This is a valuable, highly instructive interview with Dr. Michael Mazza, a civil lawyer and canon lawyer who defends priests in canonical processes.
His workload? “Swamped.” Consider the implications of that.
Some of the things he deals with.
Above all: JUSTICE
Rights of priests who are falsely (or justly) accused.
Daily fear of priests to be falsely accused.
The disconnect of trust between priests and bishops.
The difference between an Anglo-Saxon view of “law” and Roman view. Lex and Ius. Important. (20:48)
Dallas Charter and Norms
Problem with slogans
Break down in the in the USA in the system of priest’s rights and how they are treated (1:18:00 ff)
Priests being bullied out of ministry without process
Judicial process or administrative process (1:28:00)
The initial days
Book 6 (1:45:00)
Solicitation in the confessional (means more than the mere obvious!)
Priests from different cultures
Financial crimes
Restorative Justice v Retributive (2:01:00)
Spanish Inquisition v. Protestants
I’ve known Michael Mazza for almost 30 years. He’s an upright guy.
As I write, there are 95 views. Let’s change that. Send this out to people to watch.
One thing that struck me toward the beginning when he was in his “biography” section of the interview, he spoke about how, when their youngest child (of 8 kids) was bigger and ready to move out, he and his wife considered how they could thereafter better serve the Church. Just recently I wrote of a book letters of St. Jerome to people who were in mourning. One of his counsels is that, now that you are a – for example – a widow, now that your life has changed, you consider what can you do to serve the Church.
In the Preface for the Dead we have a phrase, “life is changed, not ended”. That’s true for those who die. That’s true for those who are still alive!
Anyway, this interview is extremely instructive about an important aspect the Church’s life.
There is an organization called Men of Melchizedek, which you might look at. Dr. Mazza is on the board and I know one other board member, who is an upright guy.
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Michael is a GENT of the first class! His counsel is excellent and he cares deeply for priests.
Regarding “ius” vs. “lex”. My Latin is 40 years rusty, but my recollection is that “ius” includes the idea of “the just” and strongly connected to “right” and through “right” also “righteousness” and “straight”. Whereas the Latin “lex” springs from the same root from which we get legere, to read, and then English legible. I would suggest that maybe “lex” refers to law or rules primarily insofar as stated or listed or compiled – i.e. expressed as law, whereas “ius” can be more encompassing, getting at right rule even before it is recognized and listed or compiled, a rule that can be discovered because it precedes the act of expressing it as a rule.
Thanks for posting this Father! it’s well worth the time.
Thanks for this, Fr. Z.!
Thank you for sharing! I’ve talked to Mr. Matt at Society of the Sacred Heart retreats and his love for the Church is as clear as his intelligence. Thank God for providing lawyers like him in these times. (Never thought I’d be thanking God for a lawyer, but such is this strange era….)
Yes, he’s doing God’s work, and I am very grateful for him. There is a wedge between lay people and priests these days. I feel it like a tear through my own grinchy little heart. On one hand I can sympathize, but on the other hand … the reality is that lay people live with the threat of losing their job … every … day. That’s just part of life. I find it a little shocking that priests expect so much sympathy when they give none. I got cancelled too, and I was a single mother. You know who cared? Nobody.