ASK FATHER: Uncle married his niece… is that okay?

Posted on 12 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

My mother in law married her much older uncle after abandoning her children. Why does the Catholic Church approve of this?

Hang on.  Before you make all sorts of assumptions, let’s drill in.

The Code of Canon Law is clear, except where it isn’t.

Canon 1091 establishes that marriage is invalid between persons related in the direct line and in the collateral line up to and including the fourth degree. Canon 1078 declares that dispensations are never given for marriage in the direct line or the second degree of the collateral line. There. That clears it up. So, much for your accusation.

Holy Church has long been interested in parsing the family tree for marriage purposes. Early in the life of the Church, we faced a world where incest was rife. The famous Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII) was married, sequentially, to her two brothers, Ptolemy XIII and XIV, before putting the moves on Julius Ceasar. On the Roman side of things, I, Claudius is a good place to start in trying to figure out the complexities of marriage and family in the Roman upper classes. To all of this, the Church, drawing on Her Jewish roots and divine revelation, said, “Hold on a minu

Breaking relations in consanguinity (blood relations) and affinity (relatives by marriage) and then into the direct line (grandparent, parent, child, grandchild) and the collateral line (sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin), the Church has always forbidden marriage between those related in the direct line, no matter how many degrees (generations) separate them. In the collateral line, degrees have been counted in different manners. Today, the best way to count degrees is to count up the relatives and subtract the common ancestor – thus a brother and sister are in the second degree of consanguinity – brother, sister, parent, minus the parent gives us two. Cousins are in the fourth degree – cousin, cousin, parent, uncle, grandparent, minus the grandparent. Uncle and niece are in the third degree – niece, parent, uncle, grandparent, minus grandparent.

Now, the Church is clear that the prohibition of marriage in the direct line is divine law – the divine law is not dispensed. In the collateral line, especially beyond the second degree, it’s understood that this is ecclesiastical law, and therefore subject to a possible dispensation.

On occasion, in those jurisdictions where it is civilly legal, I have heard of cases of bishops dispensing from the prohibition against the fourth degree of consanguinity – first cousins marrying. Usually, care is taken to make sure that there is no danger of children being born with debilitating birth defects, and that the marriage will not cause problems in the family or scandal among the faithful. I can’t say that I have ever heard of a bishop dispensing from the impediment of consanguinity in the third degree. It’s difficult to comment on a situation without knowing all the particulars, but this situation certainly does seem highly unusual. Ask either the priest who married this couple, or the local bishop for clarification.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Canon Law, One Man & One Woman | Tagged , , ,
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Tinkeritis: Screwing around with, screwing up, liturgical translations

Posted on 12 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Christine Mohrmann

You may have heard that there is an initiative underway to “review” or “study” vernacular translations of the texts of Mass and the norms according to which they are to be prepared as given in Liturgiam authenticam.   This would be nuts, of course, and, hence, I think they will do it.   Tinkeritis is rampant these days.  This is one reason why the older, traditional form of the Roman Rite must be expanded as much as humanly possible.

I suspect that, while this “study” initiative is an attack on the norms of LA and the translations it has already produced, it’s really an attack on Pope Benedict’s determination that all vernacular translations of the consecration for the Precious Blood had to say “for many” for Latin pro multis.

We Catholics ought to believe that, while Christ died for all, not all will be saved.  Some will not be saved.  Apart from that, pro multis in Latin means “for many” and not “for all”.  Spectacular and risible philological fan dances have been done in the past to force “multis” to mean something that it has never meant in the history of the Latin language.  This will return in spades now.  If the attack on LA goes forward, and I think it will, it may result not in a total overturning of the present translation.  Rather, even more options will be introduced: alternative translations, the option to say “for all” rather than “for many”.   As you have already figured out, this will produce even more confusion and disunity than there is now… among Catholics, that is.

It might make what liberal priests do more promote unity with the teachings you hear in Protestant churches, although they might express them better.

Over at Mutual Enrichment, Fr. John Hunwicke has rightly invoked the name of the great scholar Christine Mohrmann.   She demonstrated that the Latin used for liturgical worship in the early Church was not the lowest common denominator speech of the man on the street.  Rather, it is stylized and elevated.

For 12 years I wrote a weekly column for The Wanderer in which I drilled into the translations of the orations of Holy Mass both before and after the introduction of the current ICEL version.  Week after week I showed how the Latin reflected technical terminology and specialized vocabulary (i.e., military, agricultural, mercantile) and concepts from Neo-Platonic and Stoic philosophy.  The man in the street would have had to stretch for the content, much as these days Joe Bagofdonuts would have to work hard to follow the first scenes of a play by Shakespeare.   Mind you, Shakespeare is not out of reach!  Most people these days must stretch.  However, the unaccustomed ear eventually adjusts to the Shakespearean sound, especially when the novice is at the play and not just listening to a recording.  With repetition, it becomes easier and you become – let it be said – smarter.   The same applies to liturgical language: it must not be pedestrian.  Our faith is shaped by how we pray.

We must resist every effort to make our faith ambiguous, indifferent and dumb.

Fr Hunwicke has a good post.  Check it out HERE.

 

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, New Translation, Pò sì jiù, PRO MULTIS, WDTPRS | Tagged , , , , ,
43 Comments

USA: Daylight Savings begins tonight – set clocks, don’t miss Mass

Posted on 11 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In these USA Daylight Savings begins with repercussions for Sunday Mass. We “spring forward”, and so we lose an hour.

Reset your clocks before going to bed. Don’t miss Mass.

spring forward daylight savings

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
4 Comments

My View For Awhile: Intersect Edition

Posted on 11 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Other than the fact that in order to enjoy a really early morning you first have to get up really early, it’s a really nice morning.

Nasty weather comes later in the week.  It is, of course, March.

It seems like a long time since I’ve been in an airport.  In itself, that’s not a bad thing.


UPDATE

This is always a welcome message.


Back in the day you had to wonder.

UPDATE

And now we just sit here.  And wait… and wait… and wait….

When you can’t be in Casablanca, just fly … wait with Delta.

UPDATE

After a curtailed layover, on my way again.  They were offering $500 for a volunteer, and I almost got it.  My penchant for avoid crowds put me a little farther from the gate agent than I needed to be.   In any case, that’ll give me addition time at my Intersect Point.

It’s Kindle time.

UPDATE

Even better than the text verification that followed immediately …

Posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged
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YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Posted on 10 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

Registered or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Many requests are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand. We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below.

You have to be registered here to be able to post.

I still have two pressings personal petitions.  No, I actually have THREE now.  I can’t get a break, it seems.  Ut Deus….

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
25 Comments

Russian Orthodox now to celebrate more Western Saints including St. Patrick

Posted on 10 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

st_patrick_iconHere is some interesting East and West, both-lungs news which is also seasonal.

From blog Ad Orientem (excellent title):

St. Patrick of Ireland and other Western saints officially added to Russian Orthodox Church calendar

St. Patrick, the great enlightener of Ireland, [The Enlightener… great title] will be officially celebrated in the Russian Orthodox Church for the first time this year on March 17/30. At its March 9 session, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox, under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, officially adopted St. Patrick and more than fifteen other pre-schism Western saints into its calendar, according to the report published on the patriarchate’s official site.
The decision was taken after hearing a report from His Eminence Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, chairman of the commission for the compilation of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Menaion, or calendar of saints, with the proposal to include several ancient saints who labored in western lands before the Great Schism of 1054.  [NB… before 1054…]The commission, created on September 18, 2014 by the blessing of His Holiness, had been working on compiling a list of western saints guided by the following criteria: their unblemished confession of the Orthodox faith; the circumstances in which their glorification took place; the absence of their names from polemical works against the Eastern Church and rite; and their present veneration in foreign dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church and other Local Churches.

Also considered were the “Complete Menaion of the East” by Archbishop Sergius (Spassky), the report of St. John Maximovitch to the Holy Synod of the Russian Church Abroad in 1952, the articles of the Orthodox Encyclopedia and the Snaxarion compiled by Hiermonk Macarius of the Athonite monastery of Simenopetra.
The Western saints added into the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church are: [Note the French influence…]

Hieromartyr Pothinus, bishop of Lyons, and those with him (June 2/15; c. 177)
Martyrs Blandina and Ponticus of Lyons (June 2/15; c. 177)
Martyr Epipodius of Lyons (April 22/May 5; c. 177)
Martyr Alexander of Lyons (April 24/May 7; c. 177)
Hieromartyr Saturninus, first bishop of Toulouse (November 29/December 12; c. 257)
Martyr Victor of Marseilles (July 21/August 3; c. 290)
St. Alban, protomartyr of Britain (June 22/July 5; c. 304)
St. Honoratus, archbishop of Arles and founder of Lerins Monastery (January 16/29; 429)
St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre (July 31/August 13; 448) [nice church in Paris, which has the TLM]
St. Vincent of Lerins (May 24/June 6; c. 450)
St. Patrick, bishop of Armagh, and enlightener of Ireland (March 17/30; 451)
St. Lupus the Confessor, bishop of Troyes (Gaul) (July 29/August 11; 479)
St. Genevieve of Paris (January 3/16; 512) [at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, also a must visit.]
St. Germanus, bishop of Paris (May 28/June 10; 576)
St. Procopius, abbot of Sazava in Bohemia (September 16/29; 1053)

Also approved and recommended for Church-wide liturgical use was the texts of the service to the Synaxis of Saints of Diveevo, the service to St. Hilarion of Optina, and the troparion and kontakion to St. Adrian of Ondrusov.

Source.

Posted in Both Lungs, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged ,
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WDTPRS – 2nd Sunday of Lent: purify your “spiritual view”

Posted on 10 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Transfiguration_by_fra_Angelico_(San_Marco_Cell_6)Here is the Collect of the 2nd Sunday of Lent, a new composition for the Novus Ordo based on a precedent in the Liber Mozarabicus Sacramentorum:

Deus, qui nobis dilectum Filium tuum audire praecepisti, verbo tuo interius nos pascere digneris, ut, spiritali purificato intuitu, gloriae tuae laetemur aspectu.

Used by early Latin writers such as Sts. Hilary of Poitiers (+c 368), Ambrose (+397) and in liturgical texts, gloria is more than fame or splendor of appearance.  Our Latin liturgical gloria is the equivalent of biblical Greek doxa and Hebrew kabod.   Romans translated these concepts also with words like maiestas and claritas.  Gloria has to do with man’s recognition of God as God.  Gloria is a characteristic of God which He will share with us so as to transform us throughout eternity.

The vocabulary of the prayers reinforces that this covenant we are in with God is not a contract between equals: He is Almighty and eternal, we are lowly and mortal.  We do well to beg as supplicants before His Majesty, not as cowed slaves terrified of a harsh master, but with the reverential awe of children looking at authority with the eyes of truth.  Our orations during Mass help us to see who we are and who we are not.

LITERAL RENDERING:

O God, who commanded us to listen to Your beloved Son, deign to nourish us interiorly with Your word, so that, once (our) spiritual view has been purified, we may rejoice in the sight of Your glory.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

God our Father, help us to hear your Son. Enlighten us with your word, that we may find the way to your glory.

NEW CORRECTED ICEL (2011):

O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.

Note the senses of hearing (audire) and of seeing (intuitus, aspectus), both physically and also inwardly, spiritually.  The voice of God the Father spoke at the Transfiguration commanding us to listen to His beloved Son (Matthew 17:5).  We listen to Jesus and look at what He does, both in the pages of Scripture and in His continuing work through Holy Church.  Christ’s words which we hear and His deeds which we see both save us and teach us who we are (cf. GS 22).

Aspectus has both active and passive connotations, that is, the sense of sight, the act of seeing a thing, and the appearance of the thing itself.  Aspectus can mean, “mien, countenance”, how something “looks”.  Think of Henry V in Shakespeare’s homonymous play inciting his soldiers before battle to “lend the eye a terrible aspect” (III, i).  Intuitus (from intueor) means “a look, a view; respect, consideration.”  You know intueor from a verse of the hymn of St Thomas Aquinas Adoro Te Devote: “I am not looking (intueor) at the wounds, like Thomas; I am nevertheless professing faith that you are my God; make me always more to believe in you, have hope in you, love you.”  That hymn also sings “ex auditu solo tuto creditur’, only “by hearing” is the doctrine of the Eucharist believed “safely”.  Sight, touch and taste can deceive us.

Our intuitus spiritalis could be our own ability to see clearly into the state of our soul. Our intuitus (“insight”, “view”) is that spiritual lens which must be cleansed so that we can have a more perfect “view”.  Otherwise, intuitus could be the spiritual landscape within us, the “view” God sees, how we “look” to Him.  “View” picks up both views of intuitus (the power to see and that which is seen).  “Insight” would favor just one possibility.  The cognate “intuition” suggests the wrong connotation from common usage, that is, “sudden insight” or “good guess”.

Both how we see and what is seen in us, our “spiritual view”, must be purified (purificato) so that God is not offended (cf. Habakkuk 1:3)  

God and neighbor must see His image in us.  We must see His image in ourselves and others if we are going to treat them with the charity Christ commands.

St. Bonaventure (+1274) wrote about how Thomas the Apostle looked through the Lord’s visible wounds and saw His invisible wound of love.

We must with charity try to look past our neighbor’s imperfections, the wounds caused by sin, to see the intended reality.

Lent is a time for gaining a “view” of the Love who died and rose for us, thus transforming us into more perfect images of who He is: risen, living, glorious.

This necessarily requires a close examination of our lives to see and to hear what or whom we have placed at the center of our lives, Jesus Christ’s rightful place.

Posted in LENT, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, WDTPRS | Tagged , , , , ,
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List of Prelates For and Against the Five Dubia on ‘Amoris Laetitia’

Posted on 10 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A week or so ago, I received a working list of churchmen who seem to be in favor of submitting (and getting answers to) the Five Dubia of the Four Cardinals™, who seem to be against the same and who seem to be neutral.   I now see a somewhat curtailed, but annotated version of the list has been posted at LifeSite.

Editor’s Note: LifeSiteNews brings you a list of bishops and cardinals who have publicly indicated their support or opposition to the September 2016 “dubia” submitted to Pope Francis by the four cardinals. This list includes high-ranking prelates whose comments relate directly to the dubia after their public release on November 14, 2016. The list does not include prelates who have merely made statements supporting or opposing the writings, decisions, and actions of Pope Francis, but haven’t commented directly on the dubia.

Cardinals who signed the dubia

Cardinal Walter Brandmüller
Cardinal Raymond Burke
Cardinal Carlo Caffarra
Cardinal Joachim Meisner

READ: Who are these four cardinals who wrote the ‘dubia’ to the Pope?

Bishops and cardinals who support the dubia

Archbishop Luigi Negri: March 06, 2017 – “Amoris Laetitia needs clarification, unfortunately, the current leader of the Church still remains silent. […] I think that the Holy Father should respond.”

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput: March 03, 2017 – John Allen: “Do you want the pope to answer the dubia?” Chaput: “Yes. I think it’s always good to answer questions, clearly.”

Cardinal Joseph Zen: February 16, 2017 – “It is a very respectful request by those bishops and cardinals to have a clear statement. I think they are right to have an answer.”

Bishop Andreas Laun: December 23, 2016 – “I have read the concerns of the four cardinals, and I agree with them!”

Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino: December 16, 2016 – “It is legitimate in terms of doctrine to turn to the pope and express an opinion – and it is also just that he would respond.”

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes: December 12, 2016 – “With an objective tone, the four cardinals have asked for the removal of doubts about the text [Amoris Laetitia].”

Bishop James D. Conley: December 5, 2016 – “The questions being posed to the Holy Father are intended to help achieve clarity.”

Cardinal George Pell: November 29, 2016 – “How can you disagree with a question?”

Bishop Athanasius Schneider: November 23, 2016 – “The four cardinals only did their basic duty as bishops and cardinals.”

Bishop Jan Watroba: November 23, 2016 – “I myself have now been overwhelmed with many similar questions.”

Bishop Józef Wróbel: November 22, 2016 – “The four cardinals did well in asking for clarification about Amoris Laetitia.”

Bishops and cardinals who oppose the dubia

Cardinal Vincent Nichols: February 23, 2017 – “I think the Pope’s patience and reserve about this whole matter is exactly what we should observe.”

Cardinal Gerhard Müller: January 8, 2017 – “The Pope is basically forced to answer with ‘yes or no.’ I don’t like that.”

Cardinal Walter Kasper: December 22, 2016 – Amoris Laetitia is “clear. … These dubia … do not exist.”

Cardinal Reinhard Marx: December 21, 2016 – “The document [Amoris] is not as ambiguous as some people claim.”

Cardinal Fernando Sebastian Aguilar: December 11, 2016 – “Some honorable men suffer because they do not understand what Francis wanted to say in Amoris Laetitia.”

Archbishop Mark Coleridge: December 9, 2016 – Pope Francis “wants a genuine clarity” while the four cardinals are seeking a “false clarity.”

Archbishop Pio Vito Pinto: December 1, 2016 – “They gave the Pope a slap in the face.”

Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier: November 30, 2016 – “Jesus also chose not to answer certain questions.”

Cardinal Claudio Hummes: November 25, 2016 – “We are 200, they are only four.”

Bishop Frangiskos Papamanolis: November 20, 2016 – They have committed the “two very serious sins” of “apostasy” and “scandal.”

Cardinal Blase Cupich: November 19, 2016 – “It’s up to those who have doubts and questions to have conversion in their lives.”

Cardinal Joseph Tobin: November 18, 2016 – “Just to simply reduce [Amoris] to a ‘dubium’, I think it is at best naive.”

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn: November 18, 2016 – This is an “attack against the pope.” The cardinals “must be obedient to the pope.”

Indeterminate

Cardinal Angelo Amato: November 24, 2016 – “The debate must be continued in reciprocal respect and above all by using the talents of the respective positions [in order to arrive at a] more integrated and improved positions.”

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, One Man & One Woman | Tagged , ,
38 Comments

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: Deadly house fire

Posted on 10 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

Your prayers are requested for the Seago family. They suffered a horrific accidental house fire last weekend that tragically claimed the lives of the mother and 4 of the children. Only the father and one child were able to escape before the windows blew out and the roof collapsed.

Lucinda Seago, 42, and Nicholas (age 15), Martin (12), Demetria (9), and Peter (7) all perished in the early Saturday blaze in the small town of Warwick, MA (pop. 780). The house was fully engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived. Temps were in the single digits at the time. Husband Scott and 10-year old Vivian were the only survivors.

The funeral Mass for Lucinda and the children is this Saturday, 3/11/2017.

My best friend who is Vivian’s godmother says this is a worthy cause if anyone is looking for a Lenten charity to donate to. She is not sure where Scott and Vivian will end up living, but said they have lost most of their family members and all of their worldly goods.

HERE

Posted in Urgent Prayer Requests | Tagged
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Lawyer, lawyer, pants on fire!

Posted on 9 March 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

pants_fireI simply can’t not share this delicious irony.

From the Miami Herald:

Miami lawyer’s pants erupt in flames during arson trial in court

A Miami defense lawyer’s pants burst into flames Wednesday afternoon as he began his closing arguments in front of a jury — in an arson case.

Stephen Gutierrez, who was arguing that his client’s car spontaneously combusted and was not intentionally set on fire, had been fiddling in his pocket as he was about to address jurors when smoke began billowing out his right pocket, witnesses told the Miami Herald.

[…]

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged ,
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