession," and, secondly, the "extraordinary way to administer the Sacrament, in other words the absolution of a number of penitents together without prior individual confession," which must happen in only two cases: "imminent danger of death and cases of dire necessity."
Finally, the archbishop recalled, the affirmation of the Pope that "what is written in the Motu Proprio is, by its nature, valid for the venerable Oriental Catholic Churches, in conformity with the respective Canons of their own Code."
And BTW AF, he said that the host should be made of ONLY flour and water. Nothing else should be added or it IS invalid, just as you told the priest in your parish.
My wife was furious. I thought it good example for them. My children have learned not to follow crowds mindlessly. They have learned to investigate the facts prior to action. They learned that priests they know and like sometimes do willfully engage in Liturgical anomie.
They are wonderful Christians and they have never taken the Eucharist in their hands as their Daddy endlessly repeated to them St. Thomas Aquinas' words "Only the hands of the Consecrated may touch the Sacred Species."
AB
I'm sick for you as well. Honest to God, this is a sin, literally. No use calling Cardinal Law's Office, he's got other things on his mind.
Someone (history_matters maybe) told me to call the CCD office in my case (Communion on the tongue) and maybe you could start there, and call all the Archdiocese offices - you have a week. This is just outrageous! Also, I think maybe you should type a short, maybe #12 or #14 font letter and leave in in each and every misselette thingy on the back of the pews - you could actually do it before Saturday Mass and then again on Sunday. Or, you could just make sure the parents of the First Communicants know the facts - and word will spread. Doesn't this stuff make you mad and then want to cry? Wait, you're a guy, but it makes me want to cry. Why do Rome/Archdiocese/Parishes wonder why we are apathetic (OK, not us in particular) - everything has been so cheapened that most people naturally feel that God is just not relevant in everyday life.
I'm so mad!
This is a disgrace! Are there other members of your Parish that are as outgraged? Your Bishop needs to know about this and correct this Priest immediately. I suspect he also has other unorthodox practices.
Not yet. I'm going to list all of the abuses in a formal letter to my priest. Then if there is no change, I'll send the same letter to the bishop.
The abuses are:
1) Invalid matter for the Eucharist.
2) First Eucharist before receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation.
3) General absolution services.
Yes. The Body and Blood of Christ would not be present. "Alarming" would be an understatement.
Nobody else in our small parish has a clue, as far as I know. I used to teach RCIA with this priest at our parish, so I'm pretty familiar with the general level of catechetical knowledge.
The woman who prepares the invalid hosts at our church lives down the street. She hasn't yet returned my phone call from a couple of days ago. I guess she's in on it too. And I'm beginning to suspect that our parish council has been "packed."
As far as my bishop (Reilly of Worcester) goes, he gave the thumbs up to the performance of "The Vagina Monologues" at The College of the Holy Cross.
Does this make you want to puke or what?
I will call his office in the next week anyway in the off chance that someone there may actually do something about this.
I'll also try to pass the word along the grapevine. That might be my best bet.
That's part of the problem with these abuses. People begin to think that everything's up for grabs. Once they sense that, they begin to think, "Why bother?" You can get "up for grabs" on TV for free.
If the bishop's office doesn't take corrective action, please continue to escalate the matter. Now is a prime opportunity to point out these types of practices.
I told a priest of an unfortunate experience I had regarding the sacrament of Penance and he asked me to write a letter to the Cardinal informing him of what is going on in the particular parish. If we just complain and avoid said parishes, how will those who can make changes learn of the problems (not to mention the souls they are harming)? Yes, there are some who refuse to address problems - that is why we must persevere and continue up the ladder.
Lemme guess, Sister Jane looks like a guy and acts like a priest.
That said, the NN (nazi nun) sent home a paper a couple of weeks ago that listed rules, times and stuff like that. The paper outlined receiving in the hand and went on and on about receiving gifts in your hand, blah, blah - but it did say at the end of it "however, your children may receive the Eucharist orally". I think she puts it down because she knows she has to. A big part of this is that this Communion and Confirmation are her big things because she is the Director of CCD - she likes everything the same, and she is a control freak. The whole Communion is like a sorry B movie. However, that said, my son doesn't know any better and he is really excited, he's waited a long time for this AND my Communion Wafers are valid, so, really, I cannot complain.
Good for you. I quit being an altar boy when our Archdiocese started allowing nuns to distribute the Eucharist. This happened at Christmas day Mass in 1972. After returning from Christmas break we had to write the "what I did on Christmas vacation" paper for school. I wrote of my embarrassment for my grandparents who had come back to Colorado for Christmas and were in attendance at Mass that morning. I was ashamed they had to witness sacrilege and I was ashamed that it was my teacher who was guilty of said sacrilege. Needless to say the rest of the school year was not easy as she gave me all kinds of grief. She didn't appreciate being lectured by a fifth grader about Consecration and Holy Orders. Tough. I've never accepted the Eucharist in my hands.
Yep. The two "priests" in this town (a fat, lazy pastor who prefers playing video games to interacting with the parishoners; and a raging heretic who tells TWO pointless, off-topic and sometimes even off-color jokes before each heretical "homily," zips through the mass, and waves the Eucharist during the Words of Consecration) devote a WHOLE FIFTEEN MINUTES on Saturday afternoon to confession (one priest, only. The other side of the confessional is now the "LOST AND FOUND" box. Hmmm...) But they also perform the "general absolution" twice a year, and the penitents come out of the woodwork for them. Thank God this is not our parish!
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