I fail to understand why some Latin Catholics want to make this a pro or contra issue. When you have a law and you have an indult, it means that what’s in the law is the norm and the exception to the law is allowed under X circumstances; therefore making the exception legal and honorable. Church law would never make legal what is not honorable.
We have many indults. Anyone who wants to see indults just has to look at religious orders. You have Canon Law, which dictates the norms for everything from admission to perpetual profession. Then you have the rules written by the founders. Guess what happens? The founders had something in mind that Canon Law did not foresee. Now what do we do? The Church changed Canon Law in 1983 and the Rule of St. Benedict says, the Rule of St. Francis says, the Rule of St. Albert says, the Rule of St. Augustine says and the Rule of St. Basil says. Now you have the five existing rules (the only rules for religious life) out of compliance with Canon Law. Worse, they don’t agree with each other. What happens?
You call a General Chapter of your order and you put together one of the following:
a) an constitutional ammendment that overrides the founder to bring the community into compliance with Canon Law
b) a leter to the Holy Father explaining why you’re out of compliance with Canon Law
Then what happens?
The Holy Father writes an indult, either
a) you may override your founder on this point and use your constitutional ammendment so as to be in compliance with Canon Law
b) you may follow your founder and override Canon Law on this particular point
And he does this for every single religious community in the world who finds themselves in a dilemma because they are following one of these five rules that were written long before 1983. Remember, there are no other rules in the Catholic Church. A religious community must choose one of these rules or choose not to have a rule at all and govern themselves democratically by statutes that they revise every X number of years, even that is an indult. Until St. Ignatius of Loyola came around, all religious orders and congregations had to follow a rule. St. Ignatius asked for an indult that is in place to this day, which allows the Society of Jesus not to follow any rule, but to govern itself by statutes that Ignatius wrote and they can edit, modify, delete, append and overwrite at their discretion as long as their Superior General convokes the chapter and a simple majority of the capitulars approve. They have been living with this indult for almost 500 years and no one has ever complained.
The Poor Clares have been living with an indult for 775 years and no one has ever noticed. They touch the Eucharist. They give themselves Holy Communion when no one is around to celebrate mass for them. They are not to answer to any male authority except the local bishop and the pope. The local bishop’s authority over them is very limited. That too is an indult.
What’s my point? The Church makes many rules, has many traditions and has hundreds of indults that we don’t even know about. This is one more. Each person has to do the best he or she can for his or her salvation and that of his or her family. It is one thing to be charitable and it is another to push a point because I think everyone should go in that direction. That’s not how our Church operates. She does not micromanage.
Those who think that she did in the past are mistaken. Rome has more interaction with the dioceses around the world after aggiornamento and collegiality was introduced than it had before. Prior to that, each bishop was on his own. The popes dealt in international matters, not in local matters. That’s why they had the ad limina visit every five years, because it was the only way for the pope to be in touch with the world outside of Rome. The Church is not interested in micromanaging the spiritual lives of her children. She’s interested in teaching and guiding. After that, it’s up to the local bishops and the individual Catholics to pick up the ball and run with it.
Let’s let it happen the way that the Church envisions it. Let the bishops and their delegates (pastors, usually) deal with situations. Let each of us deal with what is under our jurisdiction to care for. Otherwise, it becomes a never ending discussion of the same subject and it’s not going to change because we wish it to change. It will change when the bishops decide it. The law is on their side. They can use the indult or they decline it.
If they choose to use it, let them do so. No one forces anyone to receive in the hand. If that happens to you, then you have every right to complain. But that should be to your pastor, not here. No one here can fix the problem.
On another note, about kneeling for communion. While it is a beautiful thing to do, always make sure that the priest or deacon who is distributing communion can give you communion while you’re on your knees. I learned a very “sad” lesson not long ago, about three weeks ago. A lady went to communion and knelt. She may have done it out of habit or was distracted and did not notice. The priest has CP. He cna’t walk. He moves with crutches. Goes to one spot and stands there and you go to him for communion. When she knelt, he had to ask her to stand, because if he bent over, he would fall or drop the hosts. It was very uncomfortable for both parties. It suddenly occurred to me that we have many older priests who may also have problems bending over or reaching at certain angles.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
