During this summer, I am going to publish a new article series on Christianfaith.info with the title “Christian Preparedness Guides”. In this series, I am going to discuss what one can do as a Catholic to in extraordinary times.
What to do if I need to perform an emergency baptism?
How do I contract marriage if the hierarchy is doubtful (e.g. there is no legitimate parish priest available)?
How do I prepare as a relative of a sick person for a visit of a priest conferring Anointing of the Sick?
Where can I find and download Catholic documents and books?
In this article series, I will be drawing inspiration from the book “Gemeinden ohne Seelsorger” (“Parishes without a Priest”), published in the Archdiocese of Paderborn in 1874 with ecclesiastical approbation. I have already published excerpts from this book. The references to the Code of Canon Law refer to its status as of March 2013, since Bergoglio never was the pope.
In this introduction article, I am going to mention a few principles which are valid even in extraordinary times.
Catholic priests
For the purposes of this article series, the word “priest” means a validly ordained Catholic priest who is not a heretic or a schismatic. The old Code of Canon Law published in 1917 explicitly stated in Can. 188.4 that “Any office becomes vacant upon the fact and without any declaration by tacit resignation recognized by the law itself if a cleric: […] Publicly defects from the Catholic faith”. The current Code of Canon Law is more vague, but it does state in 194 §1: “The following are removed from an ecclesiastical office by the law itself: […] a person who has publicly defected from the Catholic faith or from the communion of the Church”. The book “Parishes without a Priest” puts it succinctly: „Communion in religious matters with heretics and schismatics, that is, with those separated from the Church by heresy or schism, is strictly forbidden.”
Protestant services
It is forbidden for Catholics to go to Protestant church services. There is an exception for purely passive participation for a grave reason, for example, attending baptisms, weddings or funerals. Active participation, that is, singing and praying along, is always forbidden. This means that if one lives in a region where there is no Mass, but there are Protestant churches, one has to stay at home instead of going to a Protestant service.
Obviously, this also means that Catholics are not allowed to have their children baptized by Protestant ministers and cannot contract marriage in front of them.
The Sacraments
Before we start this article series, we need to draw some distinctions. Out of the seven sacraments, Baptism is the most important Sacrament and it can be celebrated by anyone in case of emergency (Can. 861 §2).
In the case of Matrimony, the spouses confer the Sacrament upon each other, and the priest is just the representative of the Church, which is why lay people authorized by the bishop can assist at marriages “where there is a lack of priests and deacons” (Can. 1112 §1).
Holy Orders can only be conferred by a bishop (Can. 1012). Confession (Can. 965), Anointing of the Sick (Can. 1003 §1) can only conferred by priests, and of course the Eucharist (Can. 900 §1) can only be celebrated by a priest. Confirmation can be conferred by a bishop or by a priest with permission from the bishop (Can. 882).
Confession and Marriage are sacraments which contain another element: jurisdiction. When it comes to Confession, Can. 966 and the canons that follow it explain that a priest must have a faculty for hearing confessions. When it comes to Marriage, Can. 1108 §1 explains that “[o]nly those marriages are valid which are contracted before the local ordinary, pastor, or a priest or deacon delegated by either of them”. I will explain the details in a later article.
When it comes to Church services, there is a clear distinction to be made. Only a priest can celebrate Holy Mass. Lay people can celebrate liturgies of the word.
Can. 230 §3 states: “When the need of the Church warrants it and ministers are lacking, lay persons, even if they are not lectors or acolytes, can also supply certain of their duties, namely, to exercise the ministry of the word, to preside over liturgical prayers, to confer baptism, and to distribute Holy Communion, according to the prescripts of the law.”
Can 1248 §2 states: “If participation in the eucharistic celebration becomes impossible because of the absence of a sacred minister or for another grave cause, it is strongly recommended that the faithful take part in a liturgy of the word if such a liturgy is celebrated in a parish church or other sacred place according to the prescripts of the diocesan bishop or that they devote themselves to prayer for a suitable time alone, as a family, or, as the occasion permits, in groups of families.”
Downloading Catholic documents, articles and books
In this article series, I am also going to discuss ways to find and efficiently save and store large amounts of Catholic documents, public domain books and other resources from the Internet.
The first article in this series is going to be about contracting marriage when there is no legitimate parish priest available.