CANADIAN YAHOOS: No Mass For You Prisoners!

In the wilds of Soviet Canuckistan one of their "superjails" (soon to be overflowing with Christians once the polit bureau makes Christianity illegal and starts packing the gulags) has barred a Catholic priest from being able to celebrate Mass for the prisoners.

Why?

‘Cause he’s gotta bring two ounces of wine into the prison in order to say Mass.

EXCERPT:

"We’re not bringing in a jug of wine, we’re not going to serve the consecrated wine to the prisoners," he said, adding that the wine is consumed only by the priest at jail services.

"But Catholic mass requires bread and wine, there’s no way around it. It’s black-letter law."

Indeed it is! The Code of Canon Law states:

The most holy eucharistic sacrifice must be offered with bread and with wine in which a little water must be mixed [Can.  924 ยง1].

It is absolutely forbidden, even in extreme urgent necessity, to consecrate one matter without the other or even both outside the eucharistic celebration [Can.  927].

So. . . .

So much for Canada’s religious freedom and inclusivity.

Now what was that about a dictatorship of relativism?

GET THE STORY.

(CHT to the reader who e-mailed!)

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

17 thoughts on “CANADIAN YAHOOS: No Mass For You Prisoners!”

  1. This is pretty poor reporting (on Jimmy’s side, not the CBC).
    The article makes it perfectly clear that thousands of Masses have been said in jails across the province, probably going back to the time the British repealed the penal laws, without any problem.
    Now that someone has brought up an objection, the officials are going to rework the policy so that an exemption will be made for the wine.
    The most likely reason for this incident is that some correction official who didn’t know about the ‘unofficial’ exemption for the wine enforced the no-liquor policy, and once that entered the system it has to be enforced until the exemption is made official.
    Those rules are there for good reason. If a Sikh showed up to celebrate their religious ceremonies, would you expect the guards to let him bring in a basket of ceremonial knives? How about a snake-handler? Yes, it’s only two ounces, but you wouldn’t let someone bring in cocaine if it was only two grams.
    The worst thing you say about this situation is that the department of corrections could push the exemption through faster.
    How is this an example of trampling religious freedoms? What _possible_ connection is there to relativism???

  2. Incidentally, setting aside the South-Park level commentary on “Soviet Canuckistan”, you would do well to have a look at the testimony offered by American Catholic priests in support of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. This battle has already been fought many times in your own Evil Empire. 8^)
    http://www.rluipa.com/index.html

  3. canada is fast becoming a preview to the end result of tyrannical anti-God humanism– this is unsurprising from a country that criminalizes preaching the Gospel regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality. anyone who doubts this should read michael o’brien’s excellent “eclipse of the sun”.

  4. At the prison where I live, they tried to do the same thing. But because in America we have the First Amendment, whereas there is no protection of religous freedom in Canada’s law, the prison backed down and allowed our pastor to bring in a small amount of wine. Communion is administered to the inmates by intinction only.

  5. To Allen White: there’s a big difference between snakehandlers and Sikhism on the one hand, and Catholicism on the other. Catholicism is actually the one true religion, to which all human governments are obliged to bow, and in which human governments are never permitted to interfere.

  6. There’s also a big difference between bringing knives and poisonous animals into a prison and bringing two ounces of wine into one. The level of threat posed by these simply is not on the same level.

  8. Poor Jimmy pulled a ‘Bubba’… (Soviet Canukistan??)
    You should read the articles more carefully!!
    (Beaver hat tip to the Yanks who called him on this)

  9. The article seems to support Jimmy’s characterisation of it. The prison, in violation of fundamental human rights, is not allowing Mass to be offered to the Catholic inmates.

  10. Actually, a lot of Canadians use the term “Soviet Canuckistan”:
    “many Canadians proudly adopted Soviet Canuckistan as an ironic, humorous self-reference. Some Canadians (primarily Albertans) also use the term less proudly, to express dislike for the Canadian political system and leadership.”
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Canuckistan
    Jimmy’s use of the term seems to be in line with that tradition.

  11. The article definitely supports Jimmy’s charicterization of it. The article very clearly states that there is a prison that is disallowing priest’s from bringing in a few ounces of wine and thus is preventing Mass in their prison.

  12. Hey Jimmy, this is a hyped up non-story…don’t you know that no one goes to prison in Canada?
    Anyways, if you want to see how far we have fallen up here in the great white north, just check this out:
    http://tinyurl.com/bbea2

  14. No, it doesn’t say anything about an exception being made. It offers the non-promise of “we are looking into it to make a determination where we can go.”
    That means they’re thinking about whether they’re going to do anything, not that they’ve realized their mistake and are on the verge of doing public penance for it.

  15. Please do not call my country “Soviet Canuckistan”!!! In spite of the embarrassing and stupid actions of some of our provincial bureaucracies (like the ones in this story), I am still free to worship at Mass every day of the week if I so choose. So are all other Canadian Catholics. Many Canadian parishes have Perpetual Adoration (with no armed guards at the door to turn people away)… and I’ve yet to hear of any “gulags” set up for Christians of any denomination. I agree with Allen White — this is South Park-style invective and should have no place whatsoever among Catholics. Yes, it is distressing that this incident happened, and shows complete ignorance on the part of the prison officials. However, we won’t change their minds by name-calling. How about simply explaining the mind of the Church on such things, and praying for the grace of God to enlighten their minds? IMO, that sounds more Catholic than flinging around names such as “Soviet Canuckistan” — sheesh!!!

  16. Pat, don’t get too steamed. Remember, you’ll hear more Canadians making jokes about Canada being a Soviet state than Americans, that’s for sure. We Canadians’ three favourite activities are
    1. Making fun of the Americans.
    2. Making fun of the Canadians.
    3. Getting upset at the Americans for making fun of the Canadians.
    I admit to indulging in all three, but making a joke that we Canadians make all the time doesn’t call for activity three, in my opinion.

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