Catholic to the stars

[didymus]

Sorry, this is the only place might to go.
I read a lot of SF & might be doing Nanowrimo which wields up RC+SF so a couple queries.

First, there’s a big colony ship (or more) planned as a international scientific joint effort. Presumably there will be Catholics. If one of the colonist/scientists were suitable (persona sanctity) could he ordained as priest & bishop w/o seminary?

Second variation, just assume we get the Church onto colony worlds. Will each planet have its own bishop or primate? I’m assuming light-speed is the law. Planet X is ten light-years away so messages are 20 round-trip.
Maybe lots of possibility for schism.

Third. Could Catholics venture forth at all if orthodox? Usually in SF colonies take for granted IVF, genetic engineering etc. that would be verboten.

 

[thistle]

Sorry, this is the only place might to go.
I read a lot of SF & might be doing Nanowrimo which wields up RC+SF so a couple queries.

First, there’s a big colony ship (or more) planned as a international scientific joint effort. Presumably there will be Catholics. If one of the colonist/scientists were suitable (persona sanctity) could he ordained as priest & bishop w/o seminary?

Second variation, just assume we get the Church onto colony worlds. Will each planet have its own bishop or primate? I’m assuming light-speed is the law. Planet X is ten light-years away so messages are 20 round-trip.
Maybe lots of possibility for schism.

Third. Could Catholics venture forth at all if orthodox? Usually in SF colonies take for granted IVF, genetic engineering etc. that would be verboten.

Are you smoking something?
This is a nonsense thread!

 

[LilyM]

Sorry, this is the only place might to go.
I read a lot of SF & might be doing Nanowrimo which wields up RC+SF so a couple queries.

First, there’s a big colony ship (or more) planned as a international scientific joint effort. Presumably there will be Catholics. If one of the colonist/scientists were suitable (persona sanctity) could he ordained as priest & bishop w/o seminary?

Second variation, just assume we get the Church onto colony worlds. Will each planet have its own bishop or primate? I’m assuming light-speed is the law. Planet X is ten light-years away so messages are 20 round-trip.
Maybe lots of possibility for schism.

Third. Could Catholics venture forth at all if orthodox? Usually in SF colonies take for granted IVF, genetic engineering etc. that would be verboten.

In answer I can only point you to the Catholics of Japan, who remained Catholics even after Japan was basically isolated from the rest of the world. For hundred of years they had no priest nor bishop. They did NOT presume to take it upon themselves to ordain priests of their own. They waited patiently until Japan was again opened up to Western influence and the Church could again provide them with priests and bishops.

Likewise there are many communities today that are so remote that their Catholics very rarely see a priest. Same deal.

Not a single one of the sacraments can be self-imposed, not in any circumstances. Even St Matthias and St Paul, evidently called by the Holy Spirit to the priesthood and episcopate, had to have hands laid upon him first. These were not the hands of the unordained but those of the Apostles.

Christ promised the gates of Hell would not prevail against His church - so there will always be a valid hierarchy, however small or remote from some Catholics it might be.

Yes there is possibility of schism where Catholics are remote from their priests and bishops. But remember the greatest schisms have all developed in places where there was amply sufficient guidance and leadership from the Church. And remember communications today are so effective, even over vast distances, what with the Catechism and many other orthodox resources being online and so forth, that there is less excuse now than ever for Catholics not to know their faith. In the future, of course, communications will only improve, even if face-to-face contact be difficult.

The essence of schism is that one SHOULD know better but stubbornly refuses to accept guidance. If one through no fault of one’s own lacks sufficient opportunity to be taught, then one is not morally responsible for holding erroneous beliefs.

 

[Cat_Herder]

Are you smoking something?
This is a nonsense thread!

I don’t think it’s nonsense… the original poster wants to write a novel for National Novel Writing Month about…

CATHOLICS… IN… SPAAAAAACE

… and so the OP wants to know how the Church would function in an interplanetary milieu.

Now, remember that there was once such a large communication gap for the Church to cope with–during the Age of Exploration. It took 3 to 4 months to get across the Atlantic Ocean. Originally priests accompanied the colonists/explorers, then the Vatican established dioceses in the New World, so a bishop went on the next boat out.

Replace the ocean with space and there you have it.

 

[1ke]

First, there’s a big colony ship (or more) planned as a international scientific joint effort. Presumably there will be Catholics. If one of the colonist/scientists were suitable (persona sanctity) could he ordained as priest & bishop w/o seminary?

Not under the current code of canon law:

Can. 1031 §1. The presbyterate is not to be conferred except on those who have completed the twenty-fifth year of age and possess sufficient maturity; an interval of at least six months is to be observed between the diaconate and the presbyterate. Those destined to the presbyterate are to be admitted to the order of deacon only after completing the twenty-third year of age.

Can. 1032 §1. Those aspiring to the presbyterate can be promoted to the diaconate only after they have completed the fifth year of the curriculum of philosophical and theological studies.

§2. After a deacon has completed the curriculum of studies and before he is promoted to the presbyterate, he is to take part in pastoral care, exercising the diaconal order, for a suitable time defined by the bishop or competent major superior.

But I suppose the Pope could dispense the requirement.

Second variation, just assume we get the Church onto colony worlds. Will each planet have its own bishop or primate? I’m assuming light-speed is the law. Planet X is ten light-years away so messages are 20 round-trip.

I think you can do whatever you want. I would presume bishops on each world, rather than exclusively traveling bishops. I don’t see why this would be any different than today.

Maybe lots of possibility for schism.

No more than today.

Third. Could Catholics venture forth at all if orthodox? Usually in SF colonies take for granted IVF, genetic engineering etc. that would be verboten.

A Catholic could certainly venture into space. A Catholic could not participate in any of the immoral things you mention.

 

[Le_Cracquere]

Are you smoking something?
This is a nonsense thread!

A little oddly phrased, but not at all nonsensical. One mark of mediocre SF is a failure to account for elemental concerns like religion. Third-rate imaginations (I’m looking at you, Gene Roddenberry’s ghost) are always imagining neato journeys to the stars, while waving away the really intractable things in human nature as irrelevant or magically obsolete.

An INTERESTING SF story needn’t be centered around religion, but would have room in its imagination for things like the Archbishop of Triton and Patriarch of Mars, the hazards of proper ecclesiastical succession in a universe with long space journeys, etc. In a civilization that runs up against Einsteinian space-time taffy pulls, where does that leave the Christian calendar–suddenly dependent on the constant speed of light, rather than on the shifting, contingent variable of time?!

If you ate something a half-hour ago, but three days passed outside on your near-light space journey, should you take Mass or not? The real boom occupation of the 28th century might be canon law.

 

[RosaryFan]

Are you smoking something?
This is a nonsense thread!

I’m with you. I don’t understand one word on this thread.

 

[Brywan]

Sorry, this is the only place might to go.
I read a lot of SF & might be doing Nanowrimo which wields up RC+SF so a couple queries.

First, there’s a big colony ship (or more) planned as a international scientific joint effort. Presumably there will be Catholics. If one of the colonist/scientists were suitable (persona sanctity) could he ordained as priest & bishop w/o seminary?

Second variation, just assume we get the Church onto colony worlds. Will each planet have its own bishop or primate? I’m assuming light-speed is the law. Planet X is ten light-years away so messages are 20 round-trip.
Maybe lots of possibility for schism.

Third. Could Catholics venture forth at all if orthodox? Usually in SF colonies take for granted IVF, genetic engineering etc. that would be verboten.

This story has already been published: amazon.com/Sparrow-Mary-Doria-Russell/dp/0449912558/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287876249&sr=1-1