Fr. Z's Blog | Catholic commentary by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Holy Father’s General Audience on liturgical worship

Posted on 26 September 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Our Holy Father on what Mass means during his General Audience. I have read the Italian, but the English isn’t available and I am not going to translate it right now. Video HERE.

<font color=”#ff0000″><b>[UPDATE: I found a translation.]</b></font>

Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s catechesis:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
in recent months we have made a journey in the light of the Word of God, to learn to pray in a more authentic way by looking at some great figures in the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Letters of St. Paul and the Book of Revelation, but also looking at unique and fundamental experience of Jesus in his relationship with the Heavenly Father. In fact, only in Christ, is man enabled to unite himself to God with the depth and intimacy of a child before a father who loves him, only in Him can we turn in all truth to God and lovingly call Him “Abba! ! Father. ” Like the Apostles, we too have repeated and we still repeat to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1).

In addition, in order to live our personal relationship with God more intensely, we have learned to invoke the Holy Spirit, the first gift of the Risen Christ to believers, because it is he who “comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought,”(Romans 8:26).

At this point we can ask: how can I allow myself to be formed by the Holy Spirit? What is the school in which he teaches me to pray and helps me in my difficulties to turn to God in the right way? The first school of prayer which we have covered in the last few weeks is the Word of God, Sacred Scripture, Sacred Scripture in permanent dialogue between God and man, an ongoing dialogue in which God reveals Himself ever closer to us. We can better familiarize ourselves with his face, his voice, his being and the man learns to accept and to know God, to talk to God. So in recent weeks, reading Sacred Scripture, we looked for this ongoing dialogue in Scripture to learn how we can enter into contact with God.

There is another precious “space”, another valuable “source” to grow in prayer, a source of living water in close relation with the previous one. I refer to the liturgy, which is a privileged area in which God speaks to each of us, here and now, and awaits our response.

What is the liturgy? If we open the Catechism of the Catholic Church – an always valuable and indispensable aid especially in the Year of Faith, which is about to begin – we read that originally the word “liturgy” means ” service in the name of/on behalf of the people” (No. 1069) . If Christian theology took this word from the Greek world, it did so obviously thinking of the new People of God born from Christ opened his arms on the Cross to unite people in the peace of the one God. “service on behalf of the people ” a people that does not exist by itself, but that has been formed through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. In fact, the People of God does not exist through ties of blood, territory or nation, but is always born from the work of the Son of God and communion with the Father that He obtains for us.

The Catechism also states that “in Christian tradition (the word” liturgy “) means the participation of the People of God in “the work of God.” Because the people of God as such exists only through the action of God.

The very development of the Second Vatican Council reminds us of this. It began its work, fifty years ago, with the discussion of the draft on the Sacred Liturgy, solemnly approved on December 4, 1963, the first text approved by the Council. The fact that document on the liturgy was the first result of the conciliar assembly was perhaps considered by some a chance occurrence. Among the many projects, the text on the sacred liturgy seemed to be the least controversial, and, for this reason, seen as an exercise in the methodology of conciliar work. But without a doubt, what at first glance seemed a chance occurrence, proved to be the right choice, starting from the hierarchy of themes and most important tasks of the Church. By beginning, with the theme of “liturgy” the primacy of God, his absolute priority was clearly brought to light. God before all things: the Council’s choice of starting from the liturgy tells us precisely this. Where God’s gaze is not decisive, everything else loses its direction. The basic criterion for the liturgy is its orientation to God, so that we can share in His work.

But we may ask: what is this work of God that we are called to participate in? The answer offered us by Conciliar Constitution on the sacred liturgy is apparently double. At number 5 it tells us, in fact, that the works of God are His historical actions that bring us salvation, culminating in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; but in number 7, the Constitution defines the celebration of the liturgy as “the work of Christ. ” In reality, the two meanings are inseparably linked. If we ask ourselves who saves the world and man, the only answer is Jesus of Nazareth, Lord and Christ, Crucified and Risen. And where does the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, that brings salvation it becomes present and real for us, for me today ? The answer is the action of Christ through the Church, in the liturgy, especially in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which makes real and present this sacrificial offering of the Son of God, who has redeemed us, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, through which we pass from the death of sin to new life, and in the other sacramental acts that sanctify us (cf. PO 5). Thus, the Paschal Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ is the centre of liturgical theology of the Council.

Let’s take a step further and ask ourselves: how is this re-enactment of the Paschal Mystery of Christ made possible? Blessed John Paul II, 25 years after the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, wrote: ” In order to reenact his Paschal Mystery, Christ is ever present in his Church, especially in liturgical celebrations. (27). Hence the Liturgy is the privileged place for the encounter of Christians with God and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ (cf Jn 17:3). “(Vicesimus quintus annus, n. 7). Along the same lines we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: ” A sacramental celebration is a meeting of God’s children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through actions and words.” (n. 1153). Therefore, the first requirement for a good liturgical celebration is that both prayer and conversation with God, first listening and then answering. St. Benedict, in his “Rule”, speaking of the prayer of the Psalms, indicates to the monks: mens concordet voci, “may the mind agrees with the voice.” The Saint teaches that the prayer of the Psalms, the words must precede our mind. Usually it does not happen this way, first one has to think and then what we have thought, is converted into speech. Here, however in the liturgy it is the inverse, the words come first. God gave us the Word and the Sacred Liturgy gives us the words, and we must enter into their meaning, welcome them within us, be in harmony with them. Thus we become children of God, similar to God. As noted in the Sacrosanctum Concilium, to ensure the full effectiveness of the celebration ” it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain “(n. 11). The correlation between what we say with our lips and what we carry in our hearts is essential, fundamental, to our dialogue with God in the liturgy.

In this line, I just want to mention one of the moments that, during the liturgy calls us and helps us to find such a correlation, this conforming ourselves to what we hear, say and do in the liturgy. I refer to the invitation the Celebrant formulates before the Eucharistic Prayer: “Sursum corda,” we lift up our hearts outside the tangle of our concerns, our desires, our anxieties, our distraction. Our heart, our intimate selves, must open obediently to the Word of God, and gather in the prayer of the Church, to receive its orientation towards God from the words that it hears and says. The heart’s gaze must go out to the Lord, who is among us: it is a fundamental requirement.

When we experience the liturgy with this basic attitude, it is as if our heart is freed from the force of gravity, which drags it down, and from within rises upwards, towards truth and love, towards God. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church recalls: ” In the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the mystery of salvation, which is continued in the heart that prays. The spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar. “(No. 2655): altare Dei est cor nostrum.

Dear friends, we celebrate and live the liturgy well only if we remain in an attitude of prayer, united to the Mystery of Christ and his dialogue as the Son with the Father. God Himself teaches us to pray, as St. Paul writes (cf. Rom 8:26). He Himself has given us the right words to hear to Him, words that we find in the Psalter, in the great prayers of the liturgy and in the same Eucharistic celebration. We pray to the Lord to be ever more aware of the fact that the liturgy is the action of God and man; prayer that rises from the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the Son of God made man (cf. Catechism the Catholic Church, n. 2564).

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Benedict XVI, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged General Audience, liturgy
5 Comments

Bp. Egan’s first address as the new Bishop of Portsmouth

Posted on 26 September 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The other day I watched the live stream of the consecration of the new Bishop of Portsmouth, England, Most Rev. Philip Egan, who was a collaborator with the outstanding Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies.

At the end of the Mass in Portsmouth, the newly minted Bishop Egan gave a brief address that quickly had me sitting up straight. Here is the transcript:

Dear fellow pilgrims on life’s journey, we inhabit a remarkable century, the 21st, which despite the current economic distemper, is witnessing momentous advances in every domain of human knowledge and endeavour, with new discoveries and new applications in science and engineering, in computing and cybernetics, in medicine and bio-technology, in the social sciences, arts and humanities, all of which manifest the limitless self-transcending reach of human experience, understanding and judgement and the cloud of burgeoning possibilities for human deciding, undreamt of by those who’ve gone before.
Indeed, even as we speak, Curiosity is roving among the sand-dunes of Mars, in anticipation of a manned space-voyage to the Red Planet. [I like this reference to Curiosity. I’ll bet some of the people listening thought they were on Mars during what the Bishop says a little farther along…] With all these exhilarating developments, the Catholic Tradition must engage, the old with the new, in a mutually-enriching critical-conversation.
Yet the ordination of a Bishop, as Successor of the Apostles, in communion of mind, will and heart with the Pope, as the chief Shepherd, Teacher and High Priest of the diocese entrusted to him, who, like the Master, must lay down his life for his flock, reminds us that human needs ever remain essentially the same: [This is a mistake liberals make: they think man has evolved beyond certain things, such as humility before God.] the need to love and to be loved, the need for a purpose and vocation in life, the need to belong to family and community, the need for mercy and forgiveness, for peace and justice, for freedom and happiness, and most profoundly, the need for immortality and for the Divine.
All these fundamental desires, hard-wired into the human heart: theology expresses in the word ‘salvation,’ and we profess that every child, woman and man on this planet can find that salvation. [The goal of the Church is not to promote an earthly utopia.] There is a Way – and it’s the Truth! It’s the true Way that leads to Life, real life, life to the full, a life that never ends. There is a Way, and it’s not a strategy, a philosophy or a package-deal. This Way has a Name, because it’s a Person, the only Person in human history who really did rise from the dead, a Person alive here and now: Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son Incarnate. He alone can save us. He alone can give us the salvation our spirits crave. He alone can reveal to us the Truth about God and about life, about happiness and humanism, about sexuality and family values, about how to bring to the world order, justice, reconciliation and peace.
This message of Good News, and the civilisation of love it occasions, [v. Culture of Death] we Catholics must now communicate imaginatively, with confidence and clarity, together with our fellow Christians, and all people of faith and good will, to the people of England, this wonderful land, Mary’s Dowry. We must offer this salvific message to a people, sorely in need of new hope and direction, disenfranchised by the desert of modern British politics, wearied by the cycle of work, shopping, entertainment, and betrayed by educational, legal, medical and social policy-makers who, in the relativistic world they’re creating, however well-intentioned, are sowing the seeds of a strangling counterculture of death.
My brothers and sisters, today, the Feast of Our Lady of Ransom, of England’s Nazareth, let’s go forth from this Mass with joyful vigour, resolved in the Holy Spirit, to help bring about the conversions needed – intellectual, moral and spiritual – for everyone-we-meet to receive Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Life…. Please pray for me to the Lord Jesus, whose Heart yearns for us in the Blessed Sacrament, that I might be a humble and holy, orthodox, creative and courageous, Bishop of Portsmouth, one fashioned after the Lord’s own.

WDTPRS kudos to Bp. Egan!

In other news, as I watched the live stream of the Mass with a priest friend who knows Portsmouth well, I was told that during the time of the former bishop Marian hymns were not allowed during Mass. What did we hear during the Mass of consecration? Marian hymns. The order of service book is HERE.

I am sure that a video of the whole Mass will eventually be available. In advance, however, there had been some discussion of the challenge Bp Egan’s appointment would bring for the liturgical mafia of Portsmouth, including the celebrated composer of the Alleluia Cha Cha, Paul Inwood. Inwood wrote a new Te Deum for the occasion of the consecration. Te Dium. But that’s another topic altogether.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Fr. Z KUDOS, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged Bp. Egan, D. Portsmouth, Mary's Dowry, Paul Inwood
36 Comments

Enda Kenny texting during an audience with Benedict XVI

Posted on 26 September 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A friend sent a link about the audience Benedict XVI granted to Enda Kenny of Ireland at Castelgandolfo last Saturday.

In this brief video from Corriere della Sera you can see that Kenny is so engaged that, while sitting in the front row, he decides to do some urgent texting in the Holy Father’s and the world’s full view as his host is speaking.

Lesson: If you are a major political figure, and you don’t have the slightest interest in what the Pope says or thinks, let your aide have your phone during papal audiences where you are sure to be recorded on video for the news.

(This video is no longer available.)

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged Enda Kenny
27 Comments

Just to catch you up on what I’ve been doing.

Posted on 25 September 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Although I transferred the flag to Rome this morning at Oh-Dark-Hundred…

… I wanted to catch up with the few pics and news about what has been going on.

On Sunday, after some time with Fr. Finigan at Blackfen, we went off to Chistlehurst to sing Vespers for the Feast of the Dedication of their parish church. This is the place where the late Michael Davies is buried. He was a real gentleman.

Afterwards we priests went out for some supper and clerical talk.

The other day I met with friends at The Cork and Bottle near Leicester Square and had Ham and Cheese Pie. Very good. Extremely filling. You might need only this meal in the course of the day.

After the super-hot spicy Chinese soup a few days ago, I went for some calmer, soothing soup with wontons and seaweed. Good Jasmine Tea.

Dunno… I think I would prefer London Pride.

Great name, though.

Off to the National Gallery again. Since the sickening loss of my commonplace book, and I wandering again in familiar galleries trying to reconstruct some of my thoughts and note them in a new edition. Sigh.

This morning I set foot once again in the Eternal City. That weird thing happened that always happens. It is like a switch being clicked. It is like I never left.

A dear friend picked me up at Fiumicino and brought me into town. We went to lunch in the Borgo Pio at a place I like a lot. On the board today was rigatoni con coda. I had hoped to have room for the orata, too. This was filling!

You can tell that I have switched mobile phones. The photo quality is really bad. I think I have dropped this phone too many times.

Tonight the conference on Augustine’s City of God begins at the Augustinianum with introductory remarks and then an address by my friend Prof. John Rist.

Posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged Augustinianum, Ham and Cheese Pie, John Rist, London, Rome
31 Comments

An American Bishop on the Democrat Convention, intrinsic evil, and voting wisely as a Catholic

Posted on 24 September 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In The Catholic Times, the newspaper of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois with my emphases and comments:

Think and pray about your vote in upcoming election
by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Much attention was given at the Democratic National Convention held recently in Charlotte, N.C., to the fact that all references to God had been purged from the draft version of the party platform. After outcries of protest from outside as well as within the Democratic Party, the sentence with the same reference to God used in 2008 was restored to read, “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”

Before anyone relaxes and concludes that all is well now that the Democratic Party Platform contains a single passing reference to God, [thus throwing God a little handful of dirt.] the way that this was done should give us pause. Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa had to call for the voice vote three times because each time the sound level for the “ayes” and the “nays” sounded about even, far short of the two-thirds necessary according to convention rules to amend the platform. That did not stop the convention chairman from declaring, “The ayes have it!” [Goat rodeo.]

What is troubling about that is the blatant disregard for the rules and for the apparent wishes of about half the delegates. The reference to God is back in the platform apparently because President Obama wanted it back in. [No doubt because of his deep belief in God.] That may be fine for now, but if a future president wants references to God taken out, apparently that can be done regardless of the wishes of the delegates if that is what The Leader wants. That does not bode well for democracy in the Democratic Party. [That’s about right. That is also where the whole country is headed, more quickly, if such leaders remain in power. But wait! There’s more…]

Even more troubling is that this whole discussion about God in the platform is a distraction from more disturbing matters that have been included in the platform. In 1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton famously said that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” That was the party’s official position until 2008. Apparently “rare” is so last century that it had to be dropped, because now the Democratic Party Platform says that abortion should be “safe and legal.” [And they know that Planned Parenthood doesn’t want it to be rare… and neither, really, do many of the queenpins of that party.] Moreover the Democratic Party Platform supports the right to abortion “regardless of the ability to pay.” [Ergooooo…..] Well, there are only three ways for that to happen: either taxpayers will be required to fund abortion, or insurance companies will be required to pay for them (as they are now required to pay for contraception), or hospitals will be forced to perform them for free. [Which do you think will be the case?]

Moreover, the Democratic Party Platform also supports same-sex marriage, recognizes that “gay rights are human rights,” [This is NOT… NOT… a civil or human rights issue!] and calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law signed by President Clinton in 1996 that defined marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman. [Which The First Gay President refuses to enforce.]

Now, why am I mentioning these matters in the Democratic Party Platform? There are many positive and beneficial planks in the Democratic Party Platform, but I am pointing out those that explicitly endorse intrinsic evils. [LibDems are, right now, having a nutty with little flecks of spit jetting from the corners of their mouths to either side of their monitors as they prepare to label Bp. Paprocki, and me, a Republican partisan. BUT…] My job is not to tell you for whom you should vote. But I do have a duty to speak out on moral issues. I would be abdicating this duty if I remained silent out of fear of sounding “political” and didn’t say anything about the morality of these issues. [NB:]People of faith object to these platform positions that promote serious sins. I know that the Democratic Party’s official “unequivocal” support for abortion is deeply troubling to pro-life Democrats.

So what about the Republicans? I have read the Republican Party Platform and there is nothing in it that supports or promotes an intrinsic evil or a serious sin. [Get that? We can disagree about the best ways to solve many burning social issues, but we cannot support things that are intrinsically evil.] The Republican Party Platform does say that courts “should have the option of imposing the death penalty in capital murder cases.” But the Catechism of the Catholic Church says (in paragraph 2267), “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm — without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself — the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”

One might argue for different methods in the platform to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments about the most effective means of achieving morally desirable ends, not intrinsic evils. [LibDems, read that again slowly.]

Certainly there are “pro-choice” Republicans who support abortion rights and “Log Cabin Republicans” who promote same-sex marriage, and they are equally as wrong as their Democratic counterparts. But these positions do not have [NB] the official support of their party.

Again, I am not telling you which party or which candidates to vote for or against, but I am saying that you need to think and pray very carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy. [I will add that I think that it is better to vote than not to vote in this election.]

I pray that God will give you the wisdom and guidance to make the morally right choices.

May God give us this grace. Amen.

WDTPRS kudos to Bp. Paprocki.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Emanations from Penumbras, Fr. Z KUDOS, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Bp. Paprocki, CCC 2267, D. Springfield, Democratic National Convention, DNC, intrinsic evil, November 2012
115 Comments

Sloppy reporting about new “church tax” decision by bishops

Posted on 24 September 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I haven’t been following this interesting story, but I noted some of the use of language in reporting about the German bishops and the “church tax”. I will ramble a bit and my emphases.

From The Beeb:

German Catholics lose church rights for unpaid tax [First, the language of “rights” in the Church is problematic when it comes to juridical issues.]

Germany’s Roman Catholics are to be denied the right to Holy Communion or religious burial if they stop paying a special church tax. [“are to be denied”…? So, it is a done deal? That’s it? Given that many readers don’t read very much more than the first couple paragraphs,…]

A German bishops’ decree which has just come into force says anyone failing to pay the tax – an extra 8% of their income tax bill – will no longer be considered a Catholic. [I don’t know the answer to this, but, if it just came into force, was there reporting about this before?]

The bishops have been alarmed by the number of Catholics leaving the Church. [Finally.]

They say such a step should be seen as a serious act against the community. [D’ya think? And it isn’t great for their souls, either.]

All Germans who are officially registered as Catholics, Protestants or Jews pay a religious tax of 8-9% on their annual income tax bill. The levy was introduced in the 19th Century in compensation for the nationalisation of religious property.

“If your tax bill is for 10,000 euros, then 800 euros will go on top of that and your total tax combined will be 10,800 euros,” Munich tax accountant Thomas Zitzelsberger told the BBC news website.

Catholics make up around 30% of Germany’s population but the number of congregants leaving the church swelled to 181,000 in 2010, with the increase blamed on revelations of sexual abuse by German priests.

Alarmed by their declining congregations, the bishops were also pushed into action by a case involving a retired professor of church law, Hartmut Zapp, who announced in 2007 that he would no longer pay the tax but intended to remain within the Catholic faith.

The Freiburg University academic said he wanted to continue praying and receiving Holy Communion and a lengthy legal case between Prof Zapp and the church will reach the Leipzig Federal Administrative Court on Wednesday.

“This decree makes clear that one cannot partly leave the Church,” Germany’s bishops’ conference said last week, in a decision endorsed by the Vatican. [True. However, read that in the context of this reporting. Questions are raised: is paying the church tax a sine qua non for membership in the Church? No.]

‘Wrong signal’

Unless they pay the religious tax, Catholics will no longer be allowed receive sacraments, except before death, or work in the church and its schools or hospitals. [They won’t be allowed to receive Holy Communion or go to confession? They won’t be allowed to be married in the Church? They are… what… excommunicated? If a person who does not pay the Church tax comes to Communion, will there be an alarm of some sort to warn the priest off?]

Without a “sign of repentance before death, a religious burial can be refused,” [Burial is not a sacrament.] the decree states. Opting out of the tax would also bar people from acting as godparents to Catholic children. [Being a sponsor is not a sacrament.]

“This decree at this moment of time is really the wrong signal by the German bishops who know that the Catholic church is in a deep crisis,” Christian Weisner from the grassroots Catholic campaign group We are Church told the BBC. [Okay… if We Are Church are against this, I am strongly tempted to be for it… whatever it is.]

But a priest from Mannheim in south-western Germany, Father Lukas Glocker, said the tax was used to do essential good works.

“With kindergarten, with homes for elderly or unemployed, we’ve got really good things so I know we need the tax to help the German country to do good things.” [Is it the mission of the Church in the world to “do good things”? No. It might be a part of what the Church does in the world, but Christ did not say “Go forth to all nations and open kindergartens.”]

While the decree severely limits active participation [I sense that the phrase “active participation” has been around for so long that it just slides into an article like this.] in the German Catholic Church, it does hold out some hope for anyone considering a return to the fold. [Imagine! Some hope remains!]

Until now, any German Catholic who stopped payment faced eventual excommunication. [?] Although the measures laid out in the decree are similar to excommunication from the church, German observers say the word is carefully avoided in the decree.

I guess I need some education/information about this. I suspect some readers will know a lot about this.

In the meantime, I remember discussions with my old pastor years about about his misgivings concerning the German “church tax” and the temptation people might attempt formal apostasy in order to get out of paying it.

NB also that the Church’s laws concerning apostasy were altered a few years ago.

If a person make a formal act of apostasy (which I think was once needed in Germany in order to avoid paying the Church tax), she – once upon a time – would have had to go though various steps before returning to the sacraments. In 2009 a document called Omnium in mentem was issued whereby the Church’s law about these formal acts was changed.

Now, the Church no longer considers it possible to defect from the faith by formal act. Therefore, there are no canonical consequences from formal defection. Were a person to film herself signing a document and then publish the photos and take out ads in the newspaper, according to the Church they would not have formally defected from the Church.

Thus, people cannot now formally defect. They can, however, still incur a censure of excommunication – a spiritual and medicinal penalty – for heresy or schism or apostasy (cf. can 1364). In order to incur any censure she would have had to understand the consequences of the act. Therefore, if she joined another church without really understanding the canonical consequences (e.g., she married a Lutheran and started going to services with her spouse and then joins the Lutheran parish…) then it is likely that no excommunication is incurred.

I suspect that this new policy we are reading about has something to do with getting into sync with Omnium in mentem.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged apostasy, can. 1364, church tax, Germany, Omnium in mentem, steuer
63 Comments

Portsmouth, England has a new bishop

Posted on 24 September 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today I watched the live stream of the consecration of the new Bishop of Portsmouth, Most. Rev. Philip Egan.

At the end of the Mass, Bishop Egan gave a brief address which, to my hearing, sounded like a program for not only the Diocese of Portsmouth, but a program for all of England. He made some clear and bold statements I think you will like. I don’t have a transcript yet and the video does not yet seem to be viewable on demand. But they both will be, soon I hope.

It seems to me that this appointment and that of Most Rev. Mark Davies the Bishop of Shrewsbury, where Bp. Egan came from, suggests a trend.