"Filial correction"

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They are not saying the Pope wrote or said this but it may be inferred by his writings and actions.
Then these people need to practice what the Catechism teaches about rash judgment and how to avoid it. One assumes the best explanation of the actions of another and doesn’t jump to the conclusion of heresy. As with the Pharisees, the pick the mote out of another’s eye and have a beam in their own.
 
And it may very well be the Pope needs to avoid heresy. I doubt after all this time they are jumping to conclusions. The Pope needs to make it clearly understood.
 
But the document is still problematic. The fact that a Dubia had to be issued, and this very letter had to be issued, shows that there is an issue.

It is a problem. The document is a problem.
Heck, I agree with Communing certain irregulars and I still think the document is problematic. 😛
 
That may be so.
But what everybody is arguing about (Communion for sexually active irregulars) AL makes fairly clear would only ever apply to about 0.01% of cases anyways.
How do you know a percentage?

I believe it will lead to a host of issues, because it is wrong in principle.

And anyway, Popes JPII and Benedict have specifically condemned “pastoral exceptions”.

Think of it this way:
Matthew 5
“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

It is “relaxing” the law. Not that we should go around judging others of relaxing the law, but we should not provide a means for anyone to relax the law.

We should struggle against our failings for trespassing the law, and turn from trespassing the law. Then, we can receive Communion in a worthy manner.
 
I will be very curious how this plays out. …
I would generally agree with all this.
The Church has traditionally held that committing sin with grave matter prevents one from receiving communion.
I don’t believe this is quite an accurate assessment of history.
It depends what the boldened bit means as I think you have phrased it ambiguously.

A moral theologian would conclude you meant personal mortal sin here. But I am not sure you do?
He would conclude this because you used the boilerplate phrase “commit sin”. Commit always means “acting with full knowledge and consent”. Did you really mean that above?
If not a better phrase might have been “engaged in grave matter”.

The other source of confusion re how Canon Law might apply to your expression here is “prevents one from receiving”. Or did you really mean “prevents the priest from giving”.
If one is conscious of having “committed grave sin” then Canon 916 applies (you may not go forward).
However if you are not conscious of having committed grave sin but rather only of having venially “engaged in grave matter” then only Canon 915 comes into effect (ie the priest may have to refuse you Communion). But this decision by the priest is not clear yet.

If the act of grave matter is ongoing and private (even if known by the Priest through confession) he is customarily NOT allowed to decline Communion.

CONTINUED below…
 
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CONTINUED from above…

If the grave matter were publicly known then it starts getting more complicated it seems:

The first consideration seems to be whether it is ongoing acts of sin. Should a hard working husband who regularly gets drunk on Fri night, often enough hits his wife, confesses regularly enough on a Sat … should he be allowed to receive on Sunday? Most would say yes. But if he hadn’t changed after 3yrs and the PP was doubting his contrition or thinking things were getting worse for the family and it was all well known in a country parish…well I think he would be justified in declining Communion until he did something different to resolve the increasingly grave, public and unchanging situation. All fairly prudential. The same could probably be applied to abstaining irregulars who repeatedly fail on a fortnightly basis if there is no improvement in outcome over a few years. Again, likely another prudential judgement by the PP.

The second consideration is ongoing “states” of sin where participants refuse, or are unable, to leave that state?
Well, simply being civilly remarried is already a public “state” of grave matter. Yet we know JPII allowed them Communion despite this grave counter-witness so long as the additional gravity of acts of sex are not overlayed. So here is an ongoing state of “grave matter” where Communion is allowed. And it is not denied even if there is ongoing sex - provided it is confessed and repented of.

But even this is not the same as “culpability”. Confession or no confession, these failures to abstain may not be culpable grave mortal sins in any case. It isn’t really the point. “States” are often not culpable because they are “contracted” rather than “committed” (think unbaptized babies or passive divorcees).

That then raises the question of those in this situation who would like to abstain but for a variety of reasons do not believe they can promise such (they know they are too weak to) or even should if her husband disagrees (the Catholic wife of a non Catholic husband who believes her civil marriages vows were received in good faith by her husband who didn’t marry to be a monk).

Is the inability to promise never to engage in sex mean Confession/Communion is no longer possible?
Honest but weak, or mixed marriage, couples committed to God seem to get penalised for their honesty and serious respect for their non Catholic partner’s needs and what they promised when marrying them. They could easily say they will promise to try and abstain (even if they are convinced they cannot or should not) and access Confession/Communion when they regularly fail. But they see that as deceptive before God.
Regardless, personal culpability before God does not seem to be directly the point here either from the official point of view. (Obviously it is from the Catholic partner’s point of view…the very reason they don’t go to confession is because they would feel they are lying if required to promise to abstain when they are convinced they cannot or should not in their circumstances).
 
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…one may still be in a state of grace, and therefore able to benefit from communion.
I think one could say it is still a doctrinal matter … but realise there are a number of competing doctrines that have bearing on Communion reception not just one monolithic consideration (the presence of public objective grave matter). There is also the doctrine of “food for the journey” (you must eat my flesh…) for those otherwise devout and graced Catholics in difficult circumstances. There is also Communion as sign of full incorporation into both Christ and His Church. Graced irregulars are not excommunicated. Why can they never receive the sign of their full communion in the Church despite their grave objective status.
Are they in full communion or not?
I would need to see where the doctrine has been defined that it is grave matter that prevents communion with God.
Agreed.
 
I am not the one bringing culpability into the judgement of Canon 915. Rather, it is those that argue that culpability in the sin of remarriage can be mitigated.
You do not seem to have enough understanding of the Moral Theology of sin to compose unambiguous sentences. The above paragraph is a good example which seems to have tied you in knots.

Canon 915 says nothing directly about personal moral culpability. How could it…a PP cannot know whose soul in the Communion line is graced or not. Even if he is their Confessor he cannot know this, nor is he required to.

All he can do, and all he is asked to do, is make objective judgements when necessary over whether persons are publicly known to engage in the usual examples of grave matter in an ongoing manner or state. Such objectively defined grave matter is designated in the Commandments.
…rendering the new marriage not a “grave sin”, and therefore not subject to Canon 915.
You appear mistaken. Irregular marriages are always of grave matter, of grave objective sin. Culpability or not cannot efface that reality. That is why it is called “objective”. Intentions or mitigating circumstances cannot change the gravity of the matter.

But the “malice” behind that grave matter may well be different for different couples. Clearly graced couples have no significant malice before God or man. But people are not primarily refused Communion because of their interior “malice”. They are refused because of public, outward ongoing engagement in grave matter whereby public malice is presumed unless contraindicated by other objective considerations.
…the remarriage is not a grave sin due to factors that mitigate culpability, and since there is no grave sin Communion can be administered."
“Grave sin” is an ambiguous expression for non Moral Theologians. Depending on context it can mean either “grave objective matter” OR “a personal mortal sin” (ie fully culpable).
What is not clear is how this can get around “manifest grave sin”, because the appearance of grave sin remains as the matter of culpability remains internal and hidden.
I suspect you may not fully understand what “culpability” is under Catholic Moral Theology. If as person is under grace despite engaging in “grave matter” then there is no hidden culpability at all.

Do you accept that persons may engage in the matter indicated in any of the Commandments yet still be beloved of God and vice-versa?
 
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Canon 915 says nothing directly about personal moral culpability. How could it…a PP cannot know whose soul in the Communion line is graced or not. Even if he is their Confessor he cannot know this, nor is he required to.

All he can do, and all he is asked to do, is make objective judgements when necessary over whether persons are publicly known to engage in the usual examples of grave matter in an ongoing manner or state. Such objectively defined grave matter is designated in the Commandments.
Yes, and this is precisely my point. Where in AL or the various guidelines is this dimension of denying Communion to the remarried addressed? It is not so far as I can see, but rather diminished culpability for sin is the avenue. That is well and good, but it does not address Canon 915 and the moral principles it is based upon, and it is this ground that the denial of Communion has typically been based.

In short, the groundwork for addressing Canon 916 and its underlying moral principles has been laid, but not Canon 915. Again, I do not think that culpability enters into Canon 915, but culpability and the internal forum are the avenues addressed by AL and the various guidelines.
You appear mistaken. Irregular marriages are always of grave matter, of grave objective sin. Culpability or not cannot efface that reality. That is why it is called “objective”. Intentions or mitigating circumstances cannot change the gravity of the matter.
Yes, this is precisely my point. So why do AL and the Maltese guidelines only address culpability as a potential boundary to Communion and not the “manifest grave sin”? If they do address “manifest grave sin” then I have missed it and I would happily take correction.

Peace and God bless!
 
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How do you know a percentage?
How many irregulars fit the following preliminary conditions reasonably implied in AL and preceeding Magisterial statements:
  • one man and one woman
  • 1st marriage clearly irreconcilable
  • have been civilly divorced
  • have been civilly remarried
  • annulment judgement obtained
  • annulment reasonably judged to have failed on technical grounds
  • been in 2nd marriage for some years, happy and stable
  • it is judged that they should not split up for the sake of the children (poverty trauma)
  • abstinence is not a realistic option (most likely a mixed marriage or disparity of cult husband)
  • remarried partner is credibly sincerely convinced their first marriage never was
  • the priest judges the reasons for above have objective merit even if it cannot be evidenced to a high standard
  • the remarried one is likely more victim than instigator of 1st marriage failure
  • the remarried one more likely was abandoned by the one responsible for the failure
  • the remarried one accepts responsibilities still due re the first marriage (financial support, visiting rights etc etc)
  • couple open to a true discernment process
  • couple demonstrate virtue and devotion in other areas of their lives
  • couple do not flaunt there situation
  • couple show correct disposition
Yes my place-filler percentage figure may well be out by a factor of 10 to the fourth either way without my observation failing I suggest.
 
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It is perhaps time to start quoting the sentences in AL that you refer to as your points seem to vague to grasp.

As I see it the “mitigated culpability” related passages in AL are simply reinforcing the fact that Communion banning by the Minister has never been about being in personal mortal sin or sacrilege (eating unworthily, a Canon 916 issue) as many of the laity believe. Eating unworthily due to culpability for an objective mortal sin is a Canon 916 matter and it is decided by the communicant themselves not the Minister.

Banning by the minister is a 915 issue, nothing directly to do with personal culpability or personal sacrilege or unworthiness at all. Its about public scandal and public contuminous denial of a major Church teaching by one’s grave ongoing state or failings.
I suppose we could speak of “public unworthiness” as does the 1917 Code. However this is not about personal culpability but public scandalous, outward, objective, material transgression of law…where subjective culpability is largely irrelevant.
 
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…the following preliminary conditions reasonably implied in AL and preceeding Magisterial statements:
[15 bullet points omitted for brevity]

I’m not sure the Maltese picked up on the need for criteria such as these?
 
The article says nothing about the subjectivity of “having been made aware”.
“Such obstinate persistence presupposes that the one who would refuse politicians Communion has engaged in a serious effort to teach them to see the truth of the church’s teaching and the error of their ways. Effective teaching requires something more than turning up the rhetorical volume and brandishing anathemas.”
I don’t know how you don’t see that this doesn’t say that the instruction given to someone by clergy would be considered subjective based the instructions effectiveness. Especially given the point that is made next in the article:
“Resort to disciplinary measures like refusal of holy Communion is an implicit acknowledgment by church authorities that they have failed as teachers to convince Catholic politicians in particular and the larger society in general of the truth of the Gospel of life. Resignation to such a failure ill befits those who are charged to “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, encourage with utmost patience in teaching” (2 Tim 4:2).”
The whole article is a good analogy to what AL proposes with divorce and remarriage, regardless of what the Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts stated in 2000. The same thing the article says about politicians who support abortion can be applied to the divorced and remarried concerning “manifest grave sin”:
" For a sin to be manifest, it is not enough that it be public or even notorious; it must also be so habitual that it constitutes an objectively sinful lifestyle or occupation. The 1917 code, like the current Eastern code, spoke of excluding the “publicly unworthy” from holy Communion. Commentators suggested that these publicly unworthies included pimps, prostitutes, fortunetellers and magicians. While wags have long accused politicians of bearing uncanny resemblances to these miscreants, no one has seriously suggested that politicians constitute a comparable class of practitioners of an inherently disreputable occupation or cultivators of an intrinsically immoral lifestyle."
Conclusion
It may be objected that by making it difficult to discipline erring members of the flock by refusing them Communion, this strict interpretation of Canon 915 makes “a scarecrow of the law.” This was, in fact, an objection raised during the code revision process about drafts of what eventually became Canon 915.
 
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but ignorance is supposed to be removed through the directives of AL.
Can you quote in AL where it says that?
I may be wrong but the main ignorance I recall that was mentioned were moral responsibilities re the first marriage.

Nor would I think it an open and shut case whether it is always possible to be objectively sure that the first marriage was valid before God if Pope’s have stated in recent times that Tribunals cannot always decide rightly on such matters for purely technical reasons. All the more so if the remarried person has always held there was something deeply wrong with the marriage ab initio.

In which case it is in theory possible to predicate effective practical ignorance of the Church and not always the remarried person.
 
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rcwitness:
How do you know a percentage?
How many irregulars fit the following preliminary conditions reasonably implied in AL and preceeding Magisterial statements:
  • one man and one woman
  • 1st marriage clearly irreconcilable
  • have been civilly divorced
  • have been civilly remarried
  • annulment judgement obtained
  • annulment reasonably judged to have failed on technical grounds
  • been in 2nd marriage for some years, happy and stable
  • it is judged that they should not split up for the sake of the children (poverty trauma)
  • abstinence is not a realistic option (most likely a mixed marriage or disparity of cult husband)
  • remarried partner is credibly sincerely convinced their first marriage never was
  • the priest judges the reasons for above have objective merit even if it cannot be evidenced to a high standard
  • the remarried one is likely more victim than instigator of 1st marriage failure
  • the remarried one more likely was abandoned by the one responsible for the failure
  • the remarried one accepts responsibilities still due re the first marriage (financial support, visiting rights etc etc)
  • couple open to a true discernment process
  • couple demonstrate virtue and devotion in other areas of their lives
  • couple do not flaunt there situation
  • couple show correct disposition
Yes my place-filler percentage figure may well be out by a factor of 10 to the fourth either way without my observation failing I suggest.
May I ask how you get those criteria, and how all of them have become valid?
 
All from Pope Francis from memory, his referenced docs and of course current Canon Law.
Also preceeding Magisterial docs - as Pope Francis is in fact making an exception to what is already a new preceeding exception by JPII isn’t he.

Have you closely read AL?
I am surprised you don’t seem to recognise any of them.
 
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As I see it the “mitigated culpability” related passages in AL are simply reinforcing the fact that Communion banning by the Minister has never been about being in personal mortal sin or sacrilege (eating unworthily, a Canon 916 issue) as many of the laity believe.
I agree, and I’ve gone to bat defending AL and the Argentine guidelines on this ground.
Its in fact a Canon 915 matter (decided by the communicant themselves). Banning by the minister is a 915 issue, nothing directly to do with personal culpability or personal sacrilege or unworthiness at all. Its about public scandal and public contuminous denial of a major Church teaching by one’s grave ongoing state or failings.
This is what is not addressed in AL or the Maltese guidelines. In the Maltese guidelines the matter of personal culpability and internal forum is used as the basis for saying that the remarried can not be precluded from Communion. This is well and good for Canon 916, but it does not suffice for Canon 915. Reading the established arguments for denying Communion to the remarried, as found in documents like those from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the critical elements arise from the moral theology underlying Canon 915, namely those relating to “manifest grave sin”, and not from the subjective culpability of the remarried.

If AL allows for Communion of the remarried, then “manifest grave sin” must be addressed. My earlier point about culpability and Canon 915, which obviously wasn’t clearly made, was that diminished culpability is the only justification given for allowing Communion to the remarried. So the writers of the guidelines either believe that diminished culpability applies to Canon 915, or they are ignoring key arguments against Communing the remarried. If they believe that Canon 915 is still in force, then there can be no talk about Communing the remarried until the theological foundations of Canon 915 are properly addressed.

My other concern is that the Maltese guidelines appear (to my eyes, at least) to remove the Pastor from the decision making process, essentially neutering Canon 915 entirely. You disagree on that reading, and that’s fine by me, but I don’t see how the guidelines can be understood in any other way if they are to open up Communion for the remarried at all; it hardly makes sense to say that these people can’t be precluded from the Sacraments if the intention is merely that they can’t be precluded on these grounds, but “Canon 915 still applies so this whole point is irrelevant”. I believe that the intention of the Maltese guidelines really is to open Communion to the remarried, and therefore I read their reasoning as applying to both Canons 915 and 916; the reasoning makes no sense to me, but the only alternative is to believe that they wrote these guidelines without the intention of opening Communion to the remarried, and this makes even less sense.

Peace and God bless!
 
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