Pope Francis has given a new interview in which he makes several important clarifications.
These concern allegations that he is a Marxist, suggestions that he will soon appoint women cardinals, and proposals to give Holy Communion to those who have divorced and remarried without an annulment.
He also makes several other interesting comments, including plans for an upcoming trip to the Holy Land, breastfeeding in public, and what happened right after he was elected.
This interview is different than the recent one which was yanked from the Vatican web site. That one was conducted by an atheist publisher (Eugenio Scalfari) who relied on his memory to give a partly fictitious account of what the pope said.
This one is with a well-known and respected Catholic expert on the Vatican, Andrea Tornielli.
Much greater care appears to have been taken with this interview, and at one point the Pope goes out of his way to deliberately correct what was written in the other one. 2) What does the Pope say regarding a proposed trip to the Holy Land?
In addition to expressing concern for the plight of Christians in Bethlehem, he indicates that he plans to go, stating:
Fifty years ago, Paul VI had the courage to go out and go there and this marked the beginning of the era of papal journeys.
I would also like to go there, to meet my brother Bartholomew, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and commemorate this 50th anniversary with him, renewing that embrace which took place between Pope Montini and Athenagoras in Jerusalem, in 1964.
We are preparing for this.”
We may thus expect a papal visit to the Holy Land very soon.
On a side note, observe that he refers to Paul VI as “Pope Montini.” This custom of referring to a pope by his family name is an established one in Italy and is not considered disrespectful.
3) What did the pope say about breastfeeding in public?
Pope Francis refers to breastfeeding in public as part of a set of larger remarks about the scourge of world hunger.
In the course of discussing this very weighty problem, he tells the following story:
At the Wednesday General Audience the other day there was a young mother behind one of the barriers with a baby that was just a few months old.
The child was crying its eyes out as I came past.
The mother was caressing it. I said to her: Madam, I think the child’s hungry.
“Yes, it’s probably time…” she replied.
“Please give it something to eat!” I said.
She was shy and didn’t want to breastfeed in public, while the Pope was passing.
Though the subject of breastfeeding in public is tiny compared to world hunger, this statement is noteworthy.
Pope Francis apparently has no problem with public breastfeeding, even at a papal event. As one might expect from Francis, his attitude is: If the child is hungry, feed it!
4) What did the pope say about allegations that he is a Marxist?
He make his comments in an interview with the Venezuelan paper El Universal.
Apparently, it was an interview in anticipation of his leaving his role as the apostolic nuncio and going back to Rome to become Secretary of State.
Here’s a link to the full interview on video, in Spanish.
3) What did he actually say?
Apparently, in his discussion with the interviewer, the following exchange occurred:
Aren’t there two types of dogmas? Aren’t there unmovable dogmas that were instituted by Jesus and then there are those that came afterwards, during the course of the church’s history, created by men and therefore susceptible to change?
Certainly. There are dogmas that are defined and untouchable.
Celibacy is not —
It is not a church dogma and it can be discussed because it is a church tradition.
That’s what set the secular media off into paroxysms—the statement that the discipline “can be discussed.”
Pope Benedict has announced his resignation from the papacy. What popes have done this before, and how has it changed the Church?
In the wake of Pope Benedict’s announcement that he is resigning from the papacy, I thought I would speak with the historian Dr. Andrew Jones about the history of papal resignations.
While it hasn’t happened often in history, there have been popes who have resigned before, and their resignations (technically, their renunciations of the papacy) have left a lasting impact on Church history.
There are also some fascinating cases where we aren’t quite sure what happened.
In this episode of the Jimmy Akin Podcast, Dr. Jones and I begin to go through the cases, explaining what happened, what we know, and what impact the papal resignations have had.
First of two parts.
Here are links to the web sites mentioned in the show:
Should we have holy water in the fonts during Lent or should they turn into little ash trays? What does the Church say?
Like other liturgical seasons, Lent has its own special rules, and there are certain things that should not be done in Lent.
Here are 6 of them . . .
1. Instrumental music with no singing
In some parishes, instrumental music is used at certain points during Mass. A passage will be played on an organ or on another instrument or instruments, even though nobody is singing.
But not in Lent (with a few exceptions).
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) states:
313. In Lent the playing of the organ and musical instruments is allowed only in order to support the singing. Exceptions, however, are Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent), Solemnities, and Feasts.
2. Singing or saying the Gloria
Just after Sunday Mass begins, it is common to sing or say the Gloria (“Glory to God in the highest”).
But not on the Sundays of Lent.
The General Instruction states:
53. The Gloria in excelsis (Glory to God in the highest) . . . is sung or said on Sundays outside Advent and Lent, and also on Solemnities and Feasts, and at particular celebrations of a more solemn character.
3. Singing or saying the Alleleuia before the Gospel
It covered the basics of the rules of fast and abstinence in Lent, but it didn’t cover every possible application of them.
Then, by email, I received this query, which deals with an application I hadn’t considered before:
Is fasting and abstinence practised by Roman Catholics who are incarcerated?
Thanks. Your prompt reply is earnestly requested.
Interesting question!
In principle, both fast and abstinence are to be practiced by Catholic prisoners. There is no general exception for them (not that I have been able to find).
However, prison poses special challenges.
Could there be exceptions in individual cases?
How to Answer the Question
There are two ways to attack a question like this, where there is no explicit answer in the Code of Canon Law.
The first is to dive into the secondary literature (commentaries on the Code of Canon Law, handbooks of moral and pastoral theology, etc.).
Much of that will date from before the current, 1983 Code, and even before the Church’s current system of penitential practices was set up in 1966. However, it might still shed light on the question today.
I checked the main U.S. commentary and didn’t find anything on the question.
I’m sure there is some discussion of it out there, but it might take more time than we have before Lent begins for me to find it, so in the interests of providing a timely answer, let me pursue the other way of attacking the question, which is to try to extract the principles embedded in the law and apply them to this situation.
What’s the Goal?
The first question to answer is what is the goal that the Church’s requirements of fast and abstinence are trying to accomplish?
It isn’t to get people to eat less or fewer types of food, whether from reasons of diet, economy, health, or what have you.
Eating less food (in the case of fasting) or fewer types of food (in the case of abstinence) is just a means to an end.
What end?
Penance.
That’s why this topic is dealt with in the section on penitential days in the Code.
By undertaking a form of limited hardship, we can express sorrow for our past sins and train ourselves in self-discipline to say no to sin in the future.
That’s fundamentally what we’re trying to accomplish here, and it leads to a second question . . .
How Much Hardship?
The Church, at least in the Latin Rite today, does not expect us to undertake extreme hardship in pursuit of these goals on Ash Wednesday and the Friday of Lent and Good Friday.
With the discipline of fasting, all that is required by law is cutting down a bit on what we’d otherwise eat. We’re allowed one full meal and two cases where we can have “some food.”
Comparing that to the normal practice of eating three full meals and allowing oneself a few snacks, that’s not a huge difference.
When it comes to abstaining from meat, that would not have been a big deal–historically–because until recently, many people did not eat meat every day (some still don’t).
The requirement of abstinence just meant not indulging in what was–then–a cultural sign of celebration (eating meat).
So in both cases, the Church is only expecting us to shoulder a quite modest form of hardship.
But this burden can fall disproportionately on some . . .
When a Little Is a Lot
Some people are in situations in which the disciplines of fast and abstinence would pose a disproportionate burden on them.
This is more common with the requirement of fast than of abstinence, since normally other foods can be eaten in place of meat. If meat were the only source of calories that was available, even abstinence could pose a disproportionate burden.
But more commonly the situation arises with fasting. This can happen, for example with various medical conditions, such as diabetes.
Diabetics needs to keep their blood sugar in a certain range, and this can require a more frequent intake of food than envisioned by the Church’s fasting discipline.
The situation can also arise from things other than medical conditions. The standard sources from before Vatican II note exceptions for workers who need to keep their energy level up during the day, lest a lack of food interfere with them fulfilling their job duties.
In such situations, people are excused from keeping the discipline of fasting (and/or, more rarely, abstinence).
Sound pastoral practice, though, would urge them to find another way of practicing penance on these days in order to honor the spirit of the day.
So What About Prisoners?
I am not fully conversant with how food is regulated in jails and prisons, and I imagine that it varies considerably from place to place. However, it seems certain that prisoners generally have less freedom in terms of when and what to eat than non-prisoners.
In some situations, they may also have less flexibility regarding their activity level.
If that lack of freedom would significantly increase the burden of keeping the disciplines of fast and abstinence then a prisoner would be excused from keeping them.
Interestingly, I can see in the case of a prisoner how situations regarding abstinence could be more challenging.
On a Friday in Lent they might be served a food that has meat in it as their principal source of calories for a meal. Removing the meat might either be impossible, very difficult, or might so decrease the calories available to them that it would turn an occasion of abstinence into an occasion of fasting.
This is not required. In such cases the prisoner would be excused from abstinence.
Whether the burden of the disciplines of fast and abstinence are disproportionately high on a prisoner will depend on his individual situation and will require a judgement call.
A prisoner is bound to fast and abstain if he can do so reasonably. If the burden would be disproportionately high for either, though, then he is excused from that requirement, just as a person with a food-related medical condition or other situation would be.
In such cases, the prisoner should still seek to keep the spirit of the day in some way.
They could also choose to fast and abstain anyway, even with the greater burden. The Church’s requirements regarding these practices are minimums, not maximums, and we are all encouraged to do more than the minimum. This is not a matter of requirement but of free choice, and choosing to do more than the minimum is praiseworthy.
What About Prison Officials?
The above information applies to prisoners, but what about prison officials who are (to a significant degree) in control of the food Catholic prisoners have available to them on the Church’s penitential days?
Since there is no general exception made for prisoners to the disciplines of fast and abstinence (only need-based exceptions, where they exist), prison officials should accomodate Catholic prisoners’ abilities to fast and abstain on the Church’s penitential days.
There are two grounds for this: First, there is the simple humanitarian ground of trying to allow another person to fulfill his religious duties. Second, there are the protections of religious liberty found in U.S. law (most notably in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, although there are many other protections of the free exercise of religion as well).
Thus they should seek to allow Catholic prisoners to have meatless meals on days of abstinence and, on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, they should not impose activity levels on prisoners that would be inconsistent with fasting.
They should also seek, to the extent possible, to have Catholic services available for prisoners on these days as well, particularly on Ash Wednesday, the Sundays of Lent, and the days of Holy Week, including Good Friday, leading up to Holy Saturday and Easter.
Remembering Those in Prison
I hope the above information is useful, and I invite readers to keep those behind bars in your prayers.
Our Lord took special note of the care we should have for prisoners, telling us,
“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).
Advent is about to begin. What do the Church's official documents say about this season?
Advent begins this Sunday.
Most of us have an intuitive understanding of Advent, based on experience, but what do the Church’s official documents actually say about Advent?
Here are some of the basic questions and (official!) answers about Advent.
Some of the answers are surprising!
Here we go . . .
1. What Is the Purpose of Advent?
Advent is a season on the Church’s liturgical calendar–specifically, it is as season on the calendar of the Latin Church, which is the largest Church in communion with the pope.
Other Catholic Churches–as well as many non-Catholic churches–have their own celebration of Advent.
as a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming to us is remembered;
as a season when that remembrance directs the mind and heart to await Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time.
Advent is thus a period for devout and joyful expectation [Norms 39].
We tend to think of Advent only as the season in which we prepare for Christmas, or the First Coming of Christ, but as the General Norms point out, it is important that we also remember it as a celebration in which we look forward to the Second Coming of Christ.
Properly speaking, Advent is a season that brings to mind the Two Comings of Christ.
Several years ago I was in an art museum with the children of a family I’m friends with.
We were in the classical art section when, suddenly, the four-year old at my knee asked, “Where are those men taking those women?”
I bent down to look at the painting that was oddly hung at her eye-level (!) and realized it was a depiction of an event from early Roman history, the Abduction of the Sabine Women.
Not knowing how to break this down in a chaste way for a four-year old, I said: “Uhh . . . to have fun.”
“Okay,” she said.
Of course, there was more to it than that.
Specifically, the early Romans who participated in the abduction were engaging in a practice that was somewhat common in the ancient world, and even in some parts of the world today: obtaining a bride by capturing one.
Should babies be denied baptism just because it's Advent?
You sometimes hear about people being asked to delay receiving the sacraments because they are not performed at certain times of year–like Advent or Lent or Holy Week or Good Friday or other days.
There are a few restrictions on the times when sacraments can be celebrated, but not as many as people think.
Recently I was asked whether it’s possible for babies to be baptized during Advent, which is almost upon us.
You sometimes encounter the charge that the Catholic Church wrongly “changed the sabbath” from Saturday to Sunday. This claim is often made by Seventh-Day Adventists, for example. But even if one isn’t accusing the Church of wrongdoing, the question can still arise: Why do Catholics worship on Sunday rather than Saturday? Here’s the story . . .
What Day the Sabbath Is
First, let’s clear away a potential source of confusion. While it’s true that people sometimes speak of Sunday as “the Christian sabbath,” this is a loose way of speaking. Strictly speaking, the sabbath is the day it always was–Saturday–though it should be noted that traditionally Jewish people have celebrated the sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Sunday is a distinct day, which follows the sabbath. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:
2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ’s Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ.
Why We Celebrate Sunday
That same paragraph explains why we celebrate on Sunday. For Christians the ceremonial observance of Sunday replaces that of the sabbath. Properly speaking, we’re not celebrating the sabbath on Sunday. We’re celebrating something else, but it’s something that the sabbath points toward. As the Catechism says, the Jewish sabbath announces man’s eternal rest in God and prefigures some aspects of Christ. Sunday thus fulfills what the sabbath pointed toward.
That’s certainly the impression you would get from some discussing a recent decree issued by the German bishops’ conference.
It’s being characterized as a “pay to pray” policy, whereby the Church will deny you the sacraments if you don’t give it money.
One news source headlined the story “German Bishops To Catholics: Pay Up Or Die Without Absolution.”
That seems to be about as misleading a headline as you could want, because the decree in question expressly refers to the possibility of people receiving the final sacraments.
Pope Francis has given a new interview in which he makes several important clarifications.
