An Excommunicated Cardinal?

After the press reports of the cardinal who (may have) broken his oath of secrecy regarding the most recent conclave, a lot of folks have been wondering about what canonical penalty might apply to the cardinal.

The article I linked reports a reporter saying that he can’t name the cardinal because the penalty for breaking the oath is excommunication.

Since many folks know that some excommunications take effect immediately and some have to be imposed, I was a little surprised that nobody has yet e-mailed to ask whether this might be an automatic or an imposed excommuication–or whether excommunication is really in play or not.

I was writing in a hurry and so didn’t have time to go into the canonical question, figuring I’d do a follow-up post.

Fortunately, I don’t have to.

ED PETERS HAS.

Who To Approach For An Annulment

A reader writes:

My husband was previously married when i got married to him.  since the catholic church does not allow that – we got married with the protestant church minster.  (For me this was my first marriage) – I want to know who can i approach for annulment of his first marriage and also that we can receive holy communion in this state.
thanks for your help.

The thing to do in your situation is for your husband to call your local parish and say that he is interested in pursuing the annulment process. They can then make an appointment for him to get set up with the paperwork to begin the process.

If you or he are interested in learning more about the annulment process first, I recommend

THIS HANDY BOOKLET

and

THIS GREAT BOOK.

Hope this helps!

Ex-Priest Gets Married

A reader writes:

Recently a (catholic) parish priest left the church  in our town  rather
abruptly. About a year later, the community learned why.  He has since left
the priesthood and married a teacher who was teaching in that same catholic
school.  There have been a lot of questions concerning him .

What does the church teach, as far as a priest leaving the priesthood to
marry, and what can we say in response to some of the negativity regarding
this issue?

It depends on the situation.

The Church regards it as a tragedy when a priest leaves the ministry but it recognizes that there are cases in which it is pastorally prudent to allow this to happen. As a result, the Church has a procedure known as laicization by which a priest can be returned to functioning in the Church as if he were a layman.

This means (among other things) that he can no longer celebrate the sacraments apart from emergency circumstances (e.g., hearing the confession of a dying man). There also are restrictions on the kind of public role he can play in parish life (the Chruch doesn’t want such individuals to have too high a profile because of the confusion it can cause the faithful). Laicized priests may, however, be able to marry.

On the other hand, some priests simply abandon their ministry and do not pursue laicization. Some of these then attempt marriage in a civil ceremony, which results in an invalid marriage because the sacrament of holy orders creates an impediment to marriage that must be dispensed if the marriage is to be valid. This applies even if the priest formally defects from the Church. The only way a priest can validly contrat marriage is if he is laicized first.

I’m not sure how to advise you regarding the "negativity" issue. The fact that this gentleman left the priesthood and in a short space of time married a woman who taught at the local Catholic school suggests that there was at least an inappropriate emotional relationship between the two (and possibly more than that) before he left the priesthood. It wasn’t simply that he concluded that he did not have a vocation. There was some kind of malfeasance on his part when he was still conducting his ministry–and that’s assuming that he did pursue laicization and is validly married to her now. (Given what you say, he may not be.)

There is an element of scandal here (in the sense of setting a bad example that may lead others into sin) and a sense of betrayal on the part of those who the priest and the teacher served, and it is natural for people to be negative toward a situation like this.

Excessive negativity, though, is likely to be a passing phenomenon, and I would probably counsel patience regarding it. It is likely to pass with time.

Two Ceremonies?

A reader writes:

A friend of mine is getting married and his fiance wants very much to have a protestant marriage ceremony (she herself is mildly protestant and her father is a minister in a protestant denomination). Can my friend and his fiance have a Catholic wedding ceremony IN ADDITION TO the protestant one?

No, canon law specifically prohibits this:

Canon 1127 §3.

It is forbidden to have another religious
celebration of the same marriage to give or renew matrimonial consent before or
after the canonical celebration according to the norm of §1 [i.e., the Catholic wedding]. Likewise, there is
not to be a religious celebration in which the Catholic who is assisting and a
non-Catholic minister together, using their own rites, ask for the consent of
the parties.

The parties therefore need to decide whether they want to have a Catholic wedding OR obtain a dispensation from form so that they can have a Protestant wedding. They can’t do both.

This is not to say that ministers from both religious communities can’t play a role in the wedding. If they have a Catholic wedding the then Protstant minister can be invited to participate and visa versa. The Norms for Ecumenism provide:

157. With the previous authorisation of the local Ordinary, and if invited to do so, a Catholic priest or deacon may attend or participate in some way in the celebration of mixed marriages, in situations where the dispensation from canonical form has been granted. In these cases, there may be only one ceremony in which the presiding person receives the marriage vows. At the invitation of this celebrant, the Catholic priest or deacon may offer other appropriate prayers, read from the Scriptures, give a brief exhortation and bless the couple.

158. Upon request of the couple, the local Ordinary may permit the Catholic priest to invite the minister of the party of the other Church or ecclesial Community to participate in the celebration of the marriage, to read from the Scriptures, give a brief exhortation and bless the couple.

Catholic-Orthodox Sacramental Issues

A reader writes:

I have a friend who is Greek Orthodox.  Our questions are about being a sponsor for a Baptism, a witness at a wedding and about receiving the Eucharist.

–  Will the Roman Rite accept Baptism godparents or wedding witnesses who are Greek Orthodox, and vice versa?

Here’s what The Principles and Norms on Ecumenism say about Catholics and Orthodox serving as godparents at each others’ baptisms:

Because of the close communion between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, it is permissible for a just cause for an Eastern faithful to act as godparent; together with a Catholic godparent, at the baptism of a Catholic infant or adult, so long as there is provision for the Catholic education of the person being baptized, and it is clear that the godparent is a suitable one.

A Catholic is not forbidden to stand as godparent in an Eastern Orthodox Church, if heshe is so invited. In this case, the duty of providing for the Christian education binds in the first place the godparent who belongs to the Church in which the child is baptized [no. 98].

And here’s what the norms say about wedding witnesses:

136. Members of other Churches or ecclesial communities may be witnesses at the celebration of marriage in a Catholic church. Catholics may also be witnesses at marriages which are celebrated in other Churches or ecclesial communities.

When documents of this sort refer to "other churches," they have in mind churches with validly ordained bishops, which includes the Orthodox. "ecclesial communities" are those Christian communities without validly ordained bishops, which means (mostly) Protestants.

–  I believe that I have heard that in the absence of a Catholic Church, the Roman Rite permits reception of the Eucharist at Orthodox churches, including the Greek Orthodox, but I am not sure.  My friend does not know if the Greek Orthodox would permit him to attend a Roman Rite church in the absence of a Greek Orthodox church, in order to meet the Sunday obligation.  Do you have some insight into this?

My understanding is that discipline on this question varies depending on which Eastern Orthodox church one is talking about. He would have to consult his own church to find out what their practice is.

For its part, the Catholic Church allows Eastern Orthodox to receive Communion in particular cases. The Code of Canon Law states:

Can. 844 §3. Catholic ministers administer the sacraments of
penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick licitly to members of Eastern
Churches which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church if they seek
such on their own accord and are properly disposed.

Saying that Catholic ministers administer these sacraments licity means that it is lawful (licit) for priests to do so on the indicated conditions.

"Properly disposed" means the usual conditions that one needs to fulfill in order to receive Communion, such as being in a state of grace and having fasted for an hour before Communion.

Hope this helps!

Catholic Godparents At Orthodox Baptisms

A reader writes:

Hi Jimmy! I have a question…..In regards to a Catholic standing in as a godparent for a Greek Othodox baptism, is it permissible? Would a church is schism with Rome be acceptable for a Catholic to be godparent or is it still considered ‘christian witness’? I know that presently they are working to bring them back to Rome, but I thought I read a Catholic Answers book long ago that said we could not be godparents to other denominations. Can you clarify this for me?

A Catholic can serve as a godparent per se (not just a "witness") for a child being baptized in an Eastern Orthodox church. The Principles and Norms for Ecumenism first state the general principle that:

98. It is the Catholic understanding that godparents, in a liturgical and canonical sense, should themselves be members of the Church or ecclesial Community in which the baptism is being celebrated. They do not merely undertake a responsibility for the Christian education of the person being baptized (or confirmed) as a relation or friend; they are also there as representatives of a community of faith, standing as guarantees of the candidate’s faith and desire for ecclesial communion.

But then it goes on to note several exceptions to this, including:

A Catholic is not forbidden to stand as godparent in an Eastern Orthodox Church, if heshe is so invited. In this case, the duty of providing for the Christian education binds in the first place the godparent who belongs to the Church in which the child is baptized.

The document thus envisions and allows a situation in which there is one Eastern Orthodox godparent and one Catholic godparent at an Eastern Orthodox baptism.

New Annulments Booklet

AnnulmentsYesterday at Catholic Answers we got my new annulments booklet from the printers.

Many people have basic questions about annulments that they need to get answered in order to get the process rolling (at which point they need more detailed answers).

Unfortunately, I haven’t been aware of any orthodox Catholic booklets dealing with the topic.

So I wrote one.

The booklet covers things such as:

*  What is an annulment?
    * Is an annulment the same as a divorce?
    * How can I know if I need an annulment?
    * Do annulments cost anything?
    * How long do annulments take?
    * What are the reasons that the Church would consider a particular marriage null?
    * How can a couple live together for years and then have their marriage annulled?
    * If the parents are granted an annulment, does that make their children illegitimate?
    * What is the Pauline privilege?
    * What happens when a marriage is convalidated?

With the huge number of divorces today, there is a great need for people to have the information this booklet contains. It’s meant to be sold both as individual copies (for people who need annulments, their friends and family members, those who want to help them) and in bulk so that people can place them in their parish literature racks, so that pastors and parish workers can keep a stack of them onhand to give to people, so that they can be given to folks taking RCIA (whether they themselves need an annulment or not, just so they’ll have a basic understanding of the concept), etc.

Bulk ordering will be available online soon, but to verify that you want to order them in bulk (or even if you only need a single copy for someone)

GET YOUR COPY NOW.

Bear in mind that this is only a booklet and can only give brief answers, so if you’re already past the booklet stage and are ready to tear into a book-length treatment of the subject, the HANDS DOWN BEST ONE THERE EVER HAS BEEN is

THIS ONE RIGHT HERE. GET IT!

Name Changes?

A reader writes:

I’m a fairly recent convert, and I have a question about baptismal and confirmation names. From what I understand, an infant is given a name at baptism, usually a saint’s name.

Frequently this is the case. Current Church law only requires that the name not be "foreign to Christian sensibility" (e.g., if you wanted to name your kid "Lucifer" or something). See canon 855 on that.

This name is also the child’s legal name (usually the first name).

Usually, but there’s no law requiring that.

Let’s say that a boy is named Peter Terry Brooks after St. Peter. Is St. Peter considered the boy’s patron saint at this point?

It is customary to regard saints who share one’s name as one’s patrons. However, one can turn to any saint one wants and ask for his intercession.

At confirmation some years later, that boy can choose another name for a patron saint, say St. Luke.

He can do this, but canon law does not require him to take a new name at confirmation.

Now, is this really a new name he takes, or does he only have St. Luke as a patron saint?

If you take a new name, you take a new name. It may not be recorded anywhere (e.g., in diocesan records, in your county courthouse’s records, by the Social Security Administration), but it’s a new name. It also would be customary to regard St. Luke as a patron if one takes the name "Luke" at confirmation.

Could that boy call himself Peter Luke Terry Brooks or Luke Peter Terry Brooks?

He could call himself either, or he could simply say "My confirmation name is Luke" without trying to fit it into any particular order with his other names.

(Would this make any change in their legal name, or would a legal change need to be done through the government?)

Confirmation names have no bearing on one’s legal name under civil law. One would thus not need to contact the government.

Would the child now have two patron saints?

Yes. At least that is how it would customarily be regarded.

 

This all came to mind after reading your "Jimmy vs. James" post a while back, and thinking about my own confirmation.

No prob! Glad to be of help!

Incidentally, all the above also goes for taking religious names (e.g., if a person named Albert joins a religious order and takes the religious name John then in religious life he’ll be called "John" and be regarded as having St. John as a patron, even though his drivers license and social security card will still say "Albert." This kind of situation can–and has–caused some priests problems since 9/11 with all the new security measures).

Son Planning Invalid Marriage

A reader writes:

My wife and I are lifelong Catholics and have brought our children up in the Church.   My son has just informed us that he is engaged to be married to a Protestant girl he has known for only 3 months.  We have discussed the local Catholic information course and suggested that they both attend this together so she can have a better understanding of his Faith.  We also requested they be married in the Church.  They have decided against this and have decided to get married in one month by her grandfather who is a minister.  I have discussed the importance of his decision and asked him to delay the marriage a few months.  I have made him aware that they need to consult with our Priest to find out what the Church requires (a dispensation).  He is not willing to wait and is determined to proceed with the wedding next month.

First, let me say that I really feel for your tragic and painful situation and will be praying for your family. What your son is doing is incredibly reckless by any standard. It is extraordinarily foolhardy, particularly in our culture today, to marry someone that you have known for a total of four months.

A few questions:

1. This marriage will not be valid which means he will in effect be "living in sin" and can no longer receive the Eucharist.  Will he still be able to attend Mass? 

Yes. People in states of sin can attend Mass. In fact, Catholics in a state of sin are still obligated to attend Mass.

What would be the point of going to Confession if he has every intent of continuing in the relationship?

None, as long as he’s unwilling to either live chastely or rectify his marital status.

2.  Is this a more serious sin because it is done with the full knowledge and intent to sin?

Increasing knowledge of the moral character of a sinful act does make it more sinful, though I don’t know enough to assess your son’s personal culpability. Only God sees the heart. Your son may be acting under passions so strong that diminish his culpability.

3.  Is it as simple to fix as having it later validated in The Church (after a good Confession)?

It is relatively simple to have a convalidation later, though there may be marriage preparation and other formalties that will be necessary first.

4.  What are our responsibilities as parents.  I know that we cannot "celebrate" the wedding in any way so as not to lend our presence to the ceremony and thereby indicate that it is "OK", but surely if we visit the couple at any time during their invalid marriage we would be implying that it is ok?  Does this mean we must no longer see our son?

The question of how to navigate social relationships without endorsing an invalid union is a very difficult question that many find themselves in. It is particularly painful and complex and depends in significant measures on how the parties are related to each other and how they would "read" different actions as messages saying things about the union.

Attending the wedding, celebrating anniversaries, letting two people share the same bed under your roof, etc., would all be actions that in our culture would be taken as an endorsement of the union. (And it is hard to see how they might be anything other than that, even in other cultures.)

However, social interactions not directly related to marriage may not be taken this way. For example, inviting people (who know that you don’t think that they are married) over to your house or going over to their house is often not read as an endorsement of a union in our culture. The act is remote enough from the marriage itself that in the opinion of many it is not necessary to refrain from these social interactions.

It most definitely is not necessary that you cut off all contact with your son. Indeed, maintaining contact with him may be essential to the future rectification of his situation. The difficult and painful thing is figuring out how to maintain contact in a way that does not send him false messages. Ultimately, one just has to do the best one can to muddle through that.

5.  If he rejects The Catholic Church and becomes a Protestant before the wedding, does this make it valid?

If he formally defects from the Church then yes, it would result in the marriage being valid. I would not his about this or even mention it to him, though, as formal defection from the Church is an intrinsically evil act. One cannot recommend an intrinsically evil act (defection from the true Church of Christ) in order that good may com of it (a valid marriage).

If, however, he learns of this on his own and asks about it then one would be at liberty to answer his questions honestly, pointing out that defecting from the Church is intrinsically evil and must not be done.

6.  If after the wedding he rejects The Church and becomes a Protestant would the wedding then be valid?

No, this has no bearing on whether the union was valid at the time it was contracted.

7.  If he continues in the invalid marriage with full knowledge, later gets divorced, returns to The Church, can the marriage be annulled?

Yes. In fact, it would be quite easy to annul it due to the facts of the case as outlined above. The Church has a special process for cases of this nature since invalidity is so easy to prove.

8.  With the limited information I have given you, what would you do if it was your son?

If it were me? I’d do the following:

  • Pray really hard.
  • Perform penitential acts on behalf of my son and his fiancee. (NOTE! It is important that any pentiential acts of a significant nature be undertaken under the guidance of a spiritual director in order to keep you from biting off more than you can chew or that might pose long-term harm to you.)
  • Stress to my son that the course he is undertaking involves sin.
  • Stress to him that it will complicate his future and make things harder for him in the long term.
  • Point out to him that marrying someone you have known for only four months at the time of the weddig is incredibly foolhardy and that the success rates for such marriages is extraordinarily low. The odds are that he will go through a lot of pain and end up divorced, with all the complications that entails (including possibly having a kid or kids whose mother you are no longer married to).
  • Point out to him that if he really loves this girl and that if the two of them really can make a go of it as husband and wife then the most loving thing he can do for the two of them is SLOW DOWN and give them a chance to get to know each other better and let their relationship mature. The breakneck speed he’s doing this at has far more likelihood of HARMING their marriage than helping it. There are issues they need to work out BEFORE they get married. Trying to work them out afterwards will only harm the two.
  • Ask him to contemplate the magnitude of the decision he is making. Does he really understand what it means to make a LIFE-LONG commitment to this person based on having known her for this short space of time.
  • I’d also go to the girl’s family and talk to them about the situation. The idea that her grandfather is willing to marry them in this circumstances is incredible, and her family may be able to be enlisted in talking some sense into these young people.
  • I’d also try to live in hope. Something like a third of all marriage licenses that are taken out are never used. There is a significant chance that one or the other of these two young people will have a change of heart before the ceremony.

God bless, and I invite all blog readers to be praying for y’all!

20

Disposing Of Sacramentals

A reader writes:

  What is the proper way to dispose of ‘worn’ or broken sacramentals?

There is nothing in canon law on this, however the following represents the relevant pious custom:

  1. If the object has been blessed, either burn it or bury it (depending on whether it is significantly flammable).
  2. If the object has not been blessed, simply throw it away.