canon law – Communio

Francis G. Morrisey, RIP

The sad news was sent out among the canon lawyers that the “dean” of canonical study, Father Francis G. Morrisey, O.M.I., died this morning at 9:40 a.m. at Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital, Ottawa. Father Morrisey had been receiving palliative care for the past several weeks due to a cancer diagnosis. His sister, Joan, was with him at the time of his death.

As one canonist said, “The Church has been enriched by Frank’s selfless outpouring and, through the Church, cultures and societies throughout the world have also been enriched. He remains a gentleman esteemed and admired by a plethora of social innovators, church leaders, and professional colleagues. He has shown himself to be a faithful son of Saint Eugene De Mazenod who envisioned bringing healing and hope to the peripheries of Eugene’s day. Frank has done the same in today’s world.”

Father Morrisey mentored many at Saint Paul University, Ottawa. It was said that he was a brilliant, humble, caring teacher –a priest and servant of the gospel- a colleague, a gentle soul and a friend. He was a great contributor at the annual CLSA convention and at regional canon law conferences.

While I did not know Father Morrisey personally, I had some communication with him through the years and I have used his canonical thought. We all have been enriched by Father’s presence and his great humanity. He won a lifetime achievement aware in 2019 which you can read/listen here. Thanks be to God.

Eternal rest, grant unto Father Morrisey O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace. Amen.

May Father’s soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

Eternal memory.

Conclave date set: for the good of the Universal Church, solum Deum prae oculis habentes.

The Cardinals have determined that the Conclave will begin on 12 March 2013. The Votive Mass Pro Eligendo Pontifice (For the Election of the Pontiff) will be offered in the morning at Saint Peter’s Basilica by the Cardinal Dean and later that afternoon the cardinals will process from the Pauline Chapel to the Sistine praying the Litany of Saints.

The cardinals will follow rules set down in John Paul IIs 1996 Universi Dominicu Gregis with the amendments of Benedict XVI in his motu proprio, Normas Nonnullas; moreover, they will adhere to the norms of the Ordo Rituum Conclavis.

There are 115 cardinals voting, 77 of them need to agree on a single man. Mostly an European group of men with an average age of 72; Cardinal Kasper is the oldest at 80 (his birthday was March 5, after the sede vacnate) and the Cardinal Thottunka, the Syro-Malabar, the youngest at 53.

There are 67 created by the Pope-emeritus and 48 by Blessed John Paul; 19 were professed as religious; the majority are Italian trailed by the USA.

Saint Joseph, universal patron of the Church, pray for us, and the cardinals.

On the Roman liturgical calendar of Blessed John XXIII, March 12 is the feast of Saint Gregory the Great (+604).

Saint Raymond Penyafort

O God, who
adorned the Priest Saint Raymond with the virtue of outstanding mercy and
compassion for sinners and for captives, grant us, through his intercession,
that, released from slavery to sin, we may carry out in freedom of spirit what
is pleasing to you.

The wags will say that Saint Raymond is the only certified canon lawyer who is in heaven and that we ought to pray that Saint Raymond to guide other canonists to holiness.

From a letter by Saint Raymond Penyafort

The preacher of
God’s truth has told us that all who want to live righteously in Christ will
suffer persecution. If he spoke the truth and did not lie, the only exception
to this general statement is, I think, the person who either neglects, or does
not know how, to live temperately, justly and righteously in this world.

Continue reading Saint Raymond Penyafort

Joseph Ratzinger’s “The pastoral approach to marriage should be founded on truth”

From a little known text by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger published in 1998

The pastoral approach to marriage should be founded on truth

Concerning some objections to the Church’s teaching on the reception of Holy Communion by divorced and remarried members of the faithful

In 1998 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, introduced the volume entitled “On the Pastoral Care of the Divorced and Remarried,” published by the Libreria in the CDF’s series (“Documenti e Studi”, 17). Because of its current interest and breadth of perspective, we reproduce below the third part along with the addition of three notes. The text was published today by L’Osservatore Romano.

The Letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of 14 September 1994 concerning the reception of Holy Communion by divorced and remarried members of the faithful was met with a very lively response across wide sections of the Church. Along with many positive reactions, more than a few critical voices were also heard. The fundamental objections against the teaching and practice of the Church are outlined below in simplified form.

Several of the more significant objections – principally, the reference to the supposedly more flexible practice of the Church Fathers which would be the inspiration for the practice of the Eastern Churches separated from Rome, as well as the allusion to the traditional principles of epicheia and of aequitas canonica – were studied in-depth by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Articles by Professors Pelland, Marcuzzi and Rodriguez Luño 2, among others, were developed in the course of this study. The main conclusions of the research, which suggest the direction of an answer to the objections, will be briefly summarized here.

Continue reading Joseph Ratzinger’s “The pastoral approach to marriage should be founded on truth”

Formerly ex-communicated saints

Much is made of canonization of Saint Mary MacKillop with her sordid past of being an ex-communicated Catholic.

Whether by ex-communicated we mean official ecclesiastical punishment or a punishment imposed by a religious superior. One’s being cut off from the Christian community sacramentally is strikingly painful but sometimes a needed medicine for the cure of some spiritual sickness typically demonstrated in an act of disobedience to the Church’s authority based on intellectual separation from some dogma or doctrine of the Church. You’ll see this with matters pertaining to abortion and certain healthcare matters. One simple example is that the medicine of excommunication is automatically imposed by the act itself for threatening the life of the pope. For more information see Book VI of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, canons 1364-99 outline

Some good examples of saints who were once excommunicated and then restored to communication in the Church are:

Saint Cyprian

Saint Hippolytus of Rome

Saint Joan of Arc

Saint Gerard Majella – by St Alphonsus Liguori

Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop – by the bishop in Australia

Saint Theodore Guerin by her bishop

Decree of erection of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

Decree of
erection of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

The supreme law
of the Church is the salvation of souls. As such, throughout its history, the
Church has always found the pastoral and juridical means to care for the good
of the faithful.

With the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus,
promulgated on 4 November 2009, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, provided
for the establishment of Personal ordinariates through which Anglican faithful
may enter, even in a corporate manner, into full communion with the Catholic
Church. On the same date, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
published Complementary Norms relating to such Ordinariates.

Continue reading Decree of erection of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

Deacons are to be sexually continent, too!

The lay –and married– canon lawyer Ed Peters wrote a piece indicating the permanent deacons are to be sexually abstinent (continent) permanently. This is the teaching and law of the Church. Men in studies seeking ordination to the Diaconate, that is, to be a permanent deacon, should have been taught this by the formators but lets concede the fact that those in charge of the diaconate program skipped or mis-represented the Church’s teaching in this matter. It is widely seen, however, to an unenforceable church law. Ed Peters quotes the phrase, “perfect and perpetual” from Canon 277 §1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law to explain the behavior of the permanent deacon. The first premise is paragraph 1, even with the presence of a possible dispensation seen in paragraph 3. The expectation is that all clerics are sexually continent. Conclusion: all men called to holy orders are expected to refrain from sex! The Catholic Church doesn’t have a double standard, one for priests and one for deacons. For the 15K deacons in the USA: amend your life.

The academic article in Studia Canonica of 2005, “Canonical Considerations of Diaconal Continence,” in which Peters’ argues that married permanent deacons are by Church law to refrain from sexual intercourse with their wife, that is, the deacon remains sexually continent. The article can be read at this link: Ed Peters Studia c. 277 Diaconal Sexual Continence.pdf

Thomas Peters, Ed Peters’ son and blogger, posted this piece on his blog.

Toward clarifying the canonical status of Sr. Margaret McBride

Much discussion has surfaced about the excommunicated nun, Sr. Margaret McBride, for assisting in the 2009 abortion at St Joseph’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ.

Canonist Edward N. Peter’s wrote a piece on his blog, In the Light of the Law, “Toward clarifying the canonical status of Sr. Margaret McBride.”

I think Dr. Peter’s is clear. Don’t you?

Ratzinger’s influence in revising the criminal code of Church law reviewed

La Civiltà
Cattolica, the academic
periodical edited by the Society of Jesus but vetted by the Secretary of State
of His Holiness, will publish Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta’s essay, “The Influence
of Cardinal Ratzinger in the Revision of the Canonical Criminal Justice System.”

Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, 59, is Spanish, ordained for the Prelature of the Holy Cross. Arrieta earned a doctorate in civil and canon law and served as Dead of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. (Rome) Moreover, he was Dean of the Institute of Canon Law of Saint Pius X (Venice). At the service of the Church, Arrieta was a canon prelate of the Apostolic Penitentiary and legal secretary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. Since 2007, he’s been the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and ordained bishop in 2008.

In the coming
weeks, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts will distribute to its
Members and Consultors the draft of a document containing suggestions for the
revision of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law, the basis of the Church’s penal
law system. For almost two years a commission of experts in penal law has been
re-examining the text promulgated in 1983, taking into account the needs that
have emerged in subsequent years. The aim is to maintain the general plan and
the existing numbering of the canons, while revising some of the decisions
taken at the time, which with hindsight can be seen to be insufficient.

Continue reading Ratzinger’s influence in revising the criminal code of Church law reviewed

Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela

The Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith published today the norms reforming the law and process in dealing with clergy sex abuse cases under a motu proprio signed by Pope Benedict XVI, titled, Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela (May 21, 2010).

The Introduction

The historical background: Historical Intro SST.pdf

The letter to the bishops: SST letter to bps.pdf

The Norms (Normae de Gravioribus Delictis)

The changes made; Summary of SST modifications.pdf