The article I post below from the National Chismatic Reporter may be too 1970's for most who read this blog, but it is the Holy Father and a deep part of His Holiness' formation and His Holiness has some valid points in a Church handcuffed by a virus.
He is open to General Absolution in unusual situations. And an unusual situation we are in to say the least. Even some priests are afraid of drive through blessings and Benediction because of a germ phobia. That needs psychological counseling not spiritual or catechetical advice. Thank God for those in the health care vocation who are willing to be martyrs for their vocation to help others We all are going to die one day and the Church is meant to assist people to experience God's gift of salvation in Christ's passion, death and resurrection. Hopefully clergy and laity can put aside their phobias and experience what is possible in creative ways.
1. Emergency baptisms done by laity at home--it's allowed if no bishop, priest or deacon is allowed.
2. Drive through General absolution of families in their car--just have them make an act of contrition together and offer absolution. (They still must confess their sins later in an auricular Confession, but they are absolved if after the drive through they get killed in a car accident, more likely than catching Covid 19 and dying.
3. Watching a non-public Mass as a household with ordinary bread and wine on the Dinning Room table and communing from that bread and wine (in seperate glasses) at the time of communion, not at Communion, but as a sacramental. The Eastern Rite and Orthodox take a piece of blessed bread that was not consecrated but was the left-over non consecrated bread at the end of Divine Liturgy. Thus there is a precedent.
(As an aside, many years ago when I was in Macon, I visited an elderly husband and wife homebound parishioners. They showed by the plastic cup with grape juice and wafer enclosed as shown in photo above which they used when watching Mass on EWTN. I was shocked. Little did I know that a Church, not held hostage by rules, would see this as a creative non-sacrament, solution.)
4. On-line giving and a symbol of that at collection time during the on-line Mass
Here is a summary of the interview the Holy Father gave to a progressive reporter:
This article appears in the Coronavirus feature series. View the full series.
ROME — Pope Francis says he hopes the global Covid-19 pandemic will help the Catholic Church better know how to be both an institution, with certain rules and regulations, and more free-form, able to respond to people's pastoral needs in creative ways.
In a prepared interview with British author Austen Ivereigh, released April 8, the pontiff gives the example of an Italian bishop that called asking for advice about whether it was allowable to offer general absolution to Covid-19 patients in isolation in a hospital.
The prelate, the pope recounts, had been told by a canon lawyer that he could not do so, as absolution is generally given during confession, which requires face-to-face contact.
"I told him: 'Bishop, fulfill your priestly duty,'" Francis states.
"I found out later that he was giving absolution all around the place," the pope says. "This is the freedom of the Spirit in the midst of a crisis, not a church closed off in institutions."
"That doesn’t mean that canon law is not important: it is, it helps, and please let’s make good use of it, it is for our good," he continues. "But the final canon says that the whole of canon law is for the salvation of souls, and that’s what opens the door for us to go out in times of difficulty to bring the consolation of God."
Ivereigh, who has written two biographies of Francis, published his interview with Commonweal, the UK's Tablet, Spain's ABC magazine, and Italy's La Civiltà Cattolica. In a brief introduction to the exchange, the author says he provided Francis with a series of written questions, and that the pontiff responded with recorded answers.
Most of the material deals with how Francis is living through the global pandemic. The pontiff says he has praying more than usual, "because I feel I should." He says he is also thinking a lot about the coming post-pandemic period.
"What will be my service as Bishop of Rome, as head of the church, in the aftermath?" the pope asks. "That aftermath has already begun to be revealed as tragic and painful, which is why we must be thinking about it now."
Francis speaks about the need for the church to be both an institution and more free-form in response to a question about what kind of faith community he sees emerging in how Catholics are responding to the pandemic.
The pontiff evokes what he calls "a tension between disorder and harmony."
"The temptation is to dream of a deinstitutionalized church, a gnostic church without institutions, or one that is subject to fixed institutions, which would be a Pelagian church," says the pope.
"We have to learn to live in a church that exists in the tension between harmony and disorder provoked by the Holy Spirit," he says.
"If you ask me which book of theology can best help you understand this, it would be the Acts of the Apostles," the pope continues. "There you will see how the Holy Spirit deinstitutionalizes what is no longer of use, and institutionalizes the future of the church. That is the church that needs to come out of the crisis."
3 comments:
Father,
If the deaf can use hearing aids for Confession, why could not we meet in a parking lot, stay in our cars, and we communicate through a phone? You could see my lips moving and I could see yours to verify we are communicating with each other. And also, could we not patiently figure out ways to receive Holy Communion - priest in N95 mask, hands cleaned, one at a time, social distancing. It might take 3 hours but so what. It is the body of Christ, and the woman with the issue of blood reached out to touch Christ, not in fear of catching some middle eastern, communicable disease of that time, but in faith to receive her healing. I get it that most Mass attending Catholics don’t believe, and sadly likely because many of their pastors don’t really believe, and maybe bishops too, but what are those of us left to do? Where can we go, He has the words of eternal life!
You are doing so much, but the larger scale lack of creative impetus from bishops to figure this out, and instead, simply retreat, has been disheartening. The epistemic certainty of the experts - 2 millions, 200,000, now some estimate 31,000 - has vanished. The post-hoc-ergo-propter hoc fallacy is waiting on the other side of this. Absolutely, we should take every precaution, but a hermetic seal is not required by any professional. The world is not a cramped urban space - like New York. Meeting spiritual needs is compatible with taking health and safety precautions, like keeping our supply chain active, food stocked, health care provided, etc. It only takes the courage and creativity to make it happen.
The distinction between psychological safety and actual safety should be made at this point. I get that some will “feel” safer if they just stay at home and do nothing. And of course, never driving in a car WILL 100% reduce the risk of dying in a car accident. But life is full of risks, and the person at home is subject to increases in other unconsidered risks (e.g., death by intruder). But for those that are willing, there should be creative approaches that integrate our best knowledge from science with our practice of the faith. As Catholics, faith and science are not at war with each other, only bad science and bad faith. Let’s deploy good science and good faith and figure out how we can still partake in the Sacraments Christ gave to us.
Peace,
Brent
Bee here:
Gee, and you'd think, rather than ordaining married men to the priesthood, or giving women roles in the deaconate, they'd solve the "Amazon problem" with the technology of online Masses and "general absolution." After all, smartphones are ubiquitous, even in the Amazon jungle.
God bless.
Bee
Bee here:
Today is "Spy Wednesday," a day to reflect on the Judas within ourselves.
God bless.
Bee
Post a Comment