How Can Arranged Marriages be Valid?

Posted on August 29, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q: While doing journalistic research recently, I was shocked to discover that even in this day and age, there are some countries and cultures where parents still arrange their children’s marriages.  The bride and groom don’t know each other, and often haven’t spoken to each other or even seen each other before the wedding ceremony.

The practice seems to constitute a chronic human-rights violation in the civil arena.  I understand that if the two families involved are not Catholic, then canon law can’t declare that the arranged marriage is invalid, but what about those arranged marriages where at least one spouse is Catholic?  I don’t see how a Catholic priest can officiate at such a wedding, and yet I have found that it does happen! … What is going on here, and has the Vatican tried to stop it? –Jonathan Continue reading →

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How Are Religious Institutes Obliged to Support Members Who Leave?

Posted on August 15, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q: My work includes much interaction with women religious. Is there any guidance in canon law that provides for a religious who professed vows with their institute and then had to leave?  I thought that canon law required a certain amount of care to be given to help the religious who were either dismissed or had to leave for other reasons (e.g. Abuse) but am unable to find such a directive in my own search. –Joyce Continue reading →

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Archbishop Viganó and the Extrajudicial Process

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q:   Ok, as per Archbishop Viganó what is an “extrajudicial penal trial”?  If it is extrajudicial, how can it be a trial?

That sounds like being called into the principal’s office, not appearing before a magistrate.

Do we assume they have no real legal case against him, as some commentators claim? Or, do they not want to make public evidence that would be part of a canonical trial? –Father V. Continue reading →

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Investigating Alleged Supernatural Phenomena

Posted on June 27, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q: I read your “Obedience and Canon 1752,” about the people in Texas who claim God is telling them the Pope is a usurper.  It led me to wonder: did the bishop of that diocese ever investigate their alleged claims to divine apparitions?  Did he establish whether God really is speaking to them or they’re lying frauds?  It doesn’t sound like the bishop ever stopped to consider that maybe they’re having genuine mystical experiences.  Do you know if there was any diocesan investigation?

… I’m not saying that these people are legit.  Their disobedience instantly tells me their messages are not from God.  However, it would be more helpful for the bishop to tell the public that these alleged claims to apparitions from God are based on mental illness or daydreams or fakery, based on an impartial investigation into the facts.  In my opinion this would be a more factual message to the diocese than “I didn’t like what they’re saying, so I told them to be quiet, and they refused.”  It would be easier for ordinary Catholics to accept too, I think… —Rosie Continue reading →

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Obedience and Canon 1752

Posted on June 6, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q: Could you elaborate on Canon 1752, and whether it can legitimately be used to argue that “what is illicit in ordinary times, can in a time of crisis be a good and holy act”?  I ask because of what is going on in the Archdiocese of San Antonio [Texas, USA] with the Mission of Divine Mercy.  Members of the Mission are claiming to receive locutions from Our Lord and Our Lady.  Although the Archbishop has forbidden them from sharing these messages, they began to publish them…

In response, the Archbishop … removed the Mission’s status as a Catholic apostolate of the Archdiocese.  Despite this, the Mission remains open … the Mission’s response to the question of obedience to the Archbishop is to claim that Canon 1752 permits their illicit Mass, and the faithful should rest assured that because of the crisis of the times, attending mass at the Mission can be a “good and holy act.”

… The Mission is causing confusion, I have family members who have been ensnared by the confusion and I am looking for ways to pull them out of it. –Cathryn Continue reading →

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