Tag Archives: General Absolution

Now 3020..there’s a thought

20 Monday Apr 2020

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Well,Holy Thursday has come and gone, we’ve read the Gospels dealing with it, and we’ve got to admit the truth. Thousands of theologians have studied it, but the truth remains the same. We’re stuck with it.

He was the Incarnation, and His last words provided a means of forgiving our sins and the Eucharist , which he insisted made a contribution to our actual physique, our own bodies in food and drink.

That’s all we know. We can’t know what consequences this may have for our lives. And in 2020 we’re not getting the chance to find out either. Call me an old fuddy-duddy, whatever that is if you wish. I’m just a simple old man. I have not studied theology at the Gregorian- in Latin, of course. I don’t expect theologians to put up barriers up to doing what He asked. I particularly don’t expect the current custodians of the Apostolic Succession in the West to object to theirs being the only possible way of doing what He asked.

Typing ‘2020’ a minute or two ago, I inadvertently typed in ‘3020’. Now there’s a thought. Suddenly we’re right into science fiction, futurism, or whatever you want to call the future of Canon Law(1917,rev.1983) I know I’m dealing with people who can’t see beyond the end of their crosiers. But 3020 ? Waow, as we used to say in the Fifties. Speculation, as sporting journalists like to say, is not merely rife but rather difficult with regard to 3020. The good old custom of burning St Augustine in effigy has long gone, and the world population now one half Chinese will have long ago made its contribution to accepting and living as the Incarnation wishes us to. Parishes will have elected some of their own to provide the Eucharist, under bishops from the many new orders,. It is an unimaginable world, build into your speculations as you wish more world pandemics, massive global warming, meteor strikes, no more Beatles articles in the press, no more press….

Who knows? But there is one thing we do know- again, call me an old fuddy-duddy- we will have the Incarnation and the two constructs which it left us at the Last Supper- forgiveness of sins and the Eucharist. Possibly a little insincerely, I wish those alive then well. ( I find myself echoing the famous 18th century politician who asked so passionately ‘Posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?’

Future historians may laugh- interestingly they almost invariably do at their past- at the insect-like scuffling of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church as it still refuses to accept that time has passed it by. I do not refer to the concept of a ‘priesthood’ denying the gifts of the Incarnation to the ‘laity’. for human reasons, despite paedophily. I’ll do that another time- I may even have done so. I do object to such a ‘priesthood’ distorting the Incarnation for any kind of human reason. (and there’s a thought for a future blog. Without being objectionable for it’s own sake, of course)

I want forgiveness for my sins. I want the Eucharist. I shall be blunt. I want them through the Apostolic Succession, and I- like maybe millions of us – want it now. In 2020. And Canon Law, by insisting on the double necessity of double forgiveness, is preventing us from getting it through the provisions of Canon Law(1917, rev, 1983).

If you are in one of the 50000 parishes without a priest, presumably you cannot receive General Absolution in a penitential service before every Mass, even if you can have a Mass. And if you are lucky enough to have a priest, you still can’t, even if you have been driven away from the current Roman Rite of the Church, and you want to come back. Even if you have what some feel are justifiable doubts about the priesthood. Even if you feel this way, you’re still entitled to forgiveness. Holy Thursday did say so. Holy Thursday, H

Why?

Dr Johnson and The Corona Virus

18 Saturday Apr 2020

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It has been said that the main function of confessionals in today’s Catholic churches is to hold the cleaner’s bucket and mop.

Be that as it may, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is certainly taking a very long count , it is generally agreed. It is food for thought that at Mass the numbers of those present receiving the Eucharist are higher than ever. It is highly unlikely that these represent some travelling corps of blasphemers but simply people who try to make their peace with God without going into a confessional.

That this is an unsatisfactory approach has been made clear yet again to us at this season by the Last Supper Gospels , and Our Lord’s quite clear instructions to the Apostles that whose sins they shall forgive, they are forgiven. In other words, a means of forgiveness is in their hands.

The Church , whose foundation the Apostles carried on, has done this in many ways, the most recent being auricular confession- the ‘Bless me, father, because I have sinned’ method we all know.

So if in 2020 people no longer use auricular confession, another much simpler and clearer method of carrying out Christ’s permission must be found. That is what He asked. To use once more this blog’s favourite quote of all time, (yes the one about the Lanarkshire headmaster alleged to have said at a school assembly’As Our Lord said, and I must say I think He was correct’) why don’t we find one ? And why don’t people go?

1. In St Patrick’s Anderston,Glasgow, there was a confessional which was entirely dark. My grandmother once went into it, found her way to where she felt the grille was, and stated her case for forgiveness, to hear a voice behind her asking,’Were you looking for someone?’ To be more serious, some people have apparently had very bad experiences in confession, some true some probably fictional. Some also may well have asked for what they got through trying to con their way to absolution by showing no signs of a firm purpose of amendment. Not everyone finds auricular confession congenial, but we are all human and that form of coming back to God is all we have within the sacramental framework.

But need it be ?

2. Tragically for everyone, particularly for non-paedophile priests, social media tells us of those who cannot bring themselves to confess to a priest in case he is a paedophile. (The writer has had the experience of doing this, he later discovered. It is not a comfortable experience), In general, given all the paedophile criminality and its cover ups, there must be a certain amount of perfectly human resentment. Few penitents, I suggest, are capable of accepting the legitimate intellectual acrobatics of ‘ex opere, operato’ and don’t see why they should chance it.

3. Behind this lies what the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church stubbornly refuses to accept, that there are people who in 2020 do not like or trust the secular priesthood. The reasons for this are understandable and human but the current system does not allow for them. The Flock wants to have its sins forgiven as is its right. If this only this could be accepted, our Church would be transformed.

4. All this could be avoided if the Roman Rite would allow the Flock to receive General Absolution in a penitential service without the necessity of having sins forgiven twice (!) by later auricular confession, almost always to a secular priest, celibate and supported by a parish, as Canon Law insists. The Roman Rite was moving towards another point of view, I believe, until this was stamped out by the Polish Pope and the Emeritus Pope. (No comment- at the moment)

5. Dr Johnson once said, not entirely cynically, ‘When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully’. I think all of us know the feeling in April,2020. We all hope that many of the Flock’s disaffected will want to come back. 2020 may be a great opportunity for the Roman Rite to atone for all the disasters of its past by changing Canon Law to allow a penitential service with General Absolution at the start of every Mass.

6. You may well ask why this bizarre addition of double forgiveness is added to General Absolution . It is well concealed. I have searched the internet until my fingertips are in ribbons , and I have found a possible reason ! A priest on the internet says: ‘Hearing confessions is spiritually very healthy for priests’. Oh well, that’s all right then. In all charity, even with a couple of gins, I cannot accept this as a reason for depriving the Flock of forgiveness.

7. The Roman Rite, through the Corona virus, has been prevented from ministering to the Flock. Once this scourge has left us, it can again offer forgiveness- and the Eucharist- to the Flock. May it do so in an entirely new way by allowing a penitential service before every Mass, without the absurd necessity of further, auricular, confession. The penitent makes his or her disposition personally to God. That is enough within the context of General Absolution.

8. To avoid any possible misunderstanding about the orthodoxy of this blog- which is about as orthodox theologically as one can get without being offensive-I refer you to Cardinal Pole at the Council of Trent. He pointed out that the Council should not conclude that because Luther said it’therefore it is false’. So there.

St Maeve’s……20– When? And The Sooner The Better

21 Sunday Jan 2018

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(…..somehow thought you’d be emailing . And I was first because we put the names in a hat , so there. The parish elected ten of us. There was me, a taxi driver, a communications technician, a Council building worker , a train driver, a fellow who does something up at the sports club, a chiropodist, a couple of teachers and a doctor. Average age : thirties/ forties , except for the sports chap, Peter, who is 25 – just the age they used to ordain them at ! And not all married, by the way.
And yes, a couple of elderly church worthies put their names in , but the parish obviously felt being an Ordained Celebrant wasn’t a reward for services rendered , not to mention wondering why exchange an elderly layman for an elderly cleric. (they came anyway).
The training was pretty much like a long retreat every month to fill in the year . We were divided up into what they used to call deaneries , whatever that was all about. Have you ever looked at a Deacon’s training ? Six or seven years of every ology you can think of , unaccountably not including deep sea diving and geology. And for what? Leave the ologies to the religious orders, I say.
The sermons , as you know , are emailed from the orders. And if they’re all like the ones we get from an Australian priest, nobody’s going to fall asleep during a sermon. What a difference . After all, as somebody once said, a priest with the personality of a used car salesman can be helpful , but how many of them were there ?
I used to read on the net some of the articles about General Absolution . Most of them were from Tridentine clergy who, shall we say, were not too keen on us Ordained Celebrants, especially when it came to the Sacrament of Reconciliation , or at all for that matter , which I could never understand , since all we’re there for is to provide the Eucharist . Nuff said! They were preoccupied about how happy the penitent felt after leaving the confessional, and how happy they felt about making them happy. The firm purpose of amendment never seemed to come into it , and surely that’s what the Sacrament is really about . I feel I’m simply there to pass the baton to the congregation and the rest is between them and God.
St Maeve’s was packed, of course, for the first Mass said by an Ordained Celebrant possibly just through curiosity, but the numbers have pretty well kept up. And young Tommy and Catherine among them, even when Dad is not on the altar , which has not always been the case .
People have wondered what will happen if one of us ever gets divorced . To which I say- so what? Many a priest with difficulties – perhaps not enough- has simply got laicised. What’s the difference ?
Anyway…..) email continues .

l

Keep Your Eye On Amazon (not that one)

05 Tuesday Dec 2017

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The Pan-Amazon Synod of bishops is going to be a very important milestone in Church history. And maybe world history. We will be mentioning it frequently
As you may know, it is about extending ordination to viri probati in areas particularly short of priests and therefore of the Eucharist.
As always, some elements of Catholic opinion are beginning to panic in case the acceptance of this becomes a precedent. (translation : more people may receive the Eucharist)
The elements of the Tridentine priesthood thought to be in danger are:
Celibacy
Lengthy theological education
General Absolution
Priesthood Image.
We will comment on all of these while we can-I remind you that we are all 80 plus, bar one.
Let’s have a quick look at compulsory celibacy first. To get it out of the way , everybody knows it is a church regulation not a doctrinal blasphemy, and it could be rescinded tomorrow, even by email.
Some random points :
(a) It’s amazing how many people want other people to be celibate. There’s old priests, who seem to feel that if they could handle it, everybody else should and so there.
(b) Dr Halliday Sutherland, probably the third best Catholic writer of the Thirties , and a best seller in his own right, became a well-known travel writer. In his ‘Irish Journey’, he recalls meeting someone who left the Church for several years on hearing that priests and nuns used the toilet

(c) There’s priests who have made being celibate a kind of religion in itself.
(d) At a point even farther away from Christ’s message than the Communion Hymn and with it some of the other contents of hymnals is church property. Gibbon mentions one of the early popes having been found guilty of everything but piracy, but even the latter didn’t put the safety of church property at the hands of a priest’s family being one of the reasons why celibacy became obligatory .Look at the many heaps of ruined masonry to be found all over Europe ,now used as a free masonry supermarket or a urinal, and wonder if Pope Gregory VII ever thought- really thought- about what he was doing to the hundreds of thousands of priests who have had to struggle since.
(e) There are many who fear that the Eucharist is being disrespected in some way by ordained celebrants. They either can’t read newspapers, watch television, or don’t know about paedophile priests being put back into parishes having been found out. They are –apparently- impressed by celibacy. This is possible and Christ did not , of course, forbid it. But celibacy is much more impressive when accompanied by poverty and obedience, as in the religious orders. Somehow it is not quite so impressive when accompanied by golf club membership and an annual change of car.
( One has to wonder if there is a psychological factor in the horrendous levies placed on parishes run by religious orders by their dioceses. One Glasgow parish has to pay £40000 a year for the privilege of providing the Eucharist.)
(f) And what about the Curia in all this, that institution once praised by ‘Time’ magazine for its Prussian efficiency and the business competence of General Motors ? The magazine has not yet, to our knowledge noticed that Hitler was a product of the Prussian ethos or that General Motors has since gone twice bankrupt..They see Pope Francis daily. Have they responded in any way to his observations?
(g) Compulsory celibacy will be a problem. A bigger one, we venture , will be General Absolution.
More. we assure you, to follow.

Canon Law-1917-2017 Part 1

21 Tuesday Nov 2017

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So far there has not been much notice taken of one of this year’s centenaries. Pope Francis of course mentioned it, stressing its positive value. Like the Bible , it is, of course not so much a book as a bookshelf, and it has always reminded us of those wonderful Newnes handbooks produced for every car ever heard of, in the days when normal human beings could service their own car, with instructions for everything from repairing the car cigarette lighter upwards,.
We are not cynical on this blog- now just imagine if we really were. Moreover, all we’re saying about conspiracy theories is that they can’t all be wrong. OK? But we are saying that given the enormous value of Canon Law to our bishops, both as an administrative instrument and and a removal of the necessity for thinking, we must ask one question,. Do they not want the general public to realise that Canon Law as it stands dates only back to 1917 ? Hell, we’ve got members not much younger than that. Is it possible that there are Catholics who believe it was put together on the Sunday after Pentecost in the upper room by the Apostles ? In passing, it is interesting how often the word ‘apostolic’ is misused. Wasn’t the word often used to describe Papal Delegates ? Maybe this is why Archbishop Mennini did not reply to Feed The Flock’s registered letter- I mean were there stamps and postmen then ? Sorry.
Ray Bradbury, in his short story ‘A Sound Of Thunder’, describing how a Tyrannus Rex is killed, mentiones how this process took quite a while, parts of it still clicking and whirring for possibly hours later. You may think it fanciful’ although we quite like the idea, to compare this to the slow death of the First Vatican Council before Vatican 2. Clicking and whirring , we put it to you, still goes on in two particular areas as the movement towards confining the provision of the Eucharist in general to the Tridentine priesthood grows stronger.
Two of the obstacles to this from Canon Law are of course the insistence on celibacy and the ban on general absolution. This blog has many reference to the celibacy thing and many wonderful quotations from clerics about its value to them which we hope you constantly refer to and enjoy, especially the parts about it being invaluable for the Church’s possession of so many buildings in the 12th century which are now mere heaps of ruins all over Europe.
The other obstacle is General Absolution, and the necessity of having sins forgiven twice by the recipient. We cannot hope to reach the heights of textual exegesis no doubt attained in our seminaries- remember them? –but we simply cannot find in the Gospels any reference to this at the Last Supper. It must be mentioned here, keeping in mind the number of convicted paedophile priests allowed to return to parish work, and therefore to hear confessions, that this may be an explanation of the moribund nature of the Sacrament of Reconciliation., another of course being a calcification of the Humane Vitae thing. But that is not for us to comment on just now.
What is really quite remarkable is the attachment of some priests to the actual process of giving absolution. We don’t imagine that this comes up much in conversation with priests, for those of us who undertake this, but the invaluable internet certainly tells us how they feel about it. The emphasis is very frequently on how wonderful an experience this is for the priest, one of them pointing out that he would rather hear confessions than provide the Eucharist. Google ‘general absolution’ and you’ll find them.
Lacking years of theological education we may do, but to be quite blunt, we do not think that providing wonderful experiences for priests is what the Sacrament of Reconciliation is for . And if the bizarre insistence of Canon Law on auricular confession of already forgiven sins is taking people away from the Eucharist, then Canon Law is acting against the Eucharistic imperative at the Last Supper.

Theology : A Time And A Place

05 Saturday Mar 2016

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Occasionally we feel we have to remind you of the simple and universally applicable formula for allowing the Flock to receive the Eucharist, where there no or few members of the Tridentine priesthood available;
(a) Ordained celebrants elected by a parish
(b) obviously celibacy is irrelevant.
(c) no preaching; sermons from the orders
(d) church property as now under episcopal control
(e) the Sacrament of Reconciliation by General Absolution
(f) the entire process possible in one year.
Point (f) There will obviously be no five or six years of theological education. This can safely be left to the orders. In any case, it was difficult to see the relevance of this to the provision of the Eucharist. The number of people who went to a particular church to hear an elaborate theological disquisition must have been very limited, and it is still available from the Orders if required. The cynical might say this lengthy period of theological education was devised as a test of maintaining celibacy ; the even more cynical that it was devised to add lustre to the profession of the priesthood. We will add only that neither seems relevant in 2016.
This lengthy spell of education might have had occasional relevance to a particular penitent, but General Absolution eliminates this necessity. Again, where a scrupulous penitent feels his case requires careful individual consideration, the Orders are still available.
Obviously the clergy who experienced – or suffered- this lengthy theological education must feel a sense of being by-passed . They genuinely have our sympathy , but it is tempered for those of us who have had our life’s work supplanted by a change in business methods, by a new scientific discovery which makes our life’s work outdated overnight, by unworthy promotion of well-connected juniors by a board room coup d’etat or by more efficient foreign competition.
These things happen. But the Eucharist must be provided.

Corpus Christi 2O15

07 Sunday Jun 2015

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We have seen men dance in the dust of the Moon.
We can look into the sub-atomic world, and see particles , some there and absent at the same time, which can communicate with each other instantly over thousands of miles.
We can transplant our hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys, and even replace faces.
We live in the post-Incarnation world, in which Christ has given us His blood to drink, and His Flesh to eat.
And yet we cannot to find a way of providing Them for the Flock in the fifty thousand parishes without priests.
We should remember this week-end all those who are contrite, but who cannot receive absolution or the Eucharist, but who could if valid ordination were extended.
Let us also remember the bishops in our prayers.

Luke: 5:32

31 Sunday May 2015

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It doesn’t seem like a year since we visualised on this blog Easter Duties confessions being dispensed via General Absolution to thousands by an elderly priest, supported by two passkeepers, on one of the hills surrounding Glasgow. And of course it might come to that yet, if the megaparish is established as in the U.S. As we’ve already mentioned, the ban on General Absolution unless in certain circumstances is nothing but one of the interesting contributions made to the Church and therefore the provision of the Eucharist by the Canon Law Code of 1917. Try to Google a reason why it’s wrong, and the answer is usually because Canon Law says so. Oh well then, you would be foolish to say. And as we also pointed out earlier, via Fr Ladislas Orsy,SJ, why the insistence on confessing sins auricularly later? If it’s forgiven, it’s forgiven.
Some elderly- who else is there –Catholics will say.”There’s nothing like making a confession to a priest”
To which we will say, firstly, haven’t you been lucky or did you just choose your confessor carefully ? Secondly, since we’re not all saints, and for various human reasons some may find auricular confession uncomfortable. In fact, undoubtedly some would rather not go than do this. You’ll notice we didn’t say we were all sensible. Thirdly, it’s not meant to be a comfortable emotional experience , like a family birthday or a New Year’s Night party. It’s asking for forgiveness for our sins.
We live in a world in which that fairly recent invention, the confessional box, is now used to store the Hoover. People don’t go. (a statistic mentioned recently was 2% of Catholics in the US, but this may require more research) . What can be done to help the rest ask for forgiveness and therefore bring them to the Eucharist ? If General Absolution will do it , does it matter what the Code of Canon Law of 1917 says ? Can anyone say that General Absolution is “not as good” as auricular confession ? We are reminded again of the local headmaster who is reputed to have once said “As Our Lord says, and I must say I think He was right…”
Life goes on, and the world changes exponentially and almost daily in 2015.Not all change is bad. The difference between a contemporary change in the provision of the Eucharist and that found in the early training of our bishops and (some)priests, one which no longer functions , is something which they do not seem to be able to grasp. If this is intellectual, they disappoint us. If this is because of an archaic and self-centred vision of their importance in providing the Eucharist, we are far from being simply disappointed. A wide variety of intellectual and even emotional responses presents itself to us.
People may be being denied the Body and Blood of Christ . Even our respect for the Code of Canon Law (1917), yes, even that, must surely pale into insignificance.

General Absolution

15 Sunday Feb 2015

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Obviously, when valid ordination is extended, General Absolution will be a necessity.
But apart from that, it must come.
There are already too few priests and too many people no longer active Catholics for it to be
practically possible for them all to go to confession in the box.
We may be putting a man on Mars soon, but human ingenuity cannot arrange a means of
letting people obtain forgiveness for their sins .
In 1973, Pope Paul VI announced a revision of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as confession was now to be known,
which included general absolution. In 1984, the Polish Pope banned this. It became known that as a young priest, he could spend an hour with each individual penitent, since he saw confession as a drama.
Comment on this is irrelevant at the moment, without possibly giving offence.

But of course- we can let people obtain forgiveness for their sins.
The problem is that Canon Law will not permit it without “grave necessity “.
Some may feel that 50000 parishes without a priest, not to mention those struggling all over the world
with too few, is a grave necessity but, apparently there you are.
We remind you again that the Code of Canon Law as it stands was put together as recently as 1917,
by Messrs Gasperri and Pacelli, in a Vatican atmosphere of riveting and welding the status quo
on to Catholic life with as many nuts and bolts as possible. They were creatures of their time,
although the boy Pacelli did quite well later on.
(A essay title for theologians: ‘How would you define the relationship between Canon Law and the Holy Spirit? Discuss.’)

We know when to let the experts speak. We suggest you Google:
“General absolution-Theological Studies-“ and up will come ’General Absolution: New Law, old Traditions, some questions Ladislas Orsy, S.J.,’
You should have no trouble finding it.

Essentially, he says :”I want to recall some typical forms used by the Church to grant pardon. Those forms
taken singly and together can give us a good understanding of what is permanent and what is
changeable in our traditions. “
Also, :”The law of the new Code should not be interpreted as the full expression of divine revelation;
there remains a long way to go in understanding the mystery of forgiveness through the ministry of the Church,
and even longer to make laws accordingly. Our present structures and norms contain
historically conditioned elements which can be changed.”

The attitude of the Bishops in general to the Code of Canon Law reminds one irresistibly of the
old academic book review :”He uses statistics as a blind man uses a lamp-post, : for support rather than illumination”.
This is not, we remind you, a cynical or even insulting anti-secular priest blog.
But is it possible that it is simply too easy for Bishops to say, ”Well, that’s Canon Law, so there.”
Or- and we are going to go into this quite soon- is it for the absolutely unbelievably ludicrous belief,
which exists, that “Rome” might be offended?
What is “Rome” here? A nasty letter from an uppity Vatican civil servant ?
Or- surely not- fear of a black mark on one’s promotion record?
And for this people cannot receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

Fr Ladislas Orsy also appends a useful note on what the Code of Canon Law is, and , more importantly, is not.
He also comments in passing;”True, many persons have experienced a kind of natural healing
through the implicit therapy of confession; equally truly, many persons were hurt deeply by imprudent confessors”.
We recommend him to you. And we ask you to remember, as you read this,
those who are prevented, despite themselves, for whatever human reason, from making their peace with God.

from making the peace with God which they desire.