NO. 143 SEPTEMBER 2005
1. Two Documents on
the Liturgy from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England & Wales
[Mgr Gordon Read]
2. Pathological
Gambling and Marital Consent [Rev Augustine Mendonca & Dr Patrick
Morris]
3. Statistics and What
they Can Tell Us About Marriage, Divorce and Annulments 1851-2001
[Derek Vidler]
4. Difficult
Respondents [Fr Kevin Matthews]
5. Sentence on
Baptismal Entry [Tribunal of Melbourne] (12th July, 2001)
6. Letter to the Holy
Father from the CLSGBI (9th July, 2005)
7. Letter from the
CLSA to the CLSGBI on London's Bombings (7th July, 2005)
8. Letter to the
Presidents of the Conferences of Bishops on Competence for
Dispensations from the Priesthood and Diaconate [Congregation for
Divine Worship & the Discipline of the Sacraments] (13th July, 2005)
9. Obituary: Mgr
Gerald Chidgey
The English translation of the
General Instruction of the Roman Missal (Institutio Generalis
Romani) was published in 2002 (ICEL).
The GIRM was canonically approved for use by the Catholic
Bishops of England and Wales on 14 November 2002. This was
subsequently confirmed by the Holy See on 17 August 2004. This
Translation has now (6 January 2005) been made available in England
and Wales. The text was published in April 2005, together with a
Pastoral Introduction by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England
and Wales. This Pastoral Introduction has a Foreword by
Bishop Arthur Roche, the Chairman of the Department for Christian
Life and Worship of the Conference.
The GIRM is the approved
translation for England and Wales of the text contained in the
Third Edition of the Roman Missal and as such emanates
from the Holy See. The Pastoral Guide Celebrating the Mass
comes from the Bishops’ Conference. It is stressed that this is a
Guide, not legislation. The Commentary on the Guide has been
prepared by Monsignor Gordon Read. [See Document No. I]
Monsignor Read interestingly draws attention to some discrepancies
between the provisions of GIRM and the Guide.
Monsignor Read leaves it to the readers of CLSN to draw their own
conclusions as to whether these (some or all of them) discrepancies
are merely elements deriving from simplification or perhaps from a
different theological approach or emphasis.
It is interesting to learn that George
Washington was an inveterate card player; and that Columbus carried
cars and dice to the new world. A walk down the back streets in Hong
Kong reveals not only the prevalence of gambling amongst the Chinese
population there; but the Chinese’s amazing ability of turning
anything of a chancy nature into a formalised gamble: like the
length of time it takes for a fellow to fall from a fixed place to
the ground; or for a cockroach to travel two feet on the ground; or
how often a caged bird caged on a balcony of a block of flats
changes its tune.
Just as gambling is so prevalent,
studies show that equally pathological gambling is prevalent.
From the fun of the parlour, gambling can spread to the
psychiatrist’s couch. It seems that the move from social gambling to
pathological gambling is greatly (though not entirely) stimulated by
the very availability of gambling. With the increased availability
of gambling there is a rise in the prevalence of pathological
gambling. A variety of studies has shown that the nature of
pathological gambling is such as to render its victims incapable of
establishing and sustaining the intimate conjugal and parental
community of life and love as it is called for in marriage. CLSN has
been fortunate in securing permission for another study and analysis
by Professor Augustine Mendonça; this time on pathological effects
of gambling. Permission has kindly been granted by Studia
Canonica as well as from Professor Mendonça and his
distinguished (though now sadly deceased) colleague, Dr Patrick
Morris (cf. Studia Canonica 36 (2002) [See Document
No.II].
Statistical information on these three
topics is available through the office of National Statistics. This
survey – By Father Derek Vidler of Southwark – has been concentrated
between the time of the establishment of the Roman Catholic
Hierarchy in 1850 and thereafter. There are some interesting
population statistics provided here, such as the rise in the general
population between 1851 and 2000 of 189%; but in the one hundred
years from 1901 to 2001 the rise was 60%. Two world wards
intervened. Another interesting statistic which has a social (as
well as medical) implication is that when the old aged pension was
first introduced in the first half of the 20th Century,
it was foreseen that most people would only survive two or three
years beyond the pensionable age. This figure has, of course, risen
to twenty and sometimes thirty years after pensionable age. The
social and economic impacts of these statistics are now being felt.
When the figures are directly pointed
to religious matters, it is interesting to see what has been
regarded as a considerable drop in baptism is now shown to be
nothing like what it was generally commented upon. For example, the
percentage of Catholic baptisms of the national birth rate in 1924
was 9.8%; and in 2001 it was 10%.
A similar pointer is illustrated by
marriage. In 1851 the percentage of Catholic marriages against the
national rate was 4%. In 2001 it was 5.8% (this, of course, would be
spikes & blips produced by Tametsi and Ne Temere
). Turning to annulments in 1967 there were only 26
petitions for annulment in England and Wales. But as the sixties
were ending, the work which had been done (specially by Keating) and
then this translated into actual cases in 1968-1974 in England and
Wales and the United States, meant a huge rise in the number of
annulments in England and Wales; from 26 in 1967 to 177 in 1974.
This number continued increasing. In 1978 there were 1200 petitions;
and by the middle 1980s petitions had risen to nearly 2000. From
the mid-1990s the number decreased: 1600 Petitioners in 1995 and
8508 Petitioners in 2001. This considerable drop has its background
in a great number of old marriages which had broken down being
“cleared away”; and now fewer marriages, across the board taking
place; and not just amongst Catholics; and also there are now being
fewer people of marriageable age (although the age for the first
marriage is climbing); and finally the greater number of people
living together “without the benefit of clergy”. [See Document
No.III]
The CLSN has already published a
piece which had to do with litigious Respondents; and the proposed
aid in such cases was in fact to deploy utterly inarguable
procedures. The idea was that if the procedure was right, then a
Tribunal would have nothing to fear from a litigious Respondent.
However, at the 2004 Conference of the CLSANZ, Fr Kevin Matthews (a
priest of the Diocese of Port Pirie in South Australia) gave a whole
general overview of what he describes as “cantankerous, ignorant,
impossible, hostile, violent, threatening, missing, even dangerous”
Respondent. Fr Matthews indicates something that all Tribunal
workers know “Respondents come in a variety of guises with a variety
of attitudes towards their former partner in marriage and towards
Tribunals”. He goes on to comment: “sometimes the Respondent is the
problem; sometimes they might bring out the worst in the Auditor who
might then be seen as part of the problem”.
Fr Matthews indicates that the personal
effect of the parties who appear before or who have dealings with
the Tribunal, can vary between the traumatic and the therapeutic. He
says: “the traumatic effect is often, rightly or wrongly, attributed
to the personalities working in a Tribunal. The therapeutic effect
and coming to terms with a marriage that was doomed from the outset
is often attributed to the care and understanding shown by the
members of the Tribunal”. The paper given by Fr Matthews follows at
Document No. IV. [The Proceedings of the 38th
Annual Conference of the CLSANZ: 13-16 September 2004, Surfers
Paradise, Queensland].
In many dioceses, the Bishops have
been bothered over a considerable period of time by persons seeking
this or that remedy for some particular action (regarded by the
person as unjust). This may arise from some alleged act of (say) a
parish priest who has done something to upset the parishioner.
Sometimes the act of the parish priest can fall under the heading of
straightforward negligence. In this country, dioceses are protected
under a third party liability insurance to protect them from
the worst ravages of alleged clerical incompetence. For example the
priest who mishandles an initial approach from a parishioner to
arrange a marriage: papers are sought, forms are filled in, dates
are fixed, and most of all the hall is booked and the whole rolls
Royce has been ordered. The relatives are on the way from the
United States, Australia, South Africa and wherever; and at the last
moment the wedding has to be deferred. This could probably be a new
priest’s nightmare. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter,
there is usually a third party liability insurance cover to deal
with this; and “this” can develop into serious money. After all
flights from USA, Australia, South Africa and wherever can mount up,
so can the cancelled reception and transport arrangements.
Most dioceses either had or
contemplated such scenes of anguish but what of the situation when
a mother discovers that the baptism entry of her child born
some fifteen years before had either been incorrectly entered into
the baptismal register or subsequent change. The mother approaches
the Bishop and wants the priest in question to be punished for
infringing the mother’s rights and by breaking the terms of Roman
Catholic Canon Law. Some Bishops just pray that the wretched matter
will go away; or piously hope that the woman would emigrate. Even
the priest who completed the baptismal register would be overcome by
Hurricane Katrina. However, nothing like that has rattled the cage
in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. It seems that when there is such a
matter of that kind, it is translated into an incredibly efficient
Tribunal case concerning the mother’s rights. A case is brought by
the mother against the priest; and argued in jurisprudential form
from beginning to end; with the Tribunal sentence published for all
to see (with names concealed). This endeavour of jurisprudential
precision and exactitude is summarised in a sentence and presented
in the CLSANZ Newsletter for 2005, No.1 [ See Document No.V].
This, by the way, is another approach to difficult Respondents in a
previous document.
The President of the Canon Law
Society sent a message of congratulations in the name of the
Society to the Holy Father. A very pleasant response was sent by
Monsignor Gabrielle Caccia, and Assessor of the Secretariat of State
on behalf of the Holy Father [See Document No.VI].
Fr Art Espelage, the Executive
Coordinator of The Canon Law Society of America sent a Message to
the CLS expressing sympathy and prayers. [See Document No.VII]
A message has been received by all
dioceses from around the world in connection with the competence of
the Roman Dicasteries in dispensations from the priesthood and the
diaconate. It will be recalled that from 1963 (and before) the
competence in such cases belong to the Holy Office; and it was then
transferred from the CDF to the Congregation for Divine Worship and
Discipline of the Sacraments. On 13 July 2005, this competence was
transferred (for new cases) to the Congregation of the Clergy. Cases
already in Rome will still be completed by the Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
It will be recalled that the draft Code
which went for final approval to the Holy Father in October 1982
was altered in respect of married deacons. Under the pre-October
1982 Code, where a permanent deacon’s wife had died, he could (for
obvious family and pastoral reasons) apply to be remarried. The Code
as approved by the Holy Father and promulgated in 1983 removed the
possibility of remarriage of such a deacon. Of course, this did not
preclude a special approach to the Holy See; but permissions to
remarry were not frequently granted. In this communication from the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments, Cardinal Arinze, the Prefect, states that “deacons who
are widowed and who desire to celebrate new weddings may present
their cases to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the
Discipline of the Sacraments. [See Document No.VIII]. This is
a decision of the present Holy Father.
Members of the CLS will have been
saddened to learn of the death of Monsignor Gerald Chidgey (4 August
2005), aged 85 years. It is interesting to learn from his obituary
that he was xxx up in the Spanish Peninsula from just before the
Spanish Civil War until the end of World War II. He was sent just at
the wrong time. During this period he pursued his studies for the
priesthood, was ordained, obtained a Doctorate of Canon Law at
Santander and as if to keep his hand in, undertook a little secret
work for British Intelligence in Spain. He just missed being one of
the Founding Fathers of the CLS, but joined within a year.
He was well known as a parish priest in his Diocese of Cardiff, his
work in the Cardiff Tribunal as well as being extremely busy with
the Appeal Tribunal of Birmingham as a Judge. He was a faithful
participant at CLS Conferences in the early days at Southwell House
and onwards after that. He was a friend, an adviser, a kindly
support for anyone who approached him. May he rest in peace. [See
Document No. IX for his Obituary].
The following series of Roman Replies
and CLSA Advisory Opinions are still available from the CLSA.
Obtainable from: CLSA Publications, 9050 Junction Drive, PO Box 463,
Annapolis Junction, Maryland 20701 – 0463.
- Roman
Replies and CLSA Advisory Opinions (2004) List Price $17.00
vii + 216 pp. ISBN: 1-932208-05-4.
- Roman
Replies and CLSA Advisory Opinions (2003) viii+136 pp. List
Price $17.00 vii + 216 pp. ISBN: 1-932208-02-X.
- Roman
Replies and CLSA Advisory Opinions (2002) viii+187 pp. List
Price $27.85. ISBN: 0-943616-95-6.
- Roman
Replies and CLSA Advisory Opinions (2001) viii+192 pp. List
Price $17.95. ISBN: 0-943616-90-5
- Roman
Replies and CLSA Advisory Opinions (2000) viii+174 pp. List
Price $14.00. ISBN: 0-943616-86-7
Fax: (301) 206
9789. www.clsa.org
Visa and Mastercards are accepted
(minimum charge $15).
