Can. 1369 "A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who, at a public event or assembly, or in a published writing, or by otherwise using the means of social communication, utters blasphemy, or gravely harms public morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church".
One can only wonder why the above canon has never been applied. Open and flagrant violation of Catholic moral and social teaching is the norm amongst those who are presently canonically Catholic. Any number of polititians (and one can think of innumerable examples) could be sanction, but none have.
Given that that no polititian is sanctioned the question begs to be asked: is Canon 1369 a good law? If so, why is it never applied? If it is not - why is it in the Code?
Recently much has been made over polititians in the United States and Canada scoffing at the Holy Father's reiteration that abortion is an excommunicable offence. A number of brave Catholic writers have even proclaimed that these same polititians are no longer Catholic. Well - yes and no. Juridically they are, spiritually they are not. They are according to moral theology "gravely suspect of heresy" and "impious". But a formal judgment is needed to remove them juridically.
This the bishops refuse to do. And the tragic reality is, that until canonical action is taken against such politicians nothing can be accomplished. And such politicians can always reply to the frustrated layman: "I am in good standing". And canonically, this is absolutely true.
How can this be !? And yet it is. Cowardly, even evil bishops refuse to enact canon law against evil men who openly support abortion and sexual immorality. Priests are persecuted, suspended for speaking out on moral issues, for promoting, for daring to say the Latin Mass, while sexual predators are hidden and protected.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
The Phantom Church - Newchurch
It is important to remember that the Church is One. For Christ has one Bride for whom He laid down His life - the Church.
St. Augustine, in his conflict with the Donatists emphasized that this Church was temporal (that is, dwelling in the here and now), and eternal (that is, those saints who are in Heaven). The Church temporal is juridical, hierarchical and visible. She is not, and cannot be divided against Herself, for She is One. And because She is born of Christ, She is holy. She is also Universal or Catholic. From Her very inception She has been Catholic in dynamic intent - seeking to "go out to all nations and baptising them..." She is therefore Apostolic, for She is Christ's and built upon Peter and His successors, the Popes.
Today, given the crisis in the Church, what should the approach of the Catholic be? Some, in dismay, seeing what they believe to be heresy all around them believe that the Church has defected, that even the Pope has fallen into heresy and the See of Peter is vacant. Others, more circumspect, seek to sift the various papal acts and withhold obedience to the juridical and hierarchical nature of the Church. They claim there is a "Newchurch", a Church infected with post-conciliar "errors" of Vatican II, and therefore to be truly Catholic the solution is to break social unity with those who are deemed to be "conciliar". The seeming reason behind this social break in unity is that the "Newchurch" is "heretical".
However, I propose that this approach is incorrect. In fact, I would suggest that it is very bad theology at best and potential heresy at worst. Even more so, given that Pope Benedict is now looking favourably upon the restoration of the Traditional Liturgy, as well as permitting such priestly organizations as the newly formed Institut du Bon Pasteur to function with full canonical and juridical rights, whilst questioning a number of the unresolved orientations of the Second Vatican Council. (A future post will itself discuss the serious ambiguities and compromises of Dignitatis Humanae). It should be remembered that the Second Vatican Council was pastoral (as both Blessed John XXIIII and Pope Paul VI stated), not dogmatic and not infallible; the orientations contained within its sixteen chapters do not express a final statement. How can something defined as pastoral (hence changeable) be suddenly definitive and dogmatic and hence unchangeable? This would be a contradiction.
Reservations can therefore be held on a number of contentious issues that were inserted into texts and in no way constitute an authoritative, final and definitive Catholic position. For example, serious and many are the issues with Dignitatis Humanae (DH). Its silence on Quas Primas is shocking. Another is its admission that there is a traditional teaching on Church and State relations, and yet to have inner contradictions to this same traditional teaching. An example would be the proposition that a person holding error can profess same and in public, and even in bad faith. This, as will be developed in a future post contradicts Leo XIII's teachings on liberty (c.f. Immortale Dei, Libertas). But a pastoral position, is just that, pastoral. We must remember that though the Church sanctioned liberal Catholics, She not always excommunicated them.
As such, the correct approach to the present crisis is that of St. Augustine's approach with the Donatist heresy. The Church consists of sinners and saints. The sinner is not of the Holy Ghost, the saint is. The sinner and the saint yet remain within the juridical and hierarchical structure of the visible Church. And this is a critical point! The material heretic, as long as he remains bona fides is within the Church. His action is transitory, following the pastoral nature of that declaration. This month someone has a confused notion, next month after reading the cathechism they conform their mind to the Church. Were they, for the previous month outside the Church, a formal heretic? The answer is, no. They were perhaps guilty of a lesser sin of lack of diligence in studying their Faith, in reading misleading books. But a formal, reprobated heretic: no. Such is the teaching of St. Augustine, and thankfully the teaching of Canon Law. St. Thomas Aquinas identifes the need for mortal sin to be present to preceed excommunication. Therefore the serious matter of heresy must be also undertaken with full consent of the will and with full knowledge.
Finally, the Church adds one final element to avoid social confusion. For one to be a heretic in the formal canonical sense, one must receive such a judgment from the Church. To judge requires power and authority to do so. Such comes from the Church. The layman can indeed, and should confront a material heretic, that is, one he believes has spoken or done something contrary to divine Faith, but to privately judge that person a heretic, to break all social union with them is to manifest a schismatic attitude.
Therefore, "Newchurch", is a chimera, a phantom church. It does not exist, unless it perchance is a definition for a protestant sect. However, if this be applied to the visible, juridical and hierarchical Church - that is, the Pope and the bishops united with him, then the accuser is claiming that he is the Catholic and the Pope no longer Catholic. Yet the Pope cannot be Vicar of two churches. As such, the claimant falls into contradiction. Either the visible Church has ceased, or the claimant is schismatic in intent.
In fact, the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ is One. However, She can be damaged, and severely so by the sinners who exist within her visible, juridical and hierarchical structure. And this visible structure is one with Her invisible structure, just as the soul and body constitute a man and not a duality. Thus, if we regard each baptised member of the Mystical body as a cell, we can also be faced with the tragic situation of cancerous cells. And herein lies the solution. These cancerous cells, these sinners, these material heretics do exist within the Church. They exist until they are excised through the operation of excommunication. Further, since Christ is the Source and Fountain of the Sacraments, even sinful clergy - even materially heretical prelates - can and do confect and distribute the Sacraments. For just as the High Priests planning Christ's Crucifixion were still the High Priests, and Judas was one of the Apostles - even though he was a thief and actively planning to betray Our Lord - so too, tragically are these modern High Priests and Judases. It is however, a most serious duty for us before God and the Church to unmask and chase out of the Church these traitors and wolves, these false prophets. St. Cyprian (Treatise 1, 22) wrote:
"For the Lord chose Judas also among the apostles, and yet afterwards Judas betrayed the Lord. Yet not on that account did the faith and firmness of the apostles fail, because the traitor Judas failed from their fellowship: so also in the case in question the holiness and dignity of confessors is not forthwith diminished, because the faith of some of them is broken. The blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle speaks in this manner: "For what if some of them fall away from the faith, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: for God is true, though every man be a liar."(6 Romans 3:3)
Let us remain with our Mother, the Church through Her illness, let us at least staunch Her wounds with our prayers and sacrifices. Let us strive to also take positive action, to alert the Shepherds to the wolves, the false prophets. Let us raise our voices aloud and let the Holy Father know our needs. Let us pray unceasingly that the Church return to Her traditions, especially through the release of the Tridentine Mass.
Let us pray for Pope Benedict XVI our Holy Father and Shepherd of Christ's One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
St. Augustine, in his conflict with the Donatists emphasized that this Church was temporal (that is, dwelling in the here and now), and eternal (that is, those saints who are in Heaven). The Church temporal is juridical, hierarchical and visible. She is not, and cannot be divided against Herself, for She is One. And because She is born of Christ, She is holy. She is also Universal or Catholic. From Her very inception She has been Catholic in dynamic intent - seeking to "go out to all nations and baptising them..." She is therefore Apostolic, for She is Christ's and built upon Peter and His successors, the Popes.
Today, given the crisis in the Church, what should the approach of the Catholic be? Some, in dismay, seeing what they believe to be heresy all around them believe that the Church has defected, that even the Pope has fallen into heresy and the See of Peter is vacant. Others, more circumspect, seek to sift the various papal acts and withhold obedience to the juridical and hierarchical nature of the Church. They claim there is a "Newchurch", a Church infected with post-conciliar "errors" of Vatican II, and therefore to be truly Catholic the solution is to break social unity with those who are deemed to be "conciliar". The seeming reason behind this social break in unity is that the "Newchurch" is "heretical".
However, I propose that this approach is incorrect. In fact, I would suggest that it is very bad theology at best and potential heresy at worst. Even more so, given that Pope Benedict is now looking favourably upon the restoration of the Traditional Liturgy, as well as permitting such priestly organizations as the newly formed Institut du Bon Pasteur to function with full canonical and juridical rights, whilst questioning a number of the unresolved orientations of the Second Vatican Council. (A future post will itself discuss the serious ambiguities and compromises of Dignitatis Humanae). It should be remembered that the Second Vatican Council was pastoral (as both Blessed John XXIIII and Pope Paul VI stated), not dogmatic and not infallible; the orientations contained within its sixteen chapters do not express a final statement. How can something defined as pastoral (hence changeable) be suddenly definitive and dogmatic and hence unchangeable? This would be a contradiction.
Reservations can therefore be held on a number of contentious issues that were inserted into texts and in no way constitute an authoritative, final and definitive Catholic position. For example, serious and many are the issues with Dignitatis Humanae (DH). Its silence on Quas Primas is shocking. Another is its admission that there is a traditional teaching on Church and State relations, and yet to have inner contradictions to this same traditional teaching. An example would be the proposition that a person holding error can profess same and in public, and even in bad faith. This, as will be developed in a future post contradicts Leo XIII's teachings on liberty (c.f. Immortale Dei, Libertas). But a pastoral position, is just that, pastoral. We must remember that though the Church sanctioned liberal Catholics, She not always excommunicated them.
As such, the correct approach to the present crisis is that of St. Augustine's approach with the Donatist heresy. The Church consists of sinners and saints. The sinner is not of the Holy Ghost, the saint is. The sinner and the saint yet remain within the juridical and hierarchical structure of the visible Church. And this is a critical point! The material heretic, as long as he remains bona fides is within the Church. His action is transitory, following the pastoral nature of that declaration. This month someone has a confused notion, next month after reading the cathechism they conform their mind to the Church. Were they, for the previous month outside the Church, a formal heretic? The answer is, no. They were perhaps guilty of a lesser sin of lack of diligence in studying their Faith, in reading misleading books. But a formal, reprobated heretic: no. Such is the teaching of St. Augustine, and thankfully the teaching of Canon Law. St. Thomas Aquinas identifes the need for mortal sin to be present to preceed excommunication. Therefore the serious matter of heresy must be also undertaken with full consent of the will and with full knowledge.
Finally, the Church adds one final element to avoid social confusion. For one to be a heretic in the formal canonical sense, one must receive such a judgment from the Church. To judge requires power and authority to do so. Such comes from the Church. The layman can indeed, and should confront a material heretic, that is, one he believes has spoken or done something contrary to divine Faith, but to privately judge that person a heretic, to break all social union with them is to manifest a schismatic attitude.
Therefore, "Newchurch", is a chimera, a phantom church. It does not exist, unless it perchance is a definition for a protestant sect. However, if this be applied to the visible, juridical and hierarchical Church - that is, the Pope and the bishops united with him, then the accuser is claiming that he is the Catholic and the Pope no longer Catholic. Yet the Pope cannot be Vicar of two churches. As such, the claimant falls into contradiction. Either the visible Church has ceased, or the claimant is schismatic in intent.
In fact, the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ is One. However, She can be damaged, and severely so by the sinners who exist within her visible, juridical and hierarchical structure. And this visible structure is one with Her invisible structure, just as the soul and body constitute a man and not a duality. Thus, if we regard each baptised member of the Mystical body as a cell, we can also be faced with the tragic situation of cancerous cells. And herein lies the solution. These cancerous cells, these sinners, these material heretics do exist within the Church. They exist until they are excised through the operation of excommunication. Further, since Christ is the Source and Fountain of the Sacraments, even sinful clergy - even materially heretical prelates - can and do confect and distribute the Sacraments. For just as the High Priests planning Christ's Crucifixion were still the High Priests, and Judas was one of the Apostles - even though he was a thief and actively planning to betray Our Lord - so too, tragically are these modern High Priests and Judases. It is however, a most serious duty for us before God and the Church to unmask and chase out of the Church these traitors and wolves, these false prophets. St. Cyprian (Treatise 1, 22) wrote:
"For the Lord chose Judas also among the apostles, and yet afterwards Judas betrayed the Lord. Yet not on that account did the faith and firmness of the apostles fail, because the traitor Judas failed from their fellowship: so also in the case in question the holiness and dignity of confessors is not forthwith diminished, because the faith of some of them is broken. The blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle speaks in this manner: "For what if some of them fall away from the faith, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: for God is true, though every man be a liar."(6 Romans 3:3)
Let us remain with our Mother, the Church through Her illness, let us at least staunch Her wounds with our prayers and sacrifices. Let us strive to also take positive action, to alert the Shepherds to the wolves, the false prophets. Let us raise our voices aloud and let the Holy Father know our needs. Let us pray unceasingly that the Church return to Her traditions, especially through the release of the Tridentine Mass.
Let us pray for Pope Benedict XVI our Holy Father and Shepherd of Christ's One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Pascendi 1907 - 2007
A detailed discussion of the nature of the Church according to St. Augustine will follow shortly.
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