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Archbishop Julián Herranz, President of the Pontifical Council for
Legislative Texts, presented the normative clarification of the canons
that regulate the practice of the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation.
He explains that the extraordinary celebration must be truly
extraordinary. Some authors have given as examples the two cases of the
threat of imminent death, e.g. a plane crash or an army or a good
sized regiment going into battle at the last minute, and the missionary
situation in which the pastor of widespread mission stations the
size of a European country can never hear all the confessions when he
comes to a place for Mass. The application of the practice is
connected with to the interpretation of the long time in which the
faithful would be deprived of the grace of the sacrament and the priest
cannot hear confessions in an appropriate time. Here is a translation of
the Archbishop's Italian comment on the canons.
"Heart attack"—which
today can be effectively prevented—is
what doctors call the blocking of an artery that stops the flow of the
blood with consequent damage to the part of the body which the blood can
no longer oxygenate and vivify. Applying the example to the spiritual
order, I would dare to say that there can also be a "spiritual
heart attack" in the life of the faithful and in the Mystical Body
of Christ: this occurs when the activity of those divine channels of
grace, the sacraments "instituted by Christ and entrusted to the
Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us" (Catechism of
the Catholic Church, n. 1131) is reduced to a minimum.
Good pastors prevent spiritual heart attacks
If this were to happen with the Sacrament of Penance, instituted for
the remission of sins and the soul's reconciliation with God and with
the Church, divine life would no longer reach us in the usual way and
the affected part of the Body of Christ—an
individual person or a whole parish or diocesan community—would
finish being spiritually weakened by becoming deaf to the ever valid
call of the Incarnate Word: "Be converted", "Repent"
(Mt 4,15; Mk 1,15). Good pastors, like good doctors, know how to take
advantage of timely remedies to heal, and even better, to prevent such
an illness. It is in this positive perspective of salvation, of renewed
commitment to helping people rediscover the living and active presence
of the risen Lord in the sacrament that we must understand the present
disciplinary decree.
Protects right of the faithful to receive sacraments and the duty of
pastors to observe canons
This legislative document, a Motu Proprio entitled Misericordia
Dei concerning the proper celebration of a sacrament, is likewise an
act of ecclesiastical governance that is not only prudent and timely,
but also in full conformity with the magisterium of John Paul II on the
virtue of justice, seen as a primary demand of charity which, at the
same time, is inseparable from mercy in the juridical order of the
Church. In fact, the canonical norms concern the fulfilment of God's
merciful divine plan of salvation, in the light of which two realities
prominent in the Motu Proprio reveal their dimension of justice. They
are: on the one hand, the fundamental right of the faithful to receive
from the sacred pastors the sacraments instituted by Christ (cf. CIC,
can. 213), in this case the sacrament of forgiveness and of divine
mercy; and on the other, the relative duty of sacred pastors to
lay down the canonical and liturgical norms that guarantee the valid and
licit celebration of the sacraments (cf. CIC, can. 841) and have
them applied with diligence. In the introduction to the Motu Proprio,
the Roman Pontiff therefore declares that he is addressing "my
Brother Bishops and, through them all priests, to undertake a vigorous
revitalization of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is a requirement
of genuine charity and true pastoral justice, and we should remember
that the faithful, when they have the proper interior dispositions, have
the right to receive personally the sacramental gift".
Confession is the only ordinary way; priests should be available to
hear confessions
On the basis of this principle, the binding norms of this document—awaited
by many at the last Assembly of the Synod of Bishops—concern
in the first place the sole ordinary means by which the faithful,
conscious of grave sin, can receive the divine pardon, that is,
individual confession with the absolution by the minister of the
sacrament (a bishop or priest), who himself acts in the name and with
the authority of God, the Father of Mercy. Therefore all those who have
been entrusted with the care of souls (bishops, parish priests,
chaplains, etc.) are reminded that they have the obligation—juridical,
but also moral—to provide that
the individual confessions of the faithful be heard, and to this end
days and times should be fixed for their convenience in the respective
churches, shrines, etc. All priests with faculties to administer
the Sacrament of Penance are also invited—even
if they are burdened with other commitments—always
to be readily available for the administration of this sacrament of
forgiveness and joy, which the faithful are invited to
"rediscover" and which many perhaps are unconsciously seeking.
Norms on integrity of confession, personal dispositions of penitent
Continuing along those same lines of a disciplinary revitalization of
the sacrament, other canonical norms are also reasserted: concerning the
integrity of confession, which cannot be reduced to a mere general
accusation of sin (n. 3); regarding the personal disposition of
penitents (n. 7); concerning the appropriate place for sacramental
celebration, generally a church or an oratory (n. 9a); regarding the
place of confessionals, which even with the variety of possible forms—must
be provided with "a fixed grille", so as to permit the
faithful and confessors themselves who may wish to make use of them to
do so freely (n. 9b), etc.
Norms for the extraordinary way of administering the sacrament
Secondly, the document concerns the extraordinary way of
administering the sacrament, that is, the absolution of a group of
penitents without prior individual confession. Two unique cases are
mentioned in which this exceptional possibility is foreseen: when
"the danger of death is imminent" and when there is a state of
"grave necessity". The latter can be deemed to exist
only "when, in the light of the number of penitents a supply of
confessors is not readily available to hear the confessions of
individuals in an appropriate way within an appropriate time, so that
penitents would be deprived of sacramental grace or Holy Communion for a
long time through no fault of their own" (CIC, can. 961 §
1,2º). In this regard, detailed explanations are now given to prevent
those erroneous or abusive interpretations which, regrettably, seem to
be very much present in some places.
Bishops' Conferences have to establish norms for extraordinary form
These normative clarifications refer precisely to the inseparability
and significance of the two conditions requested, that is: the
impossibility for individuals to have their confession heard "in an
appropriate way" and "within an appropriate time", and
the fact that penitents might otherwise be forced to remain deprived of
sacramental grace "for a long time". Judgement as to whether
these conditions exist is not a matter for the confessor but for the
respective bishop, in the light of the normative criteria which each
Bishops' Conference must establish as soon as possible with a general
decree for this purpose, as prescribed by the common law (cf. CIC,
can. 455, § 2). All this is to ensure "full harmony among the
Bishops' Conferences of the world in a matter so essential for the life
of the Church" (n. 6).
Norms for the Eastern Churches on grave necessity
Lastly it is worth noting the legislator's affirmation that what is
established in the Motu Proprio "by its nature, is also valid for
the venerable Eastern Catholic Churches, in conformity with the
respective canons of their own Code". These canons, in fact,
contain norms very similar to those of the Latin Code, differing from
them slightly on some points, especially with regard to the procedure
for establishing criteria concerning "grave necessity" in the
case of collective absolution, given that the Latin canonical
institution of Bishops' Conferences does not exist in the Eastern
Churches (cf. can. 720 § 3 of the Code of Canons of the
Eastern Churches, with reference to cann. 961 § 2 and 455 of the
Latin Code).
I would like to conclude by joining the Holy Father in warmly hoping
that this Apostolic Letter may contribute to a further revitalization of
the Sacrament of Penance, and serve to overcome difficulties in the
practice of this sacrament. Indeed, just as the Church, guided by the
Holy Spirit, has overcome other equally serious cultural and moral
crises and has succeeded once again in giving minds the taste for Truth,
Goodness and Beauty, so now she is strongly committed to sowing again in
human hearts the need to rediscover the sense of sin so as to rediscover
the sense of God's mercy.
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