A corporal work of mercy.

A corporal work of mercy.
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Sunday 12 April 2015

Papal Bull

Pope Francis has issued a Papal Bull, Misericordiae Vultus proclaiming a Year of Mercy. Amongst the paragraphs is this:

18. During Lent of this Holy Year, I intend to send out Missionaries of Mercy. They will be a sign of the Church’s maternal solicitude for the People of God, enabling them to enter the profound richness of this mystery so fundamental to the faith. There will be priests to whom I will grant the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See, so that the breadth of their mandate as confessors will be even clearer. They will be, above all, living signs of the Father’s readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon. They will be missionaries of mercy because they will be facilitators of a truly human encounter, a source of liberation, rich with responsibility for overcoming obstacles and taking up the new life of Baptism again. They will be led in their mission by the words of the Apostle: “For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all” (Rom 11:32). Everyone, in fact, without exception, is called to embrace the call to mercy. May these Missionaries live this call with the assurance that they can fix their eyes on Jesus, “the merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God” (Heb 2:17).

Rorate Caeli blog has listed those crimes or sins in the Code of Canon Law reserved for the Holy See:

Can. 1367. A person who throws away the consecrated species or takes or retains them for a sacrilegious purpose incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; moreover, a cleric can be punished with another penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.

Can. 1370 §1. A person who uses physical force against the Roman Pontiff incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; if he is a cleric, another penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, can be added according to the gravity of the delict.

Can. 1378 §1. A priest who acts against the prescript of can. 977 incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See. (Can.  977. The absolution of an accomplice in a sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue is invalid except in danger of death.)

Can. 1382 A bishop who consecrates someone a bishop without a pontifical mandate and the person who receives the consecration from him incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

Can. 1388 §1. A confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; one who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the delict.

To these may be added a sixth offense, by virtue of a decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dated December 19, 2007:

Without prejudice to the prescript of can. 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See.

If, in fact, the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, or the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, is one of Christ’s faithful subject to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, that person, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 1443 of the same Code, is to be punished with a major excommunication, the remission of which is also reserved to the Apostolic See (cf. can. 1423, Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches).

* * *

We can agree that there are many abuses of the Holy Eucharist. Punching a pope has not been an issue lately. There really are not that many situations of the conferral of a sacred order on a woman (impossible regardless). We hope all will be forgiven and we see a welcoming home of the SSPX bishops. 

Seriously? These Missionaries of Mercy are going to travel the world for these?

On the surface, this looks pretty ridiculous with all this fuss and talk of mercy for these relatively few situations that by and large do not even affect the laity other than those who may defame the Holy Eucharist or the few women who try to become ordained priests. 

What am I missing; or do I already know?

I suspect that one of the tasks of these flying Missionaries of Mercy will be to override the established Canonical process of annulments as a way of getting around the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage and provide easy and blanket annulments. "See," they will say. "We have not changed doctrine." 

What else will these Missionaries of Mercy undertake?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

" They will be missionaries of mercy because they will be facilitators of a truly human encounter"Surely there's something more then human in the Sacrament of confession ? When you encounter Christ in the Sacraments do you not encounter the Divine.

Anonymous said...

He has revealed his strategy for unraveling Canon Law and thus dogma through his " ministers of mercy".

Anonymous said...

So let me get this strait. Pope Francis just made EASIER to be forgiven for punching him in the face. Doesn't that make him guilty of tempting some people to sin?