(Remember two things :

1. There are 24 parts to the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite- our branch- is only one of them

2. Canon Law was put together in 1917 (rev.1983)

I once met someone who thought Canon Law was a person-a parish priest somewhere .Someone who does think he is Canon Law has emerged from the Vatican woodwork. Always mindful of the Vatican principle of blinding them with science, he scrupulously follows the routine by not using 20 syllables where 40 is more fun, He is called the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary. A Cardinal Piacenza.

(I’ll let the statutory Italian name and the free use of the word’apostolic’ go just now. There’s a time and a place)

This is what he said the other day :

‘Even in the time of Covid 19, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is administered according to the norm of universal Canon Law and according to the provisions of the Ordo Paenitentiae’

Well ,that’s it. Tough if you’re dying, but Canon Law comes first. Let’s have a look and not for the first time at Canon Law.

As I may have said before, Canon Law was not put together by the Apostles in the Upper Room because they had done all the crosswords and were passing the time. Canon Law was codified in 1917- an instruction from St Pius X beyond the grave- : ‘with a view to put together with order and clearness all the laws of the Church thus far issued, removing all those that would be recognised as abrogated or obsolete, adapting others to the necessities of the time, and enacting new ones with the present needs’ (Among those who put it together was young Mgr Pacelli, who did quite well later on)

Note that these are the words of St Pius X, a pope with all the flexibility of Pol Pot on a bad day. I’ll repeat his words:’adapting others to the necessities of the time, and enacting new ones in conformity with the present needs’.

What is upsetting the Apostolic Penitentiary is the very idea of any change in the matter of General Absolution.

I remind you: General Absolution, according to Canon Law (1917;rev, 1983) insists on conditions about danger of death, plus the ridiculous necessity of confessing later to a celibate pries supported by a parish. There were none of these persons, of course, until the 16th century and these conditions cannot be found in any Gospel account of the Last Supper, the sources of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Given these two circumstances, I say to him:

1. The death roll in Italy and elsewhere in a world with a priest shortage

2. ‘adapting others to the necessities of the time , and enacting new ones in conformity with the present needs’

Why is he going on about the provisions of the Ordo Paenitentiae?

Why is General Absolution not being administered generally, and without any musty and irrelevant inhibitory blethers from him? Does he not know that otherwise sane people are already debating the lunatic notion of absolution by phone- or Morse code, or semaphore flags or hell know what due to him?

When the Roman Rite staggers to its feet again before the overdue realisation that it cannot continue, Cardinal Piacenza may have a place in history, although not one he may want.

The point is it may not staggers to its feet, as the world lives on for the first time since the first Holy Thursday without the Mass being available to us.

I feel oddly glad.I think it’s too late. The Roman Rite is defunct and in particular with regard to the forgiveness of sins .Its right to insist on forgiving sins in its own self-centred, weird power-possessed way- not that it ever had one- was killed off by Covus 19.

May it forgive our sins. And then let us also have the Eucharist. That is what the Church is for, and what is the Roman Rite to inhibit it ?

The Church has 24 sections. It can have as many as are needed. The Polish Pope established a new section in 2010, the Macedonian Rite. Pope Francis established a new one in 2014, the Eritrean Rite .

Why can’t the Roman Rite die in a dignified way, and let us follow Christ’s Last Supper instructions by having our sins forgiven and receiving his Body and Blood ?

Why not ?