Restrictions on absolution are not so easily placed
Catholic Canada Clergy, lawyers, and physicians have long been exempt from the duty to report certain crimes known by them to have been committed by certain persons. I do not know what use the...
View ArticleA blow upon a bruise
Catholic Canada Evelyn Waugh’s character Charles Ryder described his friend Sebastian’s protracted acts of self-destruction as “a blow, expected, repeated, falling upon a bruise, with no smart or...
View Article‘Sexual relations’ and ‘conjugal relations’ differ categorically
Catholic Canada Among the fault lines revealed by the ecclesiastical earthquakes erupting after Pope Francis’ Amoris laetitia, we can see, I suggest, how some high-ranking ecclesiastics seem...
View ArticleCanon 377 § 5 and the Chinese negotiations
Catholic Canada Canon 377 § 5 of the 1983 Code states “In the future, no rights and privileges of election, nomination, presentation, or designation of bishops are granted to civil authorities.”...
View ArticleI am a lawyer, not a mind-reader
Catholic Canada Cardinal Vincent Nichols’ echoing of claims that Amoris laetitia changed no doctrines occasioned a question for me: Am I the only (or among the few) Amoris critics who agrees with...
View ArticleA small but important point is at risk
Catholic Canada {NB: This post has some unusual formatting and, depending on your device, it might display oddly. I have strengthened the point made in ¶ ‘Note’.} The debates over admission of...
View ArticleCould a pope BE in schism?
Catholic Canada Concerns that Pope Francis could cause a schism in the Church have been percolating in Catholic circles for some time now: US Catholic, Crux, Inside the Vatican, The Spectator. More...
View ArticleSever ‘canon law’ from ‘pastoral practice’ and lots of things make sense
Catholic Canada I am tempted to address at length Austen Ivereigh’s commentary on Fr. Raymond de Souza’s observations on Cdl. Wuerl’s statement on Francis’ document Amoris laetitia, but at a certain...
View ArticleFake canon law goes on goin’ on
Catholic Canada Fr. James Keenan writing in Crux this week makes his own a question raised (last July, it seems) by Rocco Buttiglione in L’Osservatore Romano: “Is there any contradiction between the...
View ArticleQuestions in the wake of Cdl. Coccopalmerio’s comments on Anglican orders
Catholic Canada A rock dropped into quiet waters produces a visible splash and observable ripples. The same rock thrown into a storm-tossed sea, however, passes unnoticed, for its effects are...
View ArticleDo Catholics need to seek Church permission for divorce?
Catholic Canada Simmering in Catholic circles for some time has been the assertion that Catholics need permission from their bishop to divorce. Proponents of this alleged requirement (one that, if...
View ArticlePapal comments on cohabitation and civil marriage suggest a direction
Catholic Canada The pope’s most recent comments on marriage point in a disturbing direction but let’s address two important matters first. Point One. Cohabitation is not marriage. Largely overlooked...
View ArticleSome canonical thoughts VP Biden’s recent deed
Catholic Canada To officiate at the “same-sex wedding” of two White House staffers Monday, Vice-President Joseph Biden obtained special authorization from the District of Columbia wherein he resides...
View ArticleGood grief, if even Protestants think the time has come…
Catholic Canada “I am not a Roman Catholic, let alone a canon lawyer,” writes First Things contributor Carl Trueman, “but I am reliably informed that the bishop of the diocese to which [Vice President...
View ArticleMay I demur re Mirus this once?
Catholic Canada Pretty much everything Dr. Jeff Mirus writes is worth reading, but his latest column, correctly defending Pope Francis against charges of heresy based on his endorsement of the Buenos...
View ArticleOn the Buenos Aires directive
Catholic Canada Canon 915, the modern (yet resting on ancient roots) norm that prohibits ministers of holy Communion from giving that sacrament to Catholics who “obstinately persevere in manifest grave...
View ArticleConcerning the Diocese of Ahiara
via Catholic Canada I know nothing about the ethno-ecclesial dispute in the Nigerian Diocese of Ahiara beyond what can be found in news reports and so offer no comment on it. Regarding the remarkable...
View ArticleFake canon law goes on goin’ on
via Catholic Canada Fr. James Keenan writing in Crux this week makes his own a question raised (last July, it seems) by Rocco Buttiglione in L’Osservatore Romano: “Is there any contradiction between...
View ArticleCould a pope BE in schism?
via Catholic Canada Concerns that Pope Francis could cause a schism in the Church have been percolating in Catholic circles for some time now: US Catholic, Crux, Inside the Vatican, The Spectator. More...
View ArticleBp Paprocki’s norms on ‘same-sex marriage’
via Catholic Canada A few days ago, doubtless in response to pastoral questions he had been receiving from ministers in his local Church, Springfield IL Bp Thomas Paprocki issued diocesan norms...
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