Which Mass Fulfills My Sunday Obligation? Part II

Posted on May 16, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q1: Could you please explain if according to the Canon Law, a Latin Catholic living in a region where there is a Mass in his rite let’s say once a month only, is obliged to attend the Mass every Sunday in another Catholic rite, if there is such possibility every Sunday?  —Michal

Q2:  I have a question regarding your article on the Sunday obligation.  My Ruthenian Catholic pastor in the U.S. tells people that one does not have an obligation to attend any Liturgy in any rite in any location that doesn’t have a church of one’s rite (not positive he meant rite or church sui iuris).
I confronted him about this, and he stated that Eastern Canon Law does not state that you have an obligation to attend Liturgy if there are no Liturgies of your Rite there.  He said: “You find me an Eastern canon lawyer” to tell him he’s wrong. –Daniel Continue reading →

Posted in Holy Mass, Parish Life | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Which Mass Fulfills My Sunday Obligation? Part II

Who Decides Whether a Catholic Has Been Excommunicated?

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q: My (big mouthed!) spiritual director directly broke the seal of confession (names and sins) privately to me not once but twice (same conversation)….  When it happened, I called him out on it and told him he had just excommunicated himself and was under latae sententiae penalty and needed to rectify the situation immediately.

… Is that all that needed to be done?  Was I supposed to notify the bishop?  Was he supposed to notify the bishop? –Nicole Continue reading →

Posted in Clergy Issues, Confession, Crimes and Sanctions, Sacraments | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Who Decides Whether a Catholic Has Been Excommunicated?

Excommunication and the Seal of Confession (Sanctions, Part VI)

Posted on February 22, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q: My question relates to the seal of the confessional because I am wondering if I broke it.  I know I acted imprudently, but whether or not I broke it is somewhat unclear to me….

I was hearing confessions and a person whose confession I had heard before made a confession.  I have also once or twice previously helped this person with spiritual things outside of the confessional.  They made their confession and then immediately after they finished their confession they asked me a question about something related to their spiritual life.  In the course of our conversation I started a sentence with “If you remember from a previous confession…..”  Obviously, that was deeply imprudent.

I then related some information that I had given them before within confession. The information that I related was not their sin itself so much as something directly related to the sin….  Part of what I said was something that they had revealed to me outside of a confession, but part of it was also known within the confessional only.  So does that constitute a violation of the seal? —Father C Continue reading →

Posted in Confession, Crimes and Sanctions, Sacraments | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Excommunication and the Seal of Confession (Sanctions, Part VI)

Limiting Diocesan Bishops’ Authority: Recent Decrees From Pope Francis

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q:  I would like to ask a question about diocesan bishops and episcopal authority, but I don’t know how to formulate it.  I hope you’ll bear patiently with me, there’s a confused jumble of ideas in my head!

These ideas mostly center around the many decrees (if that’s the right word) of Pope Francis regarding what bishops can and can’t do.  For example, they can’t allow the Old Mass in their dioceses without permission now; they can’t allow the establishment of new religious orders in their dioceses without permission now; they can object to Fiducia Supplicans, according to Cardinal Fernandez’s explanation, except that in another sentence he says they can’t because Pope Francis said so.  I am not a theologian … [but] to me this all seems random and inconsistent.  Excessively restrictive too, as if bishops are nothing but papal minions.

… Another idea I have floating in my brain concerns subsidiarity, and the 20th-century emphasis on allowing local parishes and dioceses to make many decisions for themselves, instead of mutely waiting for Rome to tell them how to do every single thing and even how to think….  For years we heard that centralized power in the Church was bad, in fact Pope John XXIII wanted to let the bishops at Vatican II tell him their opinions and what they wanted to do.  If “the spirit of the Council” is our Catholic “guiding light,” why does so much of what the Pope says and commands seem to restrict what bishops may want to do?

If I am confusing multiple separate issues in the asking of this “question” I would greatly appreciate your help in clarifying them….—Tamara Continue reading →

Posted in Clergy Issues, The Pope | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Limiting Diocesan Bishops’ Authority: Recent Decrees From Pope Francis

Fiducia Supplicans and the Magisterium

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Cathy Caridi

Q:  When reading news about Fiducia Supplicans, and then reading the declaration itself, I was struck by this statement it contains about the Church’s Magisterium:

Such theological reflection, based on the pastoral vision of Pope Francis, implies a real development from what has been said about blessings in the Magisterium and the official texts of the Church.

I always thought that the “Magisterium” was the body of Catholic faith as it has always been taught by the Church, and it can’t be changed.  Can it really be “developed,” as the text claims?

At first, I assumed that this was a theological question and not a matter for canon law.  Then I began to realize that at least it seems like Pope Francis and Cardinal Fernández [the Prefect of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith] may actually be violating the Magisterium by making a declaration contrary to it.  This sounds a lot like heresy….  That subsequently led me to read your post, “Can a Pope Commit Heresy?” which shows that canon law is possibly involved here.

… [T]he more I read and research and objectively try to understand what Fiducia Supplicans means, and what the Pope is doing by making this declaration, and what this implies for the Catholic Church, the more confused I get.  Is there a simpler way to make sense of this?  Can canon law help? —Paul Continue reading →

Posted in Catholic Education, Other Canonical Questions, The Pope | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Fiducia Supplicans and the Magisterium