More Reactions to Traditionis Custodes

Only those who GO INTO schism are liable for that crime. But creating conditions that provoke others to go into schism is its own grave sin, and those who create such conditions will be held accountable for THAT offense. Indeed they are liable for their provocation in any event.

— Edward Peters (@canonlaw) July 16, 2021

Why the Pope's merciless war against the Old Rite matters https://t.co/CM3rTiUerK via @spectator

— Tim Stanley (@timothy_stanley) July 17, 2021

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski destroys the Pope's new motu proprio: "Francis’s anti-TLM motu proprio has all the charm of a decree by Stalin ordering the purge of Ukrainian dissidents." This is war!https://t.co/Lfxcx0dYmY

— Michael J. Matt (@Michael_J_Matt) July 16, 2021

Ed Peters on the Revisions to Canon Law

A few thoughts on the revised Book VI of the Code https://t.co/3fX2wLyal7

— Edward Peters (@canonlaw) June 1, 2021

Ed Peters Responds to Adam DeVille

Ignoring law is not remedied by ignoring it even more

The crux:

According to canon law, the Roman Pontiff (nb: a human being) “possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.” 1983 CIC 331. Surely some indication from DeVille that he is aware of this law, and of the doctrinal values behind it, is owed lest he seem to imply that, in establishing Peter as the one Rock, Our Lord invited disaster upon his Church.

Further according to canon law, the College of Bishops (nb: a small group of people) “is also the subject of supreme and full power over the universal Church.” 1983 CIC 336. Again, no indication is given that DeVille sees how Our Lord’s vesting supreme and full power in this tiny group of believers passes muster under DeVille’s supposedly foundational maxim.

But these claims that I have underlined are theological or ecclesial, particular to the patriarchate of Rome, and not "canonical" and certainly not reflecting the canons of the Church Universal.

But the solution to unenforced canon and civil law is not the further and complete ignoring of those laws and the fashioning of new, institutionally unsound procedures resting on fantastical histories and flimsy logic. The solution is the enforcement of laws by Church and State officials and the visitation of harsh penalties on the perpetrators of wicked crimes.

New laws may be necessary. Is the logic flimsy? I don't think so -- more likely than not, they are logically sound with respect to DeVille's ecclesiological principles. One can debate whether those principles are sanctioned by Tradition, but the ecclesiological principles as held by the patriarchate of Rome may be dear to Rome but they are not universally accepted.

The Idolatry of Human Niceness Masquerading as Mercy

First Things: Why Biden Was Denied Communion by Edward Peters

CNA/CWR: Cardinal Dolan on Biden communion denial: ‘I wouldn’t do it’
“If only saints could receive Holy Communion, we wouldn’t have anybody at Mass, including myself, alright?” Dolan said.

CWR Dispatch: The cerberus of clerical sexual misconduct: a canonical overview by Edward N. Peters
It behooves all to understand what canon law does, and does not, say about these matters so that discussion of responses to the crisis may proceed more efficiently.

original

First Among Equals? Or the Final Arbiter?

One more thing from Ed Peters's essay on the change in the CCC:

But that’s where confusion sets in: while popes can, in a singleextraordinary act, assert something with infallible certitude sufficient to bind the faithful in belief or morals (Canon 749 § 1), no pope can, by a single ordinary act, assert something with anything like the equivalent force for Christian consciences.

If infallibility seems to be logically required for the Pope to arbitrate two disputing claims regarding dogma (and even that may be more of a practical, linguistic preference rather than a question about the reality being signified), or for the pope with a council to teach definitively (if infallibility is necessarily guaranteed only with respect to the act of teaching, and not also with the act of reception by the Christian faithful), then does it entail that the pope is infallible when he speaks alone, even if he has supposedly "consulted" the bishops of the world? If the Pope has no divinely sanctioned role as a "universal" teacher, and his role with respect to the Church Universal is limited to his cooperative role with respect to other bishops, speaking collectively as a body, then how can it be claimed that his "extraordinary" acts as a "universal" teacher (even if "taught" by Vatican I) are infallible? Where is the justification in the historical exercise of the office of the bishop of Rome in the first millenium for this?

Ed Peters on the Recent Change to the CCC

The death penalty debate and the Church’s magisterium by Edward N. Peters
I regard the liceity of the death penalty as having been established with infallible certitude by the Church’s ordinary magisterium.

The ordinary magisterium, one must see, takes a long, long time, to develop; it requires repetition and consistency over many generations, this, not simply on the part of popes but also by the bishops around the world, and even incorporates, to some extent, the lived acceptance of teachings by Catholic pastors, academics, and rank-and-file faithful through time.

This however applies to the theologoumena of the Latins as well.

Exactly

Ed Peters on what seems to be the latest publicity stunt for the "populist, pastoral" pope: Thoughts on a Mid-Air Marriage (original)

In his update, Peters reports that this may have been a planned event. If that is the case, did the same person who got this to happen also have the conscience necessary to make sure the necessary vetting of the couple was done? Even if that were the case, the fact that this was publicized as a spontaneous event and to maintain a certain image of the pope speaks volumes about the papacy.

Ed Peters on Pauline Privilege

Is the ‘Pauline Privilege’ an exception to Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage? Edward N. Peters
(original)

CWR: From what, precisely, are Amoris Laetitia “dissenters” dissenting? by Christopher R. Altieri
If even Pope Francis could be unsure about the orthodoxy of his controversial post-Synodal Exhortation, surely the faithful will be allowed to have perplexities of various kinds regarding it?

Related: Canon 17 does not let us undercut Canon 915 and what it protects: A response to Stephen Walford by
Edward N. Peters (original)

Peters Responds to De Mattei

Comments on Prof. Robert De Mattei’s response about AL, canon law, and heresy (original)

Sandro Magister: The Pope Has Spoken. But the Doubts Have Not Disappeared, Nor Has Cardinal Caffarra

Canon 915

Pope Francis’ letter to the Argentine bishops is in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. Now what? by Edward N. Peters

Canon 915 and the fundamental sacramental and moral values behind it might be forgotten, ignored, or ridiculed, but unless and until that law is revoked or modified by papal legislative action or is effectively neutered by pontifically approved “authentic interpretation” (1983 CIC 16), it binds ministers of holy Communion.

(original)

Peters Responds to Fastiggi

Sententia communis? Just ‘sententia communis’? (CWR Dispatch)

CWR Dispatch: The Catholic Church recognizes most of the world’s ‘civil marriages’ by Edward N. Peters

Catholics should not be misled by thinking that “civil marriage” is not usually real marriage or think that any approval of “same-sex marriage” is consistent with Church teaching—because it isn’t.

(original)

CWR Dispatch: Three ways to not deal with Canon 915 by Edward N. Peters
Or, three ways in which the "pro-Amoris" wing is trying to get around the Church's clear teachings about admitting divorced-and-remarried Catholics to holy Communion.

(original)

His latest: Maybe ‘adjusting’ Canon 915 is not such a good idea after all

Edward Pentin: Bishop Grech Defends ‘Maltese Guidelines’ in Radio Interview
Says he and Archbishop Scicluna are in “complete unity” with Pope Francis, thereby offering a “guarantee that the teaching is authentic.”

The Interview with Cardinal Caffarra

CWR: “Only a blind man can deny that there is great confusion in the Church.” (Crux)
An interview with Carlo Cardinal Caffarra about "Amoris Laetitia", the reasons for the dubia, criticisms of the 4 Cardinals, and "the division among shepherds"

Related:
Ed Peters: The Maltese directive makes answering the ‘dubia’ urgent (CWR Dispatch)

Your Eminence, Is There a Danger to the Faith Now?

Ed Peters: The Maltese Disaster (via Fr. Z)

CWR Dispatch: Is Fr. Paul Keller’s essay really the way "Amoris Laetitia" should be read? by Edward N. Peters
Keller’s essay illustrates how pastors are going to stumble into accepting the central flaw in AL: implicitly assuming that a Catholic’s assessment of his or her own conscience is the sole criterion governing a minister’s decision to give holy Communion to a member of the faithful.

(original)

CWR: The Holiness of Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J.
A review of With God in America, a new volume containing various writings and interviews with the remarkable American priest who spent 23 years in Stalinist prisons.
By Edward N. Peters

With God in America landed on my desk hot off the press in September but various projects prevented me from turning to it for some weeks. Finally, late one Monday morning, I poured a cup of hot tea and settled down in my comfy recliner to peruse this collection of writings by and recollections about the American Jesuit missionary, Fr...