STATE
OF NECESSITY IN THE CHURCH – THE CASE FOR IRELAND
Dear Friends
and Benefactors of the Society in Ireland,
When Pope Benedict XVI conceded
to Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of our priestly Society,
on a meeting held at the papal residence in Castelgandolfo, 29
August 2005, that there could be a state of necessity for the Church
in France and Germany, he may have added Ireland. But the Holy
Father does not know Father Iggy of Drogheda. At least not yet...
A state of necessity exists when by obeying a
positive law, one risks losing a good or incurring an evil. The law
forbids me to break into my neighbour's house, but I will do it if I
do not see old Mrs. O'Connell for two consecutive days and she does
not answer the door nor the telephone. In fact, not to do so would
constitute a fault on my part.
In the
Church, as in civil society, it is conceivable that there arrive a
state of necessity which cannot be surmounted by the observance of
positive ecclesiastical law. Such a situation exists when the
endurance, order, or activity of the Church are threatened or harmed
in a considerable manner. This threat bears principally on the
sacred doctrine, the liturgy, and the discipline, which are
supernatural goods, essential to the salvation of souls.
A situation
of deep crisis in the Church, when those goods were universally in
danger, justified the episcopal consecrations performed on 30 June
1988 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and
Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer. They invoked a state of necessity
and then proceeded to do their duty as Catholic bishops. They did
not incur any censures because the Code of Canon Law promulgated
in 1983 by Pope John Paul II specifies that one cannot be subject to
canonical penalties if one violates a law or precept out of
necessity (canon 1323, 4), even in the case of an erroneous judgment
about the existence of a state of necessity, as long as the mistake
is made in good faith (canon 1323, 7).
And just
when many pious souls started to doubt that the state of necessity
continues, in comes the ineffable Augustinian prior of Drogheda,
Father Iggy O'Donovan, inviting the local Church of Ireland pastor
to concelebrate the Novus Ordo Mass on Easter Sunday.
We read in
The Irish Times of 18 April 2006 that the Reverend Michael
Graham was received with a prolonged applause by the large
congregation when he appeared at the altar. Father Iggy explained
that "the Christian Church of the future
has to be one in which the different traditions are united in a
shared service of the Risen Christ and in which we are enriched and
not threatened by our differences." The participation of Pastor
Graham in the ceremony was not the one of a mere praying witness. In
priestly vestments, he concelebrated the mass at the altar, "sharing
in the consecration in all its fullness and raising the chalice." A
"wonderful occasion" in which for the first time "the Eucharist was
concelebrated in Drogheda by a Catholic priest of the Anglican
tradition in a Catholic church of the Roman tradition since the
Reformation."
Canon 908 forbids
Catholic priests "to concelebrate the Eucharist with priests or
ministers of Churches or ecclesial communities which do not have
full communion with the Catholic Church." And the Instruction
Redemptionis Sacramentum of 24 March 2004 includes among the
graviora delicta against the
sanctity of the Most August Sacrifice "the concelebration of the
Eucharistic Sacrifice with ministers of Ecclesial Communities that
do not have the apostolic succession nor acknowledge the sacramental
dignity of priestly Ordination."
Although it
claims to be Catholic in the sense of being in possession of a
continuous tradition of faith and practice, the Church of Ireland is
a Reformed Protestant denomination, a self-governing part of the Anglican
Communion, whose beliefs are contained in The Book of the
Articles of Religion, commonly called the Thirty-nine
Articles of the Protestant Synods of Dublin, held in 1634 and in
1870. You can find them in the Book of Common Prayer used
today by the Church of Ireland, or simply visit their official
website here.
The beliefs of the Church of
Ireland deny the dogma of transubstantiation
and the Real Presence. Article 28 declares that
"Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and
Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but
is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the
nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many
superstitions. The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the
Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means
whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is
Faith. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's
ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped." This
contradicts explicitly the Catholic doctrine on transubstantiation
as defined forever in 1551 by the Council of Trent:
"By the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a
change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the
body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into
the substance of his blood. This change the Holy Catholic Church has
fittingly and properly called transubstantiation" (Session XIII,
chapter IV). And for recent texts less suspect of Lefebvrism, read
the Encyclical Mysterium Fidei of Pope Paul VI, 3 September 1965,
reiterating solemnly the same doctrine; and The Catechism of the
Catholic Church of 1992, articles 1373-1381.
The beliefs of the Church of Ireland condemn the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass as a superstition. Article 31 clarifies that "the
Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption,
propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world,
both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for
sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the
which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the
living and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were
blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits." The Catholic Church
teaches that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and
the dead. "Inasmuch as in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated
in the Mass is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner the
same Christ who once offered himself in a bloody manner on the altar
of the cross; the holy council teaches that this is truly
propitiatory, and that if we, contrite and penitent, with sincere
heart and upright faith, with fear and reverence, draw nigh to God,
we obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid. For, appeased by
this sacrifice, the Lord grants the grace and gift of penitence, and
pardons even the gravest crimes and sins." (Council of Trent,
Session XXII, chapter II).
The Church of Ireland
does not have a valid
apostolic priesthood.
Its Article 36, on the consecration of bishops and ministers, says
that "the Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops, and
Ordering of Priests and Deacons, lately set forth in the time of
Edward the Sixth, and confirmed at the same time by authority of
Parliament, doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration
and Ordering: neither hath it any thing, that of itself is
superstitious and ungodly. And therefore whosoever are consecrated
or ordered according to the Rites of that Book, since the second
year of the forenamed King Edward unto this time, or hereafter shall
be consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites; we decree all
such to be rightly, orderly, and lawfully consecrated and ordered."
Yet Pope Leo XIII, in the dogmatic Bull Apostolicae Curae of
13 September 1896, based the invalidity of the Anglican orders on
the fact among others, that in the consecrating formula of
the Edwardine Ordinal
of 1552 there is nowhere an unambiguous declaration regarding the Sacrifice
of the Mass.
What happened at Drogheda is an
extraordinary outrage, a
scandal without precedent in the long history of liturgical abuses
left unpunished by the Irish bishops. Who can deny after this that
the Catholic doctrine, liturgy, and discipline are at risk in
Ireland? And the two wicked questions that my readers are expecting:
1) Why is it that a Protestant minister whose
denomination's beliefs
explicitly reject
transubstantiation, the Real Presence, the propitiatory nature of
the Mass, and the sacrificial priesthood, has no problem in
concelebrating the Novus Ordo Missae?
Probably because, in the words written by Cardinals Alfredo
Ottaviani and Antonio Bacci to Pope Paul VI on 25 September 1969: "the
Novus Ordo Missae represents a
striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Holy Mass as it
was formulated in Session XXII of the Council of Trent, which by
fixing definitively the canons of the rite, erected an
insurmountable barrier against any heresy which might attack the
integrity of the Mystery"; and 2)
Would Reverend Graham
and Father Iggy celebrate the Tridentine Mass? Maybe at ... but
definitely not at St. John's!
May God have mercy on the Irish bishops
if they don't react to this abomination.
*
Retreats in Orlagh for men (June 12-16) and women (June 19-13);
contact Father Bierer at St. John's for
details. Pray for the General Chapter of
the Society of St. Pius X to be held at the Seminary of Ecône next
July. And continue to pray always for your priests, who bless you
with grateful hearts, in Jesus, Mary, and
Joseph
Father Ramón
Anglés
