“ We are bishops of the Church, shepherds appointed by God to feed His flock. ”
Pope Francis’s Speech to the Bishops of the United States of America, St Matthew’s Cathedral , Washington DC, September 23rd 2015 .
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Some seem to believe that Canon Law was dashed off by the apostles waiting in the Upper Room with one ear open for the clump of the Sanhedrim secret police coming up the stairs instead of by Cardinal Gasparri & co in 1917.
Firstly it should be pointed out that this is 2015. In 1917, apart from the Prisoner in the Vatican stuff after Garibaldi, there was the general worry about Bolshevism. Canon Law was built like a suit of armour against any possible sabotage of the Church as it was then. Like a really good suit of armour, it was almost impossible to move in, you could hardly see where you were going and one could have only a fairly vague notion of what was going on round about And if you still buy a newspaper, a look at the front page will suggest some of the differences between 1917 and this afternoon.
It’s been very useful for churchmen too lethargic or even insecure to make tricky decisions- ‘but Canon Law says…’ – you know the routine. But even very early on there was as much criticism as was healthy about it lumping the Sacraments along with times of service, financial considerations and other very practical considerations under the heading of ‘rebus’ or ‘things’ . This highlights much more clearly today where a change in Canon Law (heavens !) is now necessary. We refer, of course to General Absolution.
This, of course, is to be resorted to only in times of crisis. Well, anybody who looks round at shrinking Mass attendance , lack of priests and closing parishes would think we were in a time of crisis. Those left to die without any kind of absolution would, we feel, also agree . If there are no priests, there will be no Eucharist or the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is as simple as that.
An interesting Irish expression to indicate shock or surprise is ‘he was taking side-leps’. There are several websites which deal pretty summarily with those who ask if General Absolution is possible. Some of them take side-peps practically over the horizon at the very thought. E.g. ‘Also to be avoided is the scheduling of General Absolution which is as wrong wrong wrong as wrong can be !’ (There were at least four ‘wrongs’) And all because of replacing the Holy Spirit with Canon Law.
And even if it is accepted that there are hardly any priests left, a time of crisis, most would say, and general absolution were adopted where necessary, sins would have to be confessed again ! Why, you may well ask. Or even to whom ?
A quick look at the history of the Sacrament of Reconciliation will show that from time to time the emphasis has moved between Auricular Confession and General Absolution.
Nowadays, auricular confession is mostly the prerogative of the Tridentine priest. But there are not enough Tridentine priests to do this . So it’s time to change the emphasis again. And for the benefit of some of Pope Francis’s less loyal clergy, we can’t see that this constitutes a change in doctrine. As they retire baffled from the Synod, can we ask them to look again at Canon Law ?
It must be changed without the usual years of pointless mindless delay which seem to distinguish movement in the Church. We are far from being fans of Milton, and he was talking about Anglicans at the time, but he did make a good point which we can’t make often enough: ‘The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.’
And they are not going to be fed in the very foreseeable future

“ We are bishops of the Church, shepherds appointed by God to feed His flock. ”
Pope Francis’s Speech to the Bishops of the United States of America, St Matthew’s Cathedral , Washington DC, September 23rd 2015 .
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Here we go again, with yet another dirty old man in the headlines, a Father Paul Moore, already dismissed for paedophily . He’s accused of paying hush money of £10,000 , but denies it, and there’s suggestions of a third case involving him and an altar boy appearing. Another priest has accused him of abuse as a young seminarian. And of course he quotes the Bible . It’s as if they were compelled to remind us of their religious background.
A local newspaper adds ‘The Scottish Catholic Church did not comment ‘. Now, there’s a surprise !
All of our Tridentine clergy are highly educated in theology. Now we can’t comment, if only because we don’t know, on how professionally this is done, in terms of standards, independent external marking,, pass marks etc. And in terms of educational transfer we can’t comment either. But bizarrely, when you think about it, there appears to be nil transfer in terms of public relations. Living in the bubble of ecclesiastical life from age 13 , as we spoke of recently, certainly can’t help. But come on!
Little did we ever think we would thank God for the Scottish press, but what would we know without them?
Looming over any discussion of the Tridentine priesthood is celibacy. The abandonment of marriage and family life and the personal sacrifices involved are things we have to make allowances for , and we are certainly told about this , although we all know it was all about safeguarding legal rights in the twelfth century to what are possibly now just heaps of mouldering ruins all over Europe, or empty churches.
If this means giving up sex, some of the Scottish clergy , and not just them, don’t let this be a problem. In Scotland we don’t just have paedophily, but occasionally homosexual fun and games in seminaries as well. The expression ‘optional celibacy’ has now been given new layers of meaning in Scotland and elsewhere.
We would like the Scottish bishops to realise that we, humble laymen as we are, whose regimental motto is ‘ Pay, Pray and Obey’, know a great deal about it , thanks to the Scottish press, whatever its motives , and who cares. Why can’t the Scottish bishops accept this? Everybody knows, or has a pretty good idea. Why not eliminate unhealthy speculation if everybody’s not got it quite right, and clear up the matter?
How refreshing it would be if the Scottish bishops laid out clearly and honestly the entire mess the Scottish Church is in . Think of the relief to us all, not least to the ordinary clergy not at all involved, to see the whole disaster clearly . Who would suffer ? Prelates dead and gone ? The image of the Church in Scotland is in tatters. Why not try to improve it a little for the ordinary parishioners who have to live with it with their associates at work, and more importantly with their families ?
Why not, you may say? What prevents them? Surely not concern about what an already moribund Vatican bureaucracy might say about this ?

Surely not ?