When church attendance proper is allowed to restart ,it seems reasonable to assume that, after a year without the Sacrament of Reconciliation, those who still use it will wish to do so. This will mean even longer lines at the confessional than at Christmas and Easter. Also, a world pandemic may have caused some lapsed to re-assess their spiritual position.

From the point of view of the lay person, it would therefore be a good idea to begin the first Masses of the re-start with a penance service, followed by General Absolution. I suggested this to an episcopal person ; he assured me of his prayers. Fine; but you can bet the answer of the Scottish bishops will be that this is against Canon Law.

1. Some may curse the internet, but it means that we no longer have to take that as an answer without knowing what they are talking about.
2. Canon Law was codified in 1917. The last pandemic was in 1918. Therefore Canon Law can hardly be expected to have made allowances for Covid-19. In this respect, it therefore has no relevance to 2021.
3. Canon Law was established by St. Pius X in the motu proprio ‘Arduum Sane’ on 17th March 1904 His Holiness, as is well known, was no happy-clappy OTT trendy churchman.
4. What did he, the proponent of Canon Law, actually say? It’s on the internet ! His reasons for having a codified Canon Law were ” 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 times and enacting new ones in conformity with the present needs”.
5. I draw to your attention “adapting others to the necessities of the times”.
6. But- thank again internet- Canon Law (Canon 961.i.n.2) says only if “grave necessity”.
7. In 1917, the last pandemic the codifiers had heard of was the Black Death, 500 years or so before. The next pandemic was in 1918, the Spanish Influenza. As we look around us at the world wide devastation caused in 2021 by Covid-19, why do we see no signs of General Absolution being universally permitted the minute this becomes legal? What do today’s bishops consider “grave necessity”? A meteor strike? The arrival of hostile extra-terrestrials? One Scottish bishop instantly realised the problem and implemented it, but no more has been heard of this, and you may well ask why not. Outvoted , perhaps? And don’t forget if it comes to it that General Absolution can be implemented by each bishop as he wishes.
8. Once again on this blog- I know it’s a bore and all that- I have to turn to the Gospels of the Last Supper, that point in time at which the gifts of the Incarnation were given to us: “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven”. Anything at all about “grave necessity”?
9. Above all, anything at all about having to confess sins already forgiven by General Absolution later auricularly ,usually to a secular celibate priest? Not in my copy of the New Testament!
10. The forgiveness of sins has been carried out in many different ways- once again, try the internet. Why are we, the Flock, apparently stuck with a theory about this concocted in 1917, in a world so different from 1917 that it might well be on another planet?
11. We must ask our bishops why they do not freely permit General Absolution. I cannot see why they do not. That “it’s not in Canon Law” won’t do, as you have seen from the above.
12. Why can’t we have our sins forgiven ? Why , in 2021, not ?