Canon law has never been ‘the frame of reference’ for the Church
When prelates of the erudition and experience of a Donald Cdl. Wuerl (Washington DC) can say things like this, the rest of us can be in no doubt as to just how deeply and widely a fundamental...
View ArticleA glance back at a forgotten canonical category
“Suspicion of heresy” was an odd institute of penal canon law under the Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law. Heresy itself, of course, was a crime under the old Code and still is one under the new (1917...
View ArticleCompassion has nothing to do with it
A batch of recent articles by solid Catholic writers assures worried readers that Pope Francis has not changed Church doctrine on the permanence of marriage—which he has not, of course, though I guess...
View ArticleReacting to Prof. Reid’s over-reaction
A few weeks ago Abp. John Myers of Newark issued a brief letter underscoring some basic expectations for Catholics in the midst of our increasingly secularized culture, things like, oh, ‘Catholics who...
View ArticleA couple of thoughts on a couple of comments
I do not know what the pope actually said in his in-flight comments about marriage (or even what language he spoke in) or what various listeners took his meanings to be, but a few thoughts on what was...
View ArticleAutomatic censures should be eliminated from Church law
Only two kinds of men publicly admit to doing evil: those who repent of their deeds and are willing to accept the consequences for having acted wrongly, and those who are comfortable with their conduct...
View ArticleWhat does the devil get out of the Paris massacre?
(Some non-canonical thoughts, if I may, on the atrocity committed in Paris last week.) One need not invoke the devil to explain most moral evils in the world. Mankind is perfectly capable of wreaking...
View ArticleA note on convicts as witnesses at Catholic weddings
It’s not clear to me what exactly has happened here but it appears that the bishops of a region in Italy, one hard-pressed by the Mafia, have forbidden certain classes of criminals from serving in...
View ArticleNote: Avoiding the requirements of Mitis would not be easy for bishops
If Pope Francis’ Mitis Iudex becomes law it will require, among other things, that arch/bishops personally assess, and in some cases adjudicate, certain kinds of marriage nullity petitions. Now...
View ArticleWho is satisfied with Mitis Iudex?
Ross Douthat’s speculations on Pope Francis’ “marriage endgame” are interesting (as usual) and in some respects I agree with them. But in one major respect, I disagree. Douthat writes: “Fast-tracking...
View ArticleToward informed discussion of the ‘internal forum’
Some are suggesting that divorced-and-remarried Catholics may invoke the “internal forum” to justify their taking holy Communion despite their irregular marriage status (that is, notwithstanding their...
View ArticleI agree with Dr. Feser 99.953%
Dr. Edward Feser’s recent post on papal infallibility will be required reading next time I take students through Book III of the Code, especially Canons 749-750. But in any post of 6,328 words dealing...
View ArticleA license to sin
There is, I fear, no end in sight of the nonsensical nonsense being unleashed in the wake of various high-level ecclesiastic dalliances with doctrinal ambiguity and disciplinary confusion in regard to...
View ArticleAppalling, what counts as ‘art’ in Pamplona
The threshold for what qualifies as “art” in Pamplona is apparently pretty low these days, if, that is, taking more than 240 consecrated Hosts and arranging them on the ground so as to spell out the...
View ArticleOf Pharisees, ferverinos, and fasts
In today’s [15 dec 2014] homily Pope Francis warns, yet again, about the threat that he feels modern Pharisees pose in the Church. Now, some people think that the pope’s incessant critiques of law and...
View ArticleOne city does not make a world
The bi-annual papal blessing “Urbi et Orbi”—to the City (meaning Rome, of course) and to the World—is a charming Catholic event reflecting the solicitude a pope feels for the City entrusted to his...
View ArticleMost words are not crimes
I am not sure what Archbishop Rino Fisichella meant when he said that “we need to understand well ‘physical violence’ [against the pope] because sometimes words, too, are rocks and stones, and...
View ArticleCanon law has never been ‘the frame of reference’ for the Church
When prelates of the erudition and experience of a Donald Cdl. Wuerl (Washington DC) can say things like this, the rest of us can be in no doubt as to just how deeply and widely a fundamental...
View ArticleA glance back at a forgotten canonical category
“Suspicion of heresy” was an odd institute of penal canon law under the Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law. Heresy itself, of course, was a crime under the old Code and still is one under the new (1917...
View ArticleCompassion has nothing to do with it
A batch of recent articles by solid Catholic writers assures worried readers that Pope Francis has not changed Church doctrine on the permanence of marriage—which he has not, of course, though I guess...
View Article