Doppelganger

Inclusivity in the Church According to [a]Catholica

From a comment on the [a]Catholica website by Brian Coyne:

"We seem to have an institution today which, at its highest realms is populated by this curious alliance between bullies and effeminate mummy's boys whose chief interest is liturgical styles, bling, cappa magnas, and "Catholic eye-candy". The bunch of them are freakin' pooftas who are afraid to out themselves — the very worst kind of individuals who neither "know themselves" [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself] or are candidly honest with themselves"

I take it that's a "no" to gay marriage, then.

Inquisitorial/Medieval/Byzantine.

Oh, Barney!

I am not sure how Barney Zwartz, Religion Editor of The Age newspaper, reconciles these two statements in his opinion piece today, “Inquisition’s heavy hand remains poised to strike”.

“the absence of any appeal, the denial of natural justice and the flouting of canon (church) law are all classical Inquisition tactics”

And

“the Holy Inquisition …had very clear procedures and was considered a model of
jurisprudence in the Europe of the time."

Moving on from that, though, in an effort to understand where Justice Carter and Father Ian Waters are coming from in their respective claims that Bishop Morris’s forced retirement was a denial of natural justice (Carter) and that the pope had breached Canon Law and exceeded his authority (Waters), I reached for my copy of the Code of Canon Law.

Now I know that the law is full of traps for we who are not lawyers. But I do read in Canon 333

§1. By virtue of his office, the Roman Pontiff not only possesses power over the universal Church but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over
all particular churches and groups of them. Moreover, this primacy
strengthens and protects the proper, ordinary, and immediate power which
bishops possess in the particular churches entrusted to their care.

The Canon continues

§2. In fulfilling the office of supreme pastor of the Church, the Roman Pontiff is always joined in communion with the other bishops and with the universal
Church. He nevertheless has the right, according to the needs of the Church,
to determine the manner, whether personal or collegial, of exercising this
office.”

But I am not a lawyer so maybe Fr Waters knows best.

Anyway, §3 of Canon 333, “No appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff " would not seem to apply because the pope didn’t issue a sentence or decree, there wasn’t a court-case, he simply exercised his office "according to the needs" of the Church in the manner he determined.

About natural justice, we in this Cloister know little. (That’s supposed to be a joke, people.) But from what little we know about it, it would seem applying such key principles of natural justice as “Audi alteram partem” might have required Bishop Morris to actually have taken the opportunities he was given to go to Rome and talk. But all this implies there was some sort of court process which led to the bishop being “penalised” in some way.

Bishop Morris hasn’t been penalised as the result of some flawed judicial process. He had his retirement drawn out of him for the good of the Church in the estimation of the Supreme Pontiff.

If that is what Barney Zwartz calls a “medieval attitude to authority” then thank God for it!

As for Fr Waters, here’s a principal of natural justice that he may wish to ponder on at some length: “Nemo judex in causa sua.”

Now, pilgrims, for your ready reference here's Barney's Checklist for Journalists and Bloggers of Terms to be Applied when Writing about the Pope:

• Inquisition
• Secret
• Minority
• Ordination of Women
• Hierarchy
• Byzantine
• Progressive Catholics
• Pharisees
• Some reference to an item of papal attire

Farewell Fr Bob, its a Vocation not a Job!

Less than a month since he allowed a Pagan Handfasting Ceremony to take place at a Brighton Catholic church while presiding over a marriage ceremony, Fr Bob Maguire has delivered his last Mass as Parish Priest of the St Peter & Paul Parish in South Melbourne.

The Mass which was delivered on Saturday night attracted an 'audience' of more than 1000 people. His final mass attracted broad media attention and was also webcast online.

One 'theatre goer' hung a pair of boxing gloves around his neck as he left the church which got some in the Cloister to thinking this might be a fitting tribute...

Lost in Liturgical Space

New font for the Sistine Chapel baptisms.

Madness.