Intriguing. Your opinion on what? On amnesty or on immigration reform?
Yes. When you’re in solemn vows you may not publicly express any opinion contrary to your major superior, the bishop of the diocese in which your community exists, any of the Sacred Congregations in the Curia or the Holy Father. To dissent is a sin against obedience.
If the superior wishes to do so, he may bind you under the vow of obedience. In which case, if you dissent, you are being disobedient to Church authority AND (in our case) to Francis of Assisi. Francis of Assisi left very specific orders that he was to be obeyed beyond death under penalty of eternal damnation. The superior can invoke his Franciscan succession, meaning that as the successor of the founder he commands you to [fill in the blanks]. Superiors rarely use this right, because it is very dangerous for the person receiving the command. If he disobeys, he has committed a very grave sin. You try not to put people in a postion where they can do serious harm to their souls, if you can avoid it. You can’t always avoid it. Some people are stubborn and then you have to pull out the big guns. Generally, a superior will simply say, we go by what the bishop says, end of discussion. That does not place you under penalty of grave sin, but still a sin if you disobey the superior.
The rule is very specific, that you may never disobey, even when you know that your are right. You must obey with love and accept the sacrifice as a penance. The only time that you may disobey when given a direct order by your superior is if the superior commands you to do something that the Church says is sinful. It cannot be something that YOU believe is sinful. What you believe is irrelevant. Sin is decided by the Church, not the individual. The exception to that is if you believe that something is sinful and you really don’t know the Church’s position. Then you have the right to follow your conscience, because you have no other guide.
On this subject, the bishops are exercising their ordinary authority, just like a parent. Parents don’t need to be right to be obeyed. They just can’t command sin. Bishops don’t need to be right to be obeyed. They just can’t command sin.
Since the bishops are not commanding a sin that is recognized as such by the Church, then there is no sin involved. Our local superior has the authority to state the opinion that he wants us to hold and we must place distance between us and any opinion that is different. This can be done by the local superior of the house, the major superior or by the Holy Father. The only person who cannot tell a religious what opinion he or she must hold is a bishop. Bishops have authority over diocesan priests and over the laity in their dioceses, never over religious except in those cases allowed by canon law, which are very few.
But we don’t need a bishop to order us, because the superior can do that and his voice is the voice of Christ. There is a theological point here. If you appeal to a higher superior and you are granted the hearing, if the higher superior rules differently, then that is the voice of Christ. If both superiors agree, it’s just Christ repeating himself. If the higher superior denies your request for an appeal, it’s Christ telling you that he has already spoken and the conversation is closed.
This is what we embrace when we make a solemn vow of obedience. That’s why most religious communities do not make solemn vows of obedience. They make simple vows of obedience. The superior is less autonomous, he has to govern with a council. In a solemn vowed community, the council is only advisory. The superior trumps the council and even the vote of the community. It’s all advisory. His voice is Christ’s voice. The three founders who agreed to this were Benedict, Augusttine and Francis.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
We have the conservative Republicans (very, very few of those left,) and the Corporate Republicans (which true conservatives used to call Bush) and the latest term I read was “Rockefeller” Republican. It’s becoming harder to distinguish between the two parties. Which is why I am now registered Independent.
. . . when one obeys, life becomes very simple and inner peace and silence reign again.