Travel and Catholics' Sunday Obligation to Attend Mass

Can You Take a Vacation From Worshiping God?

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There are two different ways to look at our Sunday obligation to participate in Mass when we are away from home. First, is that obligation waived if we are away from our home parish? And second, are there circumstances that can lessen our culpability if we miss Mass?

The Sunday Obligation

The Sunday obligation is one of the Precepts of the Church , duties that the Catholic Church requires of all the faithful. These aren't mere guidelines, but rather a list of things that the Church teaches is necessary for Christians to do in order to advance in the Christian life. For that reason, they are binding under pain of mortal sin, so it's important not to disregard them for anything less than serious reasons.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the first precept is "You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor." You'll notice that the statement isn't qualified; it does not say, "When you are at home" or "When you're no more than X miles away from your home parish." Our obligation is binding on every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation , no matter where we are.

Reasonable Exceptions

That said, we may find ourselves in circumstances in which we are unable to fulfill our Sunday obligation, and the reader has suggested one. Of course, if we find ourselves on Sunday morning in a town with which we're unfamiliar, we should do our best to locate a Catholic church and to attend Mass. But if, through no fault of our own, we discover that there is no church, or that we're unable to attend Mass at the scheduled time (for a good reason, and not, say, simply because we want to go swimming), then we haven't deliberately violated this precept of the Church.

If you have any doubts, of course, you should discuss the situation with a priest. Since we should not receive Holy Communion if we have committed a mortal sin, you could mention the circumstances to your priest in Confession , and he can advise you on whether you acted appropriately, and give you absolution if necessary.

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Do I have to go to Sunday Mass When Traveling?

Q. Is there an automatic dispensation from Sunday Mass for those who are traveling over the holidays or at other times?

A. No, there is not. Catholics have a serious obligation to attend Mass on Sundays, not only to keep the Third Commandment, but also to give thanks to God for His many blessings. God asks for only one hour of our week to fulfill this responsibility, and that’s less than 1% of the time in our week.

Only when it’s physically or morally impossible for a Catholic to attend Sunday Mass, or for higher reasons of charity (such as caring for a sick person), is a Catholic person exempted from the Sunday obligation. If people are traveling on Sunday, they should plan in advance.

A convenient resource to help you plan where and when to attend Sunday Mass is www.masstimes.org. All you have to do is enter the name of the town or zip code where you’ll be, and you’ll instantly receive a list of all available Masses in the vicinity. But also call ahead as well just to confirm that the information is correct. In addition, travelers should be aware that many airports have chapels that offer daily Mass.

Explainer: Your bishop said it’s time to come back to church. Is it a sin if you don’t go?

travel dispensation catholic

Following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, nearly all Catholics in the United States were freed from the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. But on Feb. 9, the Archdiocese of Detroit announced that it would lift its general dispensation beginning Mar. 13, 2021, becoming one of just a handful of dioceses to require Catholics to return to church.

In a statement , the archdiocese praised livestreamed Masses that have kept Catholics connected to the sacraments in many places during the pandemic, but added they “cannot become the norm. God did not come to us virtually.”

While public Masses resumed across the country last spring and summer, a few Catholic dioceses in the United States ended or amended the dispensation from Mass. In Texas, the Diocese of Corpus Christi ended its dispensation on Oct. 31 and dioceses in Wisconsin called Catholics back to Mass in the fall, but some    reinstated the dispensation a couple of weeks later as the number of coronavirus cases surged there and throughout the United States.

Whenever dioceses choose to lift dispensations, as with other difficult pandemic-related decisions, individual believers will have to decide for themselves when they feel safe going back to church.

At least three U.S. dioceses extended dispensations, but in a more limited fashion. The Diocese of Boise granted a dispensation to “those whose anxiety with regard to their health makes them apprehensive about attending Mass” while the Diocese of Sioux Falls, S.D. , said only those “at increased risk for severe illness” and their caregivers were granted a dispensation. The Diocese of Orange “narrowed” its dispensation.

“If you’re truly, truly afraid of catching the virus, then you stay home,” Bishop Thomas Freyer said in a video announcing the change. “If you’ve gone out to lunch, if you’ve gone out to dinner, then you’re not truly afraid.”

That message was echoed by Bishop James Conley, who wrote this week that the dispensation from Mass would continue in the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb. But he urged Catholics to examine their other behaviors and consider if they should return to Mass, saying the dispensation “should not be abused.”

“I ask Catholics to look at their lives at this moment. Are you meeting with groups of people, perhaps attending sporting events and participating in other forms of entertainment, but not attending Mass? The Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, but are we making other things a priority in our lives at this time? Are we making this dispensation an excuse?” he wrote.

“The Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith,” Bishop Conley wrote, “but are we making other things a priority in our lives at this time? Are we making this dispensation an excuse?”

As vaccinations become more widely available and as life is expected to return to some semblance of normalcy in the coming months, it is possible that many other dioceses will begin lifting dispensations. What does that mean for Catholics?

Why are Catholics obligated to attend Mass?

Canon law states , “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.”

Then there is the reason behind the rule.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the Eucharist “the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice.” As a result, “the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.”

Are there times when it is not a grave sin to miss Mass?

Yes. When dioceses granted dispensations at the start of the pandemic, Catholics were no longer required to attend Mass, though they were still encouraged to mark Sundays with prayer and other spiritual practices.

Catholics are obligated to attend Mass, although there are circumstances when they should not.

Even in the Archdiocese of Detroit, where a dispensation expires in March, there are still several conditions in which a Catholic is permitted to miss Mass. The archdiocese listed eight conditions in which a Catholic may be permitted to miss Sunday Mass, including experiencing flu-like symptoms, being at-risk because of an underlying health condition and having “significant fear or anxiety of becoming ill by being at Mass.”

Is this the first time Catholics have been permitted not to attend Mass because of a public health crisis?

It appears not. During the “Spanish flu” outbreak in 1918, churches were closed by public health officials in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Wilmington, Del. Some parishes held Masses outdoors , but if it was impossible to attend Mass because the church was closed, the obligation to attend Mass would have been lifted. In St. Louis, the archbishop lamented the public health order to close churches, but nonetheless lifted the obligation to attend Masses.

More recently, churches in Mexico City were closed in 2009 in an effort to slow the spread of H1N1, more commonly known as “swine flu.”

What about during normal times, without a pandemic?

Catholics are obligated to attend Mass, although there are circumstances when they should not. But beyond the three examples cited in official church teaching—lack of a priest, illness and caring for infants—the specifics regarding what qualifies as a serious reason for missing Mass are left to individual believers.

“It’s about using common sense,” said Adam Rasmussen, a lecturer in the theology and religious studies department at Georgetown University.

travel dispensation catholic

Wanting to make a Sunday morning tee time would not pass the test, but feeling like you have a cold that could be passed on to other people could. Inclement weather and lacking transportation are also sufficient reasons in many cases.

Mr. Rasmussen said he found it “prudent” for bishops to issue general dispensations at the start of the pandemic, especially because “there are some overly scrupulous people, or people who have a delicate conscience,” who, when they become genuinely sick, still feel obliged to attend Mass “because they just don't understand that they have a grave reason to miss Mass.”

Whenever dioceses choose to lift dispensations, as with other difficult pandemic-related decisions, he says individual believers will have to decide for themselves when they feel safe going back to church.

“People have to make their own decisions about what is the right moment to go to work, to school and to church,” he said. “Everyone has to decide that with their own conscience.”

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Michael J. O’Loughlin is the national correspondent for  America  and host of the  America  podcast “Plague: Untold Stories of AIDS and the Catholic Church.”

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The Criterion

September 4, 2020, canon law, covid-19 and our dispensation from attending sunday mass, by very rev. joseph newton, jcl, vj (special to the criterion ).

Finally, for the above scenarios, it is a matter of conscience and one is accountable to the Lord in evaluating the conditions for being excused.

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Missing Mass on Vacation?

A listener named Jean calls into the show and asks, “Is it a sin to miss Mass while on vacation?” She shares that she is going on a cruise (traveling from Sunday to Sunday) and will not have access to Mass.

Father Dave suggests attending a Saturday evening Mass to fulfill her Sunday obligation. He also suggests an evening Mass on the Sunday night when she returns from her cruise.

Father Dave points out that the Church does have rules surrounding this. “In our Catholic tradition, we do have something called a travel dispensation. If it is a full travel day and you’re going from taxis to the airport and whatnot, the Catholic Church does not consider it a mortal sin. Particularly because you were concerned enough to call a radio show and ask about it.” (Original Air 5-10-16)

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What is the Sunday obligation for Catholics?

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Since the first few centuries of Christianity, there has existed a Sunday obligation for Catholics to attend Mass. Initially there was no need for a law, since Christians gladly and joyfully embraced God’s command.

Sunday obligation

St. John Paul II explains this in his apostolic exhortation Dies Domini .

Even if in the earliest times it was not judged necessary to be prescriptive, the Church has not ceased to confirm this obligation of conscience, which rises from the inner need felt so strongly by the Christians of the first centuries. It was only later, faced with the half-heartedness or negligence of some, that the Church had to make explicit the duty to attend Sunday Mass . (47)

The current Code of Canon Law confirms this obligation and states, “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass .”

This means that any Catholic who is able to attend Mass must make every reasonable effort to be there.

Dispensation for Serious Reasons

At the same time, the obligation to attend Mass can be dispensed for a grave reason, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains .

The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. CCC 2181

Other serious reasons should be discussed with an individuals’ local pastor, who can give guidance or confirm the dispensation.

Invitation to love

Above all, the obligation should not be seen as an “imposition,” but an “invitation” to enter into the love of God, as John Paul II reiterated.

Sunday is a day which is at the very heart of the Christian life … I would strongly urge everyone to rediscover Sunday:  Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ!  Yes, let us open our time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction. He is the One who knows the secret of time and the secret of eternity, and he gives us “his day” as an ever new gift of his love … Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human.

The Sunday obligation is a great gift to humanity, and Catholics are called to fulfill it with a joyful heart.

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DISPENSATION FROM SUNDAY MASS FAQS

Answers to your questions about our obligation to attend mass.

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WHAT IS A “DISPENSATION”?  

It is “the relaxation of a merely ecclesiastical (Church) law in a particular case.”  

WHO DOES THE BISHOP FORESEE POSSIBLY MAKING USE OF THE DISPENSATION FROM PHYSICALLY ATTENDING SUNDAY MASS?  

  • T hose who are over the age of 65;
  • T hose who have an underlying health condition; 
  • T hose who are truly fearful that they might contract the virus; in this case, “truly fearful” is defined as thos e who have not gone out to a restaurant or visited people with whom they do not live since March, 2020.
  • T hose who are sick, including those who have tested positive for the coronavirus and those who were exposed for fifteen consecutive minutes or more to one who tested positive for Covid-19.

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF A CATHOLIC WHO MAKES USE OF THE DISPENSATION FOR A LEGITIMATE REASON?  

Since the Bishop has no authority to dispense from a Divine Law, in this case, the commandment requiring us to keep the Lord’s Day holy, one may consider the Divine Law fulfilled if, from 4 p.m. the Saturday before or on Sunday itself he/she:  

  • w atches a Sunday Mass on television or via live-stream (visit www.rcbo.org for a complete list); or
  • spends at least 30 minutes in prayer, by saying the Rosary, reading the Scriptures or participating in another pious activity. 

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?  

  • Yes, the faithful are expected to adhere to the expectations laid out in canon 222 §1, that is, “to assist with the needs of the Church.” Financial support of one’s parish is essential whether one physically attends Mass or not. 

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Rite Questions: Who can be dispensed from the Sunday obligation to attend Mass—and when?

Rite Questions: Who can be dispensed from the Sunday obligation to attend Mass—and when?

A: The Sunday obligation is articulated in Canon 1246 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law where we read that “Sunday, on which by apostolic tradition the paschal mystery is celebrated, must be observed in the universal Church as the primordial holy day of obligation.” Canon 1247 specifies an essential way that this day of obligation must be observed: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.”

This obligation is not, however, understood in an absolute way. The Code of Canon Law (CIC) itself foresees that “participation in the eucharistic celebration” might be “impossible because of the absence of a sacred minister or for another grave cause” (CIC 1248, §2). According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), examples of such “serious reasons” are “illness” and the “care of infants” (CCC, 2181). As John Meinert and Emily Stimpson put it, if “you’re seriously ill, wounded, or contagious with a communicable virus (such as the stomach flu), you’re not deliberately missing Mass. Likewise, if you’re caring for someone who is seriously ill or injured and who needs constant attention, and there is no one available to relieve you, you’re also not deliberately missing Mass. The same goes for not having transportation or any possible means of getting to Mass” ( Christ Alive in Us , 49).

Also foreseen are possibilities where though it might not be “impossible” to attend Mass on Sunday, an individual might be dispensed “from the obligation of observing a feast day” by his pastor for a “just cause” (CIC 1245). A “just cause” is distinguished from a “grave cause” and is generally understood as being low-bar canon-law-speak for some good reason or “reasonable cause.” It is left to the pastor’s discretion to judge what constitutes a “just cause.” However, the pastor cannot simply declare that no one in his parish has to observe the Sunday obligation for a given week. The pastor’s power to dispense is restricted to “individual cases,” which refer not only to single instances, but might also refer to individual situations that are ongoing, e.g., a firefighter who needs to be at work one Sunday each month during the times of all Sunday Masses. Perhaps a farmer might be in desperate need to harvest a crop and so requests a dispensation from his pastor. The pastor considers the spiritual good of the parishioner and weighs the cause being put forward for the dispensation. The law also gives the pastor the ability to commute the obligation to another pious work (CIC 1245). For example, during the height of the Covid pandemic, a couple with severe health issues were concerned about going to Mass in a crowded church. The pastor could have dispensed them from the Sunday obligation, but after discussing the situation with the couple he commuted the obligation to the attendance at another, less-crowded Mass during the week.

—Answered by the Editors

Take the Readers’ Quiz on the Seasons of Advent and Christmas!

You think answering liturgical questions is easy? If so, test your own knowledge on the various aspects of the forthcoming Advent and Christmas seasons online at: https://adoremus.org/christmasquiz/ . Will you know the answers to these questions?

  • What is the principal reason that Christmas is celebrated on December 25?
  • Why does the beginning of Advent change each year?
  • Is it correct to describe the Advent season as a kind of “mini-Lent”?
  • Why are there no readings or prayers for Saturday of the Third Week of Advent?
  • What are the restrictions (if any) on playing the organ and other instruments during Advent?
  • Do the liturgical books give any direction on the placing of the Nativity scene in the church building?
  • What Holy Days of Obligation occur during the Advent and Christmas seasons?
  • How many Mass settings are there for the Solemnity of the Nativity?
  • Which Advent or Christmas liturgy mentions “the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad”?
  • When does the Christmas season conclude?

Do you know the answers to these liturgical questions? Find out at https://adoremus.org/christmasquiz/ .

Next in the November issue

Intimations of God: Toward a Catholic Integration of Rite, Culture, and the Contemporary Person

Intimations of God: Toward a Catholic Integration of Rite, Culture, and the Contemporary Person

Christian Culture

Christian Culture

Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen

Missing Sunday Mass While on Vacation

Question: What is to be said about Catholics who miss Mass on Sunday because they have gone into the lake region or the woods for the purpose of hunting, fishing, etc., over the weekend?

Fr. Francis Connell, C.SS.R., in More Answers to Today’s Moral Problems, gives us the answer:

It is a deplorable fact that in recent years the sin of missing Mass on Sunday has become more common among Catholics in the United States. Priests should recognize the danger to the faith inevitably connected with this custom, and strive to avert it by impressing our people with the importance of Sunday Mass in Catholic life. It is true, there can be legitimate reasons excusing a Catholic from the obligation of attending Mass on Sunday; but these reasons should not be inordinately extended. The motive of recreation is an example of a reason that may be stretched too far. It is held by reliable theologians that if a person can obtain needed recreation only in a section of the country where there is no church or only in circumstances in which he cannot hear Mass, he can be justified in taking his recreation in this place or in these circumstances and thereby missing Mass once or twice, or at most a few times a year. However, Catholics should be told that this concession may not be used except when there is considerable difficulty in getting to Mass from the place of recreation, and that it may be used only rarely (once or twice a year, according to Fanfani; a few times, according to Konings). In these days of automobiles and motorboats, Catholics can generally get to Mass even from remote parts of the woods and the lake regions. Certainly, a person would not be excused from attending Mass merely because the journey to church would take an hour by car. And a Catholic can make use of recreation as an excusing cause only when he cannot find the needed recreation in a place where he can get to Mass on Sundays.      

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Canon 1246, §2 - Holy Days of Obligation

On December 13, 1991 the members of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States of America made the following general decree concerning holy days of obligation for Latin Rite Catholics: In addition to Sunday, the days to be observed as holy days of obligation in the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America, in conformity with canon 1246, are as follows: January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter, the solemnity of the Ascension August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary November 1, the solemnity of All Saints December 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception December 25, the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Whenever January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, or August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption, or November 1, the solemnity of All Saints, falls on a Saturday or on a Monday, the precept to attend Mass is abrogated. This decree of the Conference of Bishops was approved and confirmed by the Apostolic See by a decree of the Congregation for Bishops (Prot. N. 296/84), signed by Bernardin Cardinal Gantin, Prefect of the Congregation, and dated July 4, 1992. As President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, I hereby declare that the effective date of this decree for all the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America will be January 1, 1993, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Given at the offices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC, November 17, 1992. Most Reverend Daniel E. Pilarczyk Archbishop of Cincinnati President, NCCB Monsignor Robert N. Lynch General Secretary

SUBSEQUENT ACTION: Canon 1246, §2

In accord with the provisions of canon 1246, §2 of the Code of Canon Law, which states: "... the conference of bishops can abolish certain holy days of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday with prior approval of the Apostolic See," the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States decrees that the Ecclesiastical Provinces of the United States may transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter to the Seventh Sunday of Easter according to the following procedure. The decision of each Ecclesiastical Province to transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension is to be made by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the bishops of the respective Ecclesiastical Province. The decision of the Ecclesiastical Province should be communicated to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and to the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. This decree was approved by His Holiness Pope John Paul II by a decree of the Congregation for Bishops signed by His Eminence Lucas Cardinal Moreira Neves, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and dated July 5, 1999. As President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, I hereby decree that the effective date of this decree for all the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America will be September 8, 1999, Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary. Given at the offices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC, August 6, 1999, Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Most Reverend Joseph A. Fiorenza Bishop of Galveston-Houston President, NCCB

Reverend Monsignor Dennis M. Schnurr General Secretary

travel dispensation catholic

Dispensations That Allowed Catholics To Attend Mass Virtually To Be Lifted Sunday

travel dispensation catholic

Catholics in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese will soon be required to attend in-person mass except for some exceptions.

After the pandemic was declared last March, most Catholics in the U.S. were freed from attending mass in person after bishops issued general dispensations.  And most Catholic churches closed their doors and moved online for a time before reopening with precautions—like social distancing—in place.  Many continued to offer live streams of their masses for those who chose not to attend in person.

But, in a letter to Catholics this week, Bishop Edward Rice, with the local diocese, said due to “the widespread use of the COVID-19 vaccines, federal and local statistics indicate that infection rates are on the decline.” He said, because of that, the dispensation from attendance at Sunday mass and Holy Days will be lifted as of Palm Sunday on March 28.

He said masking remains highly recommended and will be required in cities with mask ordinances.

Letter to area Catholics from Bishop Edward Rice:

LITURGICAL GUIDELINES IN ANTICIPATION OF THE RETURN TO   PRE-PANDEMIC LITURGICAL PRACTICES

March 16, 2021

Dear Pastors,

With the widespread use of the COVID-19 vaccines, federal and local statistics indicate that infection rates are on the decline. Also worthy of note: the infection rate from churches is estimated to be .02 percent. So, our efforts over the past year have made a difference. As this trend continues, we can begin to gradually re-introduce some of the liturgical practices that were amended during the pandemic. After consultation with local authorities, diocesan staff, the Presbyteral Council, and Deans, please note the following:

The General Dispensation from attendance at Sunday Mass and Holy Days is lifted as of Palm Sunday, beginning with the Vigil Mass, the 27th of March, 2021.  For the Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday celebrations, you may want to plan for a larger congregation. Those with pre-existing health concerns, serious concerns, or those caregivers to the homebound will have a Particular Dispensation.

As we move forward, it is essential that you know and follow the directives of the local Health Department.

Please note:

  • Masking remains highly recommended. Social distancing is not required if masks are used or if there is no local ordinance requiring social distancing. (Greene County, Christian County, Polk County are currently are under ordinance).
  • The distribution of Holy Communion should be returned to its proper place in the Mass.
  • Priests and ministers must sanitize and wear a mask for the distribution of Holy Communion.
  • At the  pastor’s discretion , servers may be reintroduced  with  mask.
  • As holy water, books, and other items have not been shown to be a significant source of spreading COVID, holy water  should  be returned to the fonts. Missalettes may be used at the pastor’s discretion.
  • Singing with small, masked choirs may return if members feel comfortable.
  • The offertory collection can be re-introduced if you use the long-handled baskets. Do not use a basket passed from person to person. Ushers should sanitize before and after.
  • Sanitizing the pews should continue.
  • Social gatherings may take place on parish properties, but only if local health authority directives are observed.

At this time:

  • The Precious Blood will NOT be reinstated
  • The Sign of Peace will NOT be reinstated.

For the celebration of:

Palm Sunday

Palms can be distributed BUT the “Third Form: The Simple Entrance,” is recommended. Holy water can be used for the blessing of palms. Distribution of Holy Communion occurs as usual with sanitizing and masks.

Chrism Masses

These 7 p.m. liturgies will be limited to Clergy only : Mon., March 29, St. Mary Cathedral, Cape Girardeau; Tue., March 30, St. Agnes Cathedral, Springfield. Both of these Masses will be Live-streamed to the diocesan Facebook page and archived on our YouTube channel.

Holy Thursday

“The Washing of Feet” is eliminated, but the “Transfer of the Most Blessed Sacrament,” along with “Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament for a suitable length of time during the night,” should occur (pg. 313.43). The space for Adoration should allow for social distancing. Distribution of Holy Communion occurs as usual with sanitizing and masks.

Good Friday

Veneration of the Cross should occur “by a simple genuflection or by some other sign appropriate to the usage of the region (pg. 330.18), but the option “by kissing the Cross,” should be eliminated this year. “Only one Cross should be offered for adoration (pg. 330.19). Distribution of Holy Communion occurs as usual with sanitizing and masks.

The Easter Vigil

“The Blessing of the Fire and Preparation of the Candle,” should proceed using option 13, p. 345, i.e., a fire at the door of Church. There is no procession with the people. The Liturgy of the Word proceeds as usual. The blessing of Holy Water and reception of candidates occurs as usual. For the Confirmation of RCIA members, please sanitize after each anointing. A small dish with a cloth soaked in sanitizer is what I have used for Confirmations and this works well. Distribution of Holy Communion occurs as usual with sanitizing and masks. Jesus rises from the tomb as usual! If paper towels are used for Chrism, it must be burned, not thrown away. 

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Have That Burger on These Lenten Fridays

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There are a few exceptions. For example, the Code of Canon Law  says, “Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday” (can. 1251).

In the United States, that means if March 19 (St. Joseph’s Day) or March 25 falls on a Friday other than Good Friday during Lent, you would be exempt from meat abstinence, as those dates are normally solemnities. (BTW, penance is greatly encouraged, though not required, on Fridays outside of Lent by the U.S. bishops, and the penance need not be in the form of abstinence from meat.)

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VLADIMIR SOLOVIEV prophet of Russia’s conversion

Vladimir Soloviev, à l'âge de vingt ans.

T HE conversion of Russia will not be the work of man, no matter how gifted he may be, but that of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, the Mediatrix of all graces, because this is God’s wish, which he revealed to the world in 1917. The life and works of Vladimir Soloviev are a perfect illustration of this truth of Fatima. He whom our Father regards as « the greatest Russian genius of the 19th century », was in his own way a prophet of the “ conversion ” of his beloved Country, announcing the necessity of her returning to the bosom of the Roman Church. «  Rome or chaos  », such was his catchphrase, Rome whose anagram is not a matter of chance, but a providential sign, a definition: ROMA , AMOR . Led by this incomparable guide, we would like « to anticipate in our thoughts, our hearts and our prayers this consecration, this long-awaited conversion, which must mark the beginning of a time of sacred peace throughout the world, the beginning of the universal reign of the Most Blessed and Immaculate Heart of Mary, and through Her, of God’s Kingdom » (English CRC, December 1982, p. 23).

A PERSONAL CONVERSION

Through the example of his life, Soloviev recalls the indispensable means of this immense work: self-renunciation, personal and collective sacrifice, in Russian the podwig , the only way in which the Church, nations, saints and heroes can become the instruments of God’s designs. If he managed to surpass his master Dostoyevsky by his « truly universal Catholicism and far superior mystical vision », this was not without without a conversion of mind and heart on his part.

Our Father summarises the principal stages of his life as follows: « Born of an honourable Muscovite family, of part Kievian ancestry, Vladimir Soloviev began, in a world where only Germany counted, by being a victim of all the poisons of the West. He himself relates how he was a zealous materialist at the age of thirteen, had read Renan’s Life of Jesus at fifteen, and had become an evolutionist and therefore (!) an atheist and a nihilist at eighteen, in « It was Spinoza and then Schopenhauer who pulled him out of this bottomless void. Whereupon in 1872 a mysterious encounter with “  Wisdom  ” suddenly shook him out of the scientific naturalism in which he had been vegetating and made him aware, as he says, of invisible Beauty, the “  Sophia tou théou  ”, the daughter of God. He thus became the fervent witness of Wisdom’s indwelling in the world and of Her desire for total incarnation and universal queenship. His quest for wisdom, scientific, aesthetic and mystical, had commenced. He was nineteen years old. The quest would never end for this new style Russian pilgrim ; it would be of an unparalleled fruitfulness despite its touching brevity. He died of exhaustion in 1900, at the age ! » (English CRC, December 1982, p. 35)

We will limit ourselves in this article to his prophetic insights on the Union of the Churches. In his Lessons on Theandry (1878) – he was then twenty-five ! – our philosopher applies himself to contemplating the Wisdom of God at work in history, perfectly incarnated in Jesus and His virginal Mother, as well as in the Church as she awaits her eschatological transfiguration. The most serious sin, throughout this history, has been that of schism. Who is responsible for this vast Vladimir Soloviev began by throwing all responsibility for it on the Catholic Church, so much so that he provided the inspiration for Dostoyevsky’s famous “ myth of the Grand Inquisitor ” in The Brothers Karamazov . But, at the beginning of the 1880’s, through studying the question more closely, he understood that the sin of schism was in fact that of the East. This was a stroke of genius on his part for which our Father commends him greatly:

« I must beg pardon of my master Msgr. Jean Rupp, of Solzhenitsyn, Volkoff and so many others, but it seems obvious to to me, as it did to Soloviev in the end, that the schism of Moscow in setting itself up as the third Rome was the beginning of all the ills suffered by these admirable Christian peoples of European Russia . And I must say so because this rupture still weighs heavily on the world of today and because it is precisely of this rupture that Our Lady of Fatima speaks when She foretells “  the conversion of Russia  ”. (English CRC, December 1982, p. 24)

Let us follow Soloviev in his commendable mystical conversion which has opened up a path of light for his people, allowing a spring of grace and mercy to gush forth.

AN EVANGELICAL DISCOURSE

In 1881, Soloviev published a long article, still very antipapist, entitled Spiritual power in Russia . There the pope was presented as Antichrist institutionalised ! Our theorist placed all his hope in the regenerative mission of Holy Russia and in the Tsar who was to be her « divine figure, religious guide and animating wisdom ». But were the Russian people still capable of accomplishing such One particular event was to shake Soloviev’s patriotic faith. On March 1, 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by revolutionaries. A few days later, Soloviev gave a Discourse in which he recommended that his successor, Alexander III, show mercy to the regicides. Certainly not as a matter of weakness or abdication before the Revolution, even less out of the spirit of non-violence that a certain Tolstoy was already preaching, but « as an example of Russian piety », that famous podwig « which lies at the heart of the Russian people’s evangelical soul, of which the tsar is the living icon ». Alas, Soloviev was not understood... This was a painful stage in his life, the first step he had taken beyond his master Dostoyevsky.

The following year, he published another article entitled “  Schism in the Russian people and society  ”. Delving deep into the past, he accused Metropolitan Nikon of having broken, at the time of Peter the Great, the communion, the Sobornost , so beloved of the Russian people, by excommunicating Raskol, the fierce guardian of traditional popular religion... Ever since then, the Orthodox hierarchy, enslaved to the imperial power, had proved powerless to govern and sanctify Orthodoxy. It was nothing now but a shrunken, secularized “ local Church ” which, if it were to be restored and revived, would need to open itself up to “ the universal Church ”.

In the spring of 1882, Soloviev was powerfully affected by an unusual dream. In his dream he met a high-ranking Catholic ecclesiastic and entreated him to give him his blessing. The priest refused, so Soloviev insisted, declaring, « The separation of the Churches is the most disastrous thing possible. » Finally, the ecclesiastic agreed to give him his blessing.

This premonitory dream was to awaken in Vladimir Soloviev a burning desire for reconciliation with Catholicism, and to stimulate him to write a series of articles to be published every month in his friend Aksakov’s slavophile newspaper Rouss and then to be collected together in a work with the resonant title: The Great Controversy and Christian Politics . One particular maxim constantly reappeared under the Russian writer’s pen:

«  FIRST AND FOREMOST WE MUST WORK TO RESTORE THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH, AND TO MAKE THE FIRE OF LOVE BURN IN THE HEART OF CHRIST’S SPOUSE . »

By an irony of fate, the term “ Controversy ”, which for Soloviev referred to the conflict between Rome and the East, was going to give place to a bitter controversy between himself and his Orthodox and slavophile friends.

A MARVELLOUS AND ADORABLE WISDOM

T HE world’s beauty appeared to Soloviev as a living figure, a real existence, changing and yet immortal. He saw her and held her as the queen of his spiritual universe under her venerable name of Sancta Sophia . At the end of his life, in 1898, he celebrated the Three Encounters he had had with this Beauty which for him was Wisdom.

“ Three times in his life he had been overwhelmed by the radiant visit of Wisdom who appeared to him in the form of an absolutely heavenly female being, dazzling him and enlightening him profoundly. Not without reason certain authors think that all his religious and even philosophical works derive from this illumination. ”

And let us immediately point out, in order to acclimatize the Western reader who is highly likely to be disconcerted by these accounts, that trustworthy interpreters of Soloviev have attributed a marian character to these visions. For them, the whole of the Philosopher’s work derives from the AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA . “ It is a marvellous perspective ”, adds Msgr. Rupp. “ Wisdom is closely allied to the Immaculate who is its seat. ” ( Le message ecclésial de Soloviev , p. 340)...

What I am going to say next will perhaps surprise my reader. Nothing is more biblical than this vision, and I am astonished at the astonishment of theologians and their impatient criticisms. This Sophia was already well known, hymned and even boldly adored by the scribes of the Old Testament under this very name of Wisdom. Far from being “ pantheist ”, this idea, this vision touches the essence of created beings, and is clearly poles apart from the Platonic idea and far more profound than Aristotle’s substance; it lies at the very heart of being, there where nothing exists except relationship to God, the term of a will and a wisdom that are infinite, there where exists a pure reflection, a fragment of the image of God’s beauty.

George de Nantes , A mysticism for our time , French CRC no. 133, p. 7.

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY

Dostoyevsky

In January 1883, he fired the opening shots with an open letter to Aksakov: « As I reflected on the means of curing this interior disease (of Christianity), I became convinced that the origin of all these evils lies in the general weakening of the earthly organisation of the visible Church, following her division into two disunited parts. » He demonstrated that, in order to establish herself on earth and to endure throughout history, the Christian religion had need of a higher authority, and he explained that it was therefore essential to restore « the union of all Christian and ecclesiastical forces under the standard and under the power of one central ecclesiastical authority ».

On February 19, Soloviev gave a talk in homage to his master Dostoyevsky. It was almost a panegyric of the Roman Church ! He declared his ardent hope for the reconciliation of the two Churches, for the two parts of the universal Church which should never have been separated and whose centre lay in... Rome . As a result of this speech, he saw himself banned from speaking in public. The newspapers made no mention of his speech. For the first time, and it would not be the last, Soloviev was the victim of the censure of Constantin Petrowitch Pobiedonostev, Russia’s Grand Inquisitor and the Tsar’s adviser on religious matters. Pobiedonostev championed a sacral conception of political power, akin to that of the French legitimists of the time, but he was fiercely Orthodox, and any opening towards the Catholic religion was pitilessly censured.

Soloviev responded to this censure with a smile. So his speech had been described as « infantile chattering » ? « If we are not converted », he said to his friends, « and become like little children again, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. » He went on: « When I was a pretentious little boy [teaching German philosophy: Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche], people listened with great respect to my “ truly infantile ” prattling. And now it is fitting that the only way I can attain the perfection of humility is by everyone ! »

At the same time, he wrote to Aksakov: « It is necessary to defend Catholicism against the false accusations being brought against it... Consequently, in advocating a reconciliation with Catholicism, I assume that Catholicism is not in principle erroneous, for one cannot be reconciled with error . » Now there we have a true ecumenism ! The life of Soloviev, writes our Father, « was ».

To the charge of “ papism ” levelled against him, Soloviev responded in March 1883 with an admirable profession of faith, already Catholic:

« It seems to to me that you concentrate only on “ papism ” whereas I focus first and foremost on the great, holy and eternal Rome, a fundamental and integral part of the universal Church. I believe in this Rome, I bow before it, I love it with all my heart, and with all the strength of my soul I desire its rehabilitation for the unity and integrality of the universal Church. And may I be accursed as a parricide should I ever utter one word of condemnation against the Holy Church of Rome . »

THE REALISATION OF THE DREAM

In May 1883, on the occasion of the coronation of the Emperor Alexander III, the Moscow press complained that too many concessions were being made to restore diplomatic relations with the Vatican broken in 1866, but Soloviev protested: such an agreement was necessary, were it only to improve relations with the Catholics of Poland. The Pope was represented at the ceremony by his special envoy Msgr. Vincenzo Vanutelli. Had not Alexander III written to Leo XIII shortly beforehand: « Never has unity between all Churches and all States been so necessary, in order to realise the wish expressed by Your Holiness of seeing the peoples abandoning the disastrous errors responsible for the social malaise and returning to the holy laws of the Gospel... »

A few days after the ceremony, Soloviev was crossing Moscow in a hired car. Suddenly, he recognized the route he had followed in his dream the previous year. Soon he came to a stop in front of a house from which a Catholic prelate was just leaving: it was Msgr. Vanutelli in person... There was the same hesitation of this latter to give his blessing to a schismatic, and the same entreaties of Soloviev, who finally !

In the summer of 1883, our author wrote two articles on The Catholic Question . According to Soloviev, it was for Russia to take the first step towards the Catholic Church. Imagine !

His articles were not of the sort to leave his readers indifferent. On the Orthodox side, there was an increasing irritation, while on the Catholic side, surprise soon gave way to enthusiasm. The news crossed the borders, spreading to Poland and even to Croatia, where Msgr. Strossmayer was finally seeing his desires realised. The jurisdiction of his diocese of Djakovo extended into Bosnia and Serbia, that is into Orthodox territory. Endowed with a superior intelligence and animated by great apostolic zeal, this Croatian bishop keenly felt the need for a true, intelligent and benevolent ecumenism. He wrote in 1883 to one of his friends, Father Martynov:

« In my opinion, the principal task of the Catholic Church and of the Holy See this century is to draw as closely as possible to the Slav nation, principally the Russian nation . By winning it over to the divine unity of the Catholic Church, we would at the same time win over everyone in the world who still possess a positive faith. »

Bishop Strossmayer and the cathedral of Djakovo

IN THE RADIANCE OF THE IMMACULATE

In the summer of 1883, Soloviev wrote five long letters to a Russian Uniate priest on the subject of The Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary . At the same time he translated Petrarch’s “ Praise and prayer to the Most Blessed Virgin ”, wherein he contemplated Her “ clothed in the Sun, crowned with stars... Her glance radiating infinity ! ” It is highly significant that Soloviev was simultaneously attracted by the mystery of the Catholic Church and the mystery of the Immaculate Virgin. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was the first Catholic dogma which he embraced, and his favourite painting was the Immaculate Conception by Murillo.

In The Foundations of the Spiritual Life (1884), he exalted the « All Holy and Immaculate » Virgin Mary. In Russia and the Church Universal (1889), he would praise Pope Pius IX for having quoted, in support of his dogmatic definition, the Old Testament texts referring to Wisdom, the “  Sophia  ” of his personal intuitions:

« If, by the substantial Wisdom of God, we were exclusively meant to understand the Person of Jesus Christ, how could we apply to the Blessed Virgin all those texts in the Wisdom books which speak of this Wisdom ? However, this application, which has existed from the very earliest times in the offices of both the Latin and Greek Churches, has today received doctrinal confirmation in the bull of Pius IX on the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin. » (quoted by Msgr. Rupp, Le message ecclésial de Soloviev, p. 338)

In September 1883, when the sixth chapter of The Great Controversy was published, a rumour spread through Moscow that Soloviev had “ passed over ” to Catholicism, but there was no truth in it. Moreover, curious though this may seem to us, he was not looking “ to pass over to Catholicism ”, but only to open Orthodoxy up to the universality of the Roman Church.

His seventh and final chapter aroused a lively debate, one that is ever topical. The question turned on the attitude of the Byzantine Greeks in conflict with the Crusaders of the West. Soloviev wrote: « On the day that Constantinople fell, seeing the Turkish armies poised to attack, the final spontaneously expressed cry of the Greeks was, “ Better Islamic slavery than any agreement with the Latins. ” I do not mention this as a reproach to the unfortunate Greeks. If, in this cry of implacable hatred, there was nothing Christian, then neither has there been anything especially Christian in all the formal and artificial attempts to reunite the Churches… »

Aksakov, his Orthodox pride deeply irritated by this remark, retorted: « What does he mean, nothing Christian ? May the Greeks be blessed a hundred times over for having preferred a foreign yoke and bodily torture to the abandonment of the purity of their faith in Christ and for having thus preserved us from the distortions of papism at the precise moment [ the beginning of the 13th century ! ] when it had reached the height of its deformity. May they win eternal glory for this ! »

Nonetheless, Soloviev continued his search for truth, surmounting every obstacle. His article “  Nine Questions to Father Ivantsov-Platonov  ” published in December 1883, created a deep stir even in the West. Here he put nine questions to his former master in Orthodoxy on those points of controversy which set the Church of the East against the Church of Rome. Here is the setting:

« How is it that the countries of the East are separated from the Roman Church ? Did the latter proclaim an heretical proposition ? One would be hard pushed to maintain this, for the addition of the Filioque to the Creed, which is put forward to justify the separation, does not have the character of a heresy. Furthermore, it is absurd to say that the Roman Church is in a state of schism with regard to the Eastern Churches. Thus, the latter’s separation from the former has no basis. Let us acknowledge this and, putting aside all human viewpoints, let us work towards Unity or rather let us work so that Unity, which already has a virtual existence, may become a reality. »

THE THREAD OF AN ANCIENT TRADITION

During 1884, the Russian philosopher studied Catholic dogmatics. He read the works of Perrone, the theologian of Gregory XVI and Pius IX, as well as the texts of the Councils. He was particularly interested in Popes Gregory VII and Innocent III, whom he read in the original text.

At the same time he had a great enthusiasm for the Croatian priest George Krijanich who « had come from Zagreb to Moscow in the 17th century to spread the ideal of the Holy Kingdom of God, Roman Catholic and panslavic, gathering together under the sceptre of the tsars and the crook of the Pope all the Slav peoples who would thereby be freed and protected from the twofold burden pressing them on both sides like a vice, the Germanic powers and the Turks. Thus the Croats would work to free themselves from Austrian control and at the same time they would assist the Serbs, their Orthodox brothers, to shake off Moslem domination.

« To realise this grand design, capable at one blow of powerfully advancing the Kingdom of God on earth, Krijanich came to Moscow and preached on the subject of Russia’s reconciliation with Rome . This should not be difficult, he said, because the Russians had only fallen into schism through ignorance and not through heresy or malice. He himself was already preaching that everyone should recognise their own individual faults, be they unconscious or involuntary, and the need for expiation. God’s blessings would follow as a result, immense and eternal blessings. Sergius Mikhailovich Soloviev, our great man’s father, a historian and the author of a monumental history of Russia, admired Krijanich as “ the first of the Slavophiles ” and also, in his eyes, “ the most paradoxical ”, so alien did Catholicism then appear to the Russian consciousness. » (English CRC, December 1982, p. 32)

Soloviev intended to prove the contrary. And it was just at this time that he entered into friendly relations with the Croatian Bishop Strossmayer, thereby resuming the thread of an ancient tradition, one which was apparently marginal but which in reality was pregnant with a splendid future. Early in December 1885, Soloviev for the first time received a letter from the Croatian bishop. He replied to him on December 8, “  the blessed Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin  ”:

« On the reunion of the Churches », he wrote, « depends the fate of Russia, the Slavs and the whole world. We Russian Orthodox, and indeed the whole of the East, are incapable of achieving anything before we have expiated the ecclesiastical sin of schism and rendered papal authority its due . » And he ended with these words: « My heart burns with joy at the thought that I have a guide like you. May God long preserve your precious leadership for the good of the Church and the Slav people. » In his pastoral letter of January 1886, the bishop of Djakovo quoted large extracts from this letter.

Encouraged by such support, in 1886 Soloviev undertook a study on Dogmatic development and the question of the reunion of the Churches , which provoked the fury of Orthodoxy. However, at a conference given at the ecclesiastical Academy of Saint Petersburg, Soloviev attempted to justify himself: « I can assure you that I will never pass over to Latinism. » He thereby sought to register his attachment to the Eastern rite. No question for him of adopting the Latin rite ! After that, he set out on a journey to Europe.

FIRST STAY IN ZAGREB (1886)

At the beginning of July, he was the guest of the honourable Canon Racki, President of the Yugoslav Academy of Zagreb, founded by Msgr. Strossmayer, and a personal friend of the latter. Every morning the Orthodox Soloviev assisted at the Catholic Mass with great enthusiasm. He made the sign of the cross in the Catholic manner, but prayed in the Greek manner, crossing his arms on his chest. He willingly admitted to his host – and this was not due to any desire to please on his part – that Croatian Catholics, like the Ukrainians, were more religious than his Orthodox compatriots !

Following an article published in the Croatian journal Katolicki List , Soloviev for the first time encountered opposition from a Catholic priest.

During his stay in Zagreb, he also published a letter in the Russian newspaper Novoie Vremia , wherein he refuted the widespread opinion in Russia that the Croats were the instruments of the Austro-Hungarian government’s attempt to Latinize the Eastern Slavs.

In August, he joined Msgr. Strossmayer in the Styrian Alps, and spent ten marvellous days with him. These two minds were truly made to get along. The mutual admiration they felt for one another reinforced their spiritual friendship. But Soloviev continued to receive Holy Communion at the hands of the Orthodox priest of the Serb parish of Zagreb... Rising above the inevitable criticisms, he then wrote a letter to Msgr. Strossmayer, summarising their initial conversations:

«  The reunion of the Churches would be advantageous to both sides . Rome would gain a devout people enthusiastic for the religious idea, she would gain a faithful and powerful defender. Russia for her part, she who through the will of God holds in her hands the destinies of the East, would not only rid herself of the involuntary sin of schism but, what is more, she would thereby become free to fulfil her great universal mission of uniting around herself all the Slav nations and of founding a new and truly Christian civilisation, a civilisation uniting the characteristics of the one truth and of religious liberty in the supreme principle of charity, encompassing everything in its unity and distributing to everyone the plenitude of the one unique good. »

Such was his transcription of the well known Catholic principle: «  In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas : unity in essentials, liberty in matters of doubt, and in all things charity . Such must be the Charter of Catholic ecumenism under the crook of the one Shepherd. From the start of this crisis, such has been the invitation we have made to our bishops and to our brothers. Today, it is also the will of the Holy Father », wrote our Father in his editorial for September 1978, dedicated to John Paul I, another Saint Pius X without knowing it (English CRC no. 102, p. 6).

When he informed his friends of Soloviev’s letter, Msgr. Strossmayer presented its author as « a candid and truly holy soul ».

Msgr. Strossmayer and Soloviev had agreed to meet again in Rome for the jubilee pilgrimage of 1888. The Croatian bishop decided to pave the way in Rome by writing to Leo XIII’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla. He presented his Russian friend as «  toto corde et animo catholicus  ». The Pope at first took a personal interest in the affair: « Here is a sheep », he said, « who will soon be clearing the gate of the sheepfold. » But curiously, there was to be no follow-up. It seems that Leo XIII failed to appreciate Soloviev’s genius... However, things were different in France, where an unassuming and ardent rural parish priest latched on to everything that his apostolic zeal could extract from the lightning advances made by the Russian thinker ( see inset , p. 19).

Soloviev returned to Russia at the beginning of October 1886, rather discouraged by the criticisms directed against him on all sides: there were the Orthodox, some of whom had accused him of bringing Orthodoxy into disrepute abroad... and certain Catholics, like Fr. Guettée in France, a modernist priest with little to commend him, whom he had met in Paris in 1876 and who had recently published an article of rare violence against him !

THE “ RETURN OF THE DISSIDENTS ”

June 18, 1887: a young Capuchin, Leopold Mandic, from Herzeg Novi in Bosnia, under the jurisdiction of Msgr. Strossmayer, and studying at the friary in Padua, heard the voice of God inviting him to pray for and promote the return of the Orthodox to the bosom of the one Church of Christ. «  The goal of my life , he would later say, must be the return of the Eastern dissidents to Catholic unity; I must therefore employ all my energies, as far as my littleness allows, to co-operate in such a task through the sacrifice of my life . » Fifty years later, he would still remember this grace: «  June 18, for the record: 1887-1937. Today, I offered the Holy Sacrifice for the Eastern dissidents, for their return to Catholic unity . » Thus the Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate united, in this one same “ ecumenical ” work, the ardent heart of a young Capuchin destined for the altars, the apostolic wisdom of a bishop and the brilliant intuitions of a great thinker.

In January 1887, from the Monastery of Saint Sergius where he had celebrated Christmas, Soloviev wrote an article in which he provided philosophic justification for the three Catholic dogmas which the Orthodox reject, namely the Filioque, the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility . Here is a « basis for working towards the reunion of the Churches », he explained. A few months later, he published in Zagreb (on account of the censure directed against him in Russia) his book The History and Future of Theocracy .

There he retraced the vast movement of history towards the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Universal Theocracy, the successor of Jewish Theocracy, cannot be conceived, he explained, without an integrally Christian politics, and he concluded with a splendid anthem to Christ Pantocrator receiving from His Father all power on earth and in Heaven and acting through His emissaries, the Apostles and their successors. Soloviev always believed in the privileged vocation of Russia within the Catholic community of Christian nations, even if he stigmatized what he called “ the sin of Russia ”, which was to oppress and hate all those it dominated, in particular Polish Catholics, Greek Uniates, Ruthenians and Jews !

Like a true prophet, he was vigorous in preaching repentance to his people . In order that they might be faithful to their vocation within the great Slav family, Soloviev asked them to give up their inordinate ambitions, to return to a truer and more Christian conception of their destiny, and to accomplish this within the only international organization which could direct its course, Catholicism, that is to say Roman universalism.

«  One of my theses is that the cause of the Reunion of the Churches in Russia demands a podwig (sacrifice) even heavier to bear than that which, already demanding great self-denial, was needed to ensure Russia’s receptivity to Western culture, an event truly disagreeable to the national sentiment of our ancestors .

«  Well ! this sacrifice consists in drawing closer to Rome and it must be attained at all costs. In this lies the remedy for the Russian sin . »

It goes without saying that Soloviev earned himself new enemies with his book. It cost him great personal suffering, but he could not fail the Truth, which he contemplated with ever greater clarity... What greatness of soul this universal genius possessed !

SAINT VLADIMIR AND THE CHRISTIAN STATE

1888 marked the ninth centenary of the baptism of Saint Vladimir, the first prince of Kiev, whose kingdom after his conversion became « the model of Christian States, with evangelical morals », writes our Father (English CRC, December 1982, p. 23). Soloviev used the occasion to give a conference in Moscow, where he reaffirmed that Russia’s destiny was to turn towards Rome, as King Vladimir had ! However, having hardened itself in its schism, the Muscovite hierarchy was no longer animated by the spirit of St. Vladimir. Hence the fury of the Orthodox hierarchs !

At the same time, Msgr. Strossmayer had gone to Rome for the Jubilee. In vain did he wait for Soloviev there. The latter, fearing perhaps that he had made a definitive break with the Orthodox world which he dreamed on the contrary of winning for the Union, had given up the idea of making this journey. It must also be said that Vatican diplomacy hardly inspired more confidence in him. Leo XIII was revealing himself less and less slavophile, reserving his favours for the Germany of old Bismarck and the young William II ! Msgr. Strossmayer lamented this in a letter to Fr. Martynov: «  The Pope is acting against the Slavs. The Roman prelates are like people insane and think only of temporal power !  »

What a difference between Leo XIII and his successor, St. Pius X, who was, in the words of Msgr. Rupp and our Father, the greatest slavophile pope of our times !

Early in May 1888, Soloviev was on a visit to Paris. To explain his thinking to the French public, he gave a conference on the Russian Idea , « the true national idea eternally fixed in the design of God », who longs to spread His light over the whole world. However, Soloviev remained lucid about his own Church: « If the unity of the universal Church founded by Christ only exists among us in a latent state, it is because the official institution represented by our ecclesiastical government and our theological school is not a living part of the universal Church. »

In passing, he described the destruction of the Greek-Uniate Church by the Orthodox as a «  veritable national sin weighing on Russia and paralysing her moral strength  ». That is still the case today...

In July, Kiev celebrated the feast of the baptism of St. Vladimir. From Zagreb Msgr. Strossmayer sent a telegram in which he exalted Russia’s future role in the manner of his friend Soloviev. Scandal ! His remarks were universally reported by the press. Cardinal Rampolla informed the Croatian bishop that Leo XIII was seriously displeased ! The bishop of Djakovo also earned himself the bitter reproaches of Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, which is more understandable given the rivalry existing between the two Empires.

In the summer of 1887, Soloviev published in the Universe , the newspaper of Louis Veuillot, three articles on St. Vladimir and the Christian State which caused a great stir. Then he journeyed to Croatia where he remained for one whole month with Msgr. Strossmayer. This meeting was rather sad, for the two friends were increasingly aware that their attempt to reunite the Churches would not succeed, at least in their lifetime.

It was in Djakovo that Soloviev finished the immense prologue to his magisterial book, Russia and the Church Universal , in which one can already glimpse signs of the discouragement that would overwhelm the thinker in the latter part of his life. We know from Fatima that the work of the conversion of Russia, something humanly impossible, has been entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary who has a particular love for this Nation such as to inspire jealousy in others. But this only makes it all the more extraordinary that our prophet should have traced out the course of this conversion, like a true Precursor !

« RUSSIA AND THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL »

Soloviev does not hesitate to delve deep, extremely deep, into the past. To realise its designs in the world, divine Wisdom wished to become incarnate, and the Verb to take flesh like our own. As that was not enough, He also wished to unite to Himself a social and historical body, one that could reach the universality of mankind and communicate to all men His own divine Life. In this magnificent perspective, Soloviev compares the formation of that Body through which God wishes to be united with humanity to that effected in the womb of the Virgin Mary at the time of the Incarnation, and to that which operates every day in the Eucharistic mystery... What was needed for this work was a solid foundation, a Rock:

« This bedrock has been found », he writes, « it is Rome. It is only on the Rock [of Peter and his successors] that the Church is founded. This is not an opinion, it is an imposing historical reality . »

It is also an evangelical truth: «  You are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church . » Here Soloviev addresses the Protestants who seek to outbid each other in their attacks against the Primacy of Peter by quoting Jesus’ own words to His Apostle when he was obstructing the Master’s path: «  Get behind me, Satan !  » Soloviev’s response once again shows the clarity of his intelligence and his perfect knowledge of Catholic dogma:

«  There is only one way of harmonising these texts which the inspired Evangelist did not juxtapose without reason. Simon Peter, as supreme pastor and doctor of the universal Church , assisted by God and speaking for all, is, in this capacity, the unshakeable foundation of the House of God and the holder of the keys of the heavenly Kingdom. The same Simon Peter, as a private person, speaking and acting through his own natural forces and an understanding that is purely human , can say and do things that are unworthy, scandalous and even satanic. But personal defects and sins are passing, whereas the social function of the ecclesiastical monarch is permanent. “ Satan ” and the scandal have disappeared, but Peter has remained.  »

Soloviev’s doctrine agrees with that of Vatican Council I and with that of our Father who, at the same time as he makes us venerate Peter’s magisterium, magnificently illustrated by Blessed Pius IX, St. Pius X and John Paul I, accuses John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II of being instruments of “ Satan ” for the ruin of the Church.

However, Christ wished that it should be around Peter that the unity of faith and charity should be formed: «  Since the unity of the faith does not presently exist in the totality of believers, seeing that not all of them are unanimous in matters of religion, it must lie in the legal authority of a single head, an authority assured by divine assistance and the trust of all the faithful . This is the ROCK on which Christ founded His Church and against which the gates of hell will never prevail.  »

Why did this ROCK settle in Rome, and not in Jerusalem, Constantinople or Moscow ? Here we have a further brilliant response from Soloviev: historically Rome represented the order, civilization and terrestrial Empire that would best allow the Church to become the universal spiritual Empire desired by Christ. In a mystical view of the history of Salvation – we would say divine “ orthodromy ” – Soloviev shows how God, wishing to extend salvation to the whole world,  decided one day that His Kingdom should leave Israel for Rome, so that the capital of the pagan Empire should become “ the conjoint instrument ” of His designs:

« The universal monarchy was to stay put; the centre of unity was not to move. But central power itself, its character, its source and its sanction were to be renewed... Instead of an Empire of Might, there was to be a Church of Love. » One thinks of Constantine’s conversion and his imposition throughout the Roman Empire of laws favouring Christianity, and of Theodosius declaring the Christian religion the religion of State. What decisive support for the Gospel ! The remarkable Roman civilization, already the heir of Greece, was put at the service of the Cross of Christ !

Soloviev had some wonderful expressions to describe this, as for example the following: «  Jesus unthroned Caesar... By unthroning the false and impious absolutism of the pagan Caesars, Jesus confirmed and immortalised the universal monarchy of Rome and gave it its true theocratic foundation . »

« Let us not think », comments our Father, « that our theosophist loses his way in a contemplation of evangelical love and freedom. Fully aware of the frailty and shortcomings of humanity, he declares that it is essential, for its effective salvation, that supreme divine power be joined to the firmest social structure, to the virile principle , and not as formerly to the female principle of a virginal flesh for the Incarnation. This firm principle is the imperial monarchical institution which is Rome and Caesar. Converted, elevated and unabolished, the Power of Rome continues in the Pope for the service of the universal community.

« It is only this divino-human pontifical paternity that is capable of forming the basis of the universal fraternity of the peoples, not only through its spiritual influence but also through its authority and its supranational organization. In this monarchy, sacred but popular, the Pope, the Universal Emperor, clearly remains the servant of the servants of God and is, for that very reason, the sovereign Head of the Nations. Opposed to any kind of papolatry, antagonistic to all the encroachments of papism, and quite capable of denouncing such a Pope as Satan, Soloviev raised an imperishable monument to the glory of Rome and pointed out – him, a member of the Orthodox Church – the path of the world’s salvation, which lay in one place only, in the universal Christian order of a restored Roman Catholic Church ... » (French CRC no. 131, July 1978, p. 6)

In his lifetime, Soloviev ran up against a wall of hostility and incomprehension: « I am not so naive », he said, « to seek to convince minds whose private interests are greater than their desire for religious truth. In presenting the general evidence for the permanent primacy of Peter as the basis of the universal Church, I have simply wanted to assist those who are opposed to this truth, not because of their interests and passions, but merely because of their unwitting errors and hereditary prejudices. »

The final period of his life might seem to some like a decline and a renunciation of his prophetic insights, but our Father writes: « Soloviev was too great a mind to be discouraged or to modify his ideas in accordance with the fluctuations of his worldly success. What is certainly true is that his bitter experiences gave him a better knowledge of the Evil that was at work in the world, throwing up formidable obstacles to God’s designs and going so far as to erect a kind of caricature of them. This he denounced as the power of the Antichrist, the Prince of this world, announced in the Scriptures. » (French CRC no. 132, August 1978, p. 12)

At the beginning of the 1890’s, relations between Soloviev and the Orthodox Church deteriorated. «  Given the papaphobia reigning among us , he wrote to a friend, sometimes revealing its underhand character and at other times its stupidity, and always in any event unchristian, I considered and I continue to consider that it is necessary to draw people’s attention to the Rock of the Church laid by Christ Himself and to its positive significance . »

As he persisted in his criticisms, even going so far as to compare the Greco-Russian Church with « the Synagogue », the Orthodox hierarchy, in the person of Pobiedonostev, the Holy Synod’s prosecutor, employed the ultimate weapon at its disposal: it deprived him of the sacraments. One day in 1894, being seriously ill, Soloviev asked to receive the sacraments. His Orthodox confessor refused to give him absolution unless he renounced his Catholic views. Soloviev refused to yield, preferring to forego confession and Holy Communion.

AN AUTHENTIC CONVERSION

The moment had come. On February 18, 1896, he went to see Fr. Nicholas Alexeyevich Tolstoy, a Catholic priest of the Eastern rite exercising his ministry in Moscow. This priest, a former officer, owed him his vocation, his formation (Soloviev having been his teacher) and his conversion to Catholicism. That February 18 was the feast day of Pope St. Leo so dear to Soloviev. Before Mass, he read on his knees the Tridentine symbol of the faith containing the Filioque and a formula declaring that the Church of Rome must be regarded as the head of all the particular Churches. Then he received the Body of Christ at the hands of the Catholic priest.

On the following day, Fr. Tolstoy was denounced and arrested. He managed to escape and to reach Rome first, then France. It was only in 1910 that he would give an account in the Universe of the authentic conversion of Soloviev, and in 1917 that the two witnesses present at the scene would confirm the celebrated Russian’s profession of the Catholic faith. Nevertheless, this conversion was disputed not only by the Orthodox but also by Catholics imbued with a false ecumenism like Msgr. d’Herbigny of sinister memory. But in this matter the facts are indubitable. His entry into the Catholic Church did not, however, in Soloviev’s mind, exclude him from what he called « the true and authentic Eastern or Greco-Russian Church ». Never did he embrace the Latin rite. After the exile of Fr. Tolstoy, as there were no longer any Catholic priests in Moscow apart from those belonging to the Latin rite, Soloviev decided to refrain from receiving the sacraments...

In 1897, a census of the whole of Russia was carried out in which a question was asked about religion. «  I am both Catholic and Orthodox; let the police work that out !  » Soloviev answered.

« Self-important people from Rome and Moscow declared themselves scandalized », writes our Father. « The hour had not yet come for the podwig , for self-renunciation and reconciliation in truth and justice ( pravda ), and for the restoration of the wholly divine unity of communion in love ( sobornost ). Msgr. Rupp thinks that we achieved it with Vatican II. Alas, no ! I hope for and expect it to come with Vatican III... but only after the trial, after conversion and expiation... and after Our Lady’s humble requests have been met. » (English CRC, December 1982, p. 36)

UNDER THE SIGN OF MARY

«  This glow from Heaven emanates from Mary, And vain remains the attraction of the serpent’s venom.  »

On July 17, 1900, sensing death approaching, Soloviev sent for a priest. He was most insistent about this: « Will it be morning soon ? When will the priest come ? » The next day, he made his confession and received Holy Communion at the hands of an Orthodox priest. He died peacefully a few days later, on July 31, «  in the communion of Russian Orthodoxy to which he had ever been faithful, without however disowning the Catholicism of his heart, assured by the example of the Fathers of Russian Christianity, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Vladimir, and so many strastoterptsi , innocents who had suffered the passion , and startsi , slavophiles and romanophiles at the same time, without schism or constraint, in the love of Holy Church and Holy Russia, the Kingdom of God to come !  »

But all this is too beautiful for us not to revisit it, so our Father has decided that we will study in more depth the work of this great Russian thinker, in three parts to appear in subsequent editions of Resurrection , Deo volente:

The vocation of Russia in the designs of God and the concert of the Christian nations: up to and including Putin ?

The Immaculate Virgin Mary , throne of Wisdom, essential beauty of the created world, our ultimate recourse !

The Antichrist unmasked by Soloviev . This was the last service the “ inspired prophet ” rendered to his beloved Russia: that of putting her on her guard against the seductions of the Antichrist. In Rome, at the same time, St. Pius X was also announcing his advent in his encyclical E supremi Apostolatus of October 4, 1903: « The Antichrist is present among us. The Evil shaking the world should not affright us, it will only last a short while. What must fall will fall, and the Church will be reborn from the trial, assisted by her Saviour and ready for extraordinary developments. »

Brother Thomas of Our Lady of Perpetual Help He is risen ! n° 8, August 2001, pp. 13-22

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The trains and stations of the Moscow Metro

2 Comments · Posted by Alex Smirnov in Cities , Travel , Video

The Moscow Metro is the third most intensive subway system in the world after Tokyo and Seoul subways. The first line was opened on May 15, 1935. Since 1955, the metro has the name of V.I. Lenin.

The system consists of 12 lines with a total length of 305.7 km. Forty four stations are recognized cultural heritage. The largest passenger traffic is in rush hours from 8:00 to 9:00 and from 18:00 to 19:00.

Cellular communication is available on most of the stations of the Moscow Metro. In March 2012, a free Wi-Fi appeared in the Circle Line train. The Moscow Metro is open to passengers from 5:20 to 01:00. The average interval between trains is 2.5 minutes.

The fare is paid by using contactless tickets and contactless smart cards, the passes to the stations are controlled by automatic turnstiles. Ticket offices and ticket vending machines can be found in station vestibules.

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Tags:  Moscow city

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Tomás · August 27, 2012 at 11:34 pm

The Moscow metro stations are the best That I know, cars do not.

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Alberto Calvo · September 25, 2016 at 8:57 pm

Great videos! Moscow Metro is just spectacular. I actually visited Moscow myself quite recently and wrote a post about my top 7 stations, please check it out and let me know what you think! :)

http://www.arwtravels.com/blog/moscow-metro-top-7-stations-you-cant-miss

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Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

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5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

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Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

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Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

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Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

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8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

Mayakovskaya station

Mayakovskaya metro station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

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10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

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January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

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December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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Dispensation.

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( Latin dispensatio )

Dispensation is an act whereby in a particular case a lawful superior grants relaxation from an existing law. This article will treat:

For dispensations from vows see VOWS and RELIGIOUS ORDERS; and from fasting and abstinence, FAST, ABSTINENCE.

Dispensation differs from abrogation and derogation, inasmuch as these suppress the law totally or in part, whereas a dispensation leaves it still in vigour; and from epikeia, or a favourable interpretation of the purpose of the legislator, which supposes that he did not intend to include a particular case within the scope of his law, whereas by dispensation a superior withdraws from the power of the law a case which otherwise would fall under it. The raison d'être for dispensation lies in the nature of prudent administration, which often counsels the adapting of general legislation to the needs of a particular case by way of exception. This is peculiarly true of ecclesiastical administration. Owing to the universality of the Church, the adequate observance by all its members of a single code of laws would be very difficult. Moreover, the Divine purpose of the Church, the welfare of souls, obliges it to reconcile as far as possible the general interests of the community with the spiritual needs or even weaknesses of its individual members. Hence we find instances of ecclesiastical dispensations from the very earliest centuries; such early instances, however, were meant rather to legitimize accomplished facts than to authorize beforehand the doing of certain things. Later on antecedent dispensations were frequently granted; as early as the eleventh century Yves of Chartres, among other canonists, outlined the theory on which they were based. With reference to matrimonial dispensations now common, we meet in the sixth and seventh centuries with a few examples of general dispensations granted to legitimize marriages already contracted, or permitting others about to be contracted. It is not, however, until the second half of the eleventh century that we come upon papal dispensations affecting individual cases. The earliest examples relate to already existing unions; the first certain dispensation for a future marriage dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century. In the sixteenth century the Holy See began to give ampler faculties to bishops and missionaries in distant lands; in the seventeenth century such privileges were granted to other countries. Such was the origin of the ordinary faculties (see FACULTIES, CANONICAL) now granted to bishops.

  • (a) A dispensation may be explicit, tacit, or implicit, according as it is manifested by a positive act, or by silence under circumstances amounting to acquiescence, or solely by its connexion with another positive act that presupposes the dispensation.
  • (b) It may be granted in foro interno , or in foro externo , according as it affects only the personal conscience, or conscience and the community at large. Although dispensations in foro interno are used for secret cases, they are also often granted in public cases; hence they must not be identified with dispensations in casu occulto .
  • (c) A dispensation may be either direct or indirect, according as it affects the law directly, by suspending its operation, or indirectly, by modifying the object of the law in such a way as to withdraw it from the latter's control. For instance, when a dispensation is granted from the matrimonial impediment of a vow, the pope remits the obligation resulting from the promise made to God, consequently also the impediment it raised against marriage.
  • (d) A dispensation may be in formâ gratiosâ , in formâ commissâ , or in formâ commissâ mixtâ . Those of the first class need no execution, but contain a dispensation granted ipso facto by the superior in the act of sending it. Those of the second class give jurisdiction to the person named as executor of the dispensation, if he should consider it advisable; they are, therefore, favours to be granted. Those of the third class command the executor to deliver the dispensation if he can verify the accuracy of the facts for which such dispensation is asked; they seem, therefore, to contain a favour already granted. From the respective nature of each of these forms of dispensation result certain important consequences that affect delegation, obreption, and revocation in the matter of dispensations (see DELEGATION; OBREPTION; REVOCATION).

It lies in the very notion of dispensation that only the legislator, or his lawful successor, can of his own right grant a dispensation from the law. His subordinates can do so only in the measure that he permits. If such communication of ecclesiastical authority is made to an inferior by reason of an office he holds, his power, though derived, is known as ordinary . If it is only given him by way of commission it is known as delegated power. When such delegation takes place through a permanent law, it is known as delegation by right of law . It is styled habitual , when, though given by a particular act of the superior, it is granted for a certain period of time or a certain number of cases. Finally, it is called particular if granted only for one case. When the power of dispensation is ordinary it may be delegated to another unless this be expressly forbidden. When it is delegated, as stated above, it may not be subdelegated unless this be expressly permitted; exception is made, however, for delegation ad universitatem causarum i.e. for all cases of a certain kind, and for delegation by the pope or the Roman Congregations. Even these exceptions do not cover delegations made because of some personal fitness of the delegate, nor those in which the latter receives, not actual jurisdiction to grant the dispensation, but an appointment to execute it, e.g. in the case of dispensations granted in formâ commissâ mixtâ (see above).

We ask you, humbly, to help.

Deacon Keith Fournier

The power of dispensation rests in the following persons :

He cannot of his own right dispense from the Divine law (either natural or positive). When he does dispense, e.g. from vows, oaths, unconsummated marriages, he does so by derived power communicated to him as Vicar of Christ , and the limits of which he determines by his magisterium , or authoritative teaching power. There is some diversity of opinion as to the nature of the pope's dispensing power in this respect; it is generally held that it operates by way of indirect dispensation: that is, by virtue of his power over the wills of the faithful the pope, acting in the name of God, remits for them an obligation resulting from their deliberate consent, and therewith the consequences that by natural or positive Divine law flowed from such obligation. The pope, of his own right, has full power to dispense from all ecclesiastical laws, whether universal or particular, even from the disciplinary decrees of œcumenical councils. Such authority is consequent on his primacy and the fullness of his immediate jurisdiction. A part of this power, however, he usually communicates to the Roman Congregations.

Of his ordinary right, the bishop can dispense from his own statutes and from those of his predecessors, even when promulgated in a diocesan synod (where he alone is legislator). From the other laws of the Church he cannot dispense of his own right. This is evident from the nature of dispensation and of diocesan jurisdiction. A principle maintained by some authors, viz, that the bishop can grant all dispensations which the pope has not reserved to himself, cannot be admitted. But by derived right (either ordinary or delegated according to the terms of the grant) the bishop can dispense from those laws that expressly permit him to do so or from those for which he has received an indult to that effect. Moreover, by ordinary right, based on custom or the tacit consent of the Holy See, he may dispense:

  • (a) in a case where recourse to the Holy See is difficult and where delay would entail serious danger;
  • (b) in doubtful cases especially when the doubt affects the necessity of the dispensation or the sufficiency of the motives;
  • (c) in cases of frequent occurrence but requiring dispensation, also in frequently occurring matters of minor importance;
  • (d) in decrees of national and provincial councils , although he may not pronounce a general decree to the contrary;
  • (e) in pontifical laws specially passed for his diocese.

It should be always remembered that to fix the exact limit of these various powers legitimate custom and the interpretation of reputable authors must serve as guides. Superiors of exempt religious orders (see EXEMPTION) can grant to their subjects, individually, those dispensations from ecclesiastical laws which the bishop grants by his ordinary power. When there is question of the rules of their order they are bound to follow what is laid down in their constitutions.

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He enjoys by virtue of his appointment the ordinary dispensing power of the bishop, also the delegated powers of the latter, i.e. those granted him not personally but as ordinary (according to present discipline, the pontifical faculties known as ordinary ); exception is made, however, for those powers which require a special mandate like those of the chapter Liceat , for dealing with irregularities and secret cases. The vicar capitular likewise has all the dispensing power which the bishop has of his own right, or which has been delegated to him as ordinary.

By his own ordinary right, founded on custom, he may dispense (but only in particular cases, and for individuals separately, not for a community or congregation) from the observance of fasting, abstinence, and Holy Days. He can also dispense, within his own territory, from the observance of diocesan statutes when the latter permit him to do so; the terms of these statutes usually declare the extent of such power, also whether it be ordinary or delegated. Dispensation being an act of jurisdiction, a superior can exercise it only over his own subjects, though as a general rule he can do so in their favour even outside his own territory. The bishop and the parish priest, except in circumstances governed by special enactments, acquire jurisdiction over a member of the faithful by reason of the domicile or quasi-domicile he or she has in a diocese or parish (see DOMICILE). Moreover, in their own territory they can use their dispensing power in respect of persons without fixed residence ( vagi ), probably also in respect of travellers temporarily resident in such territory. As a general rule he who has power to dispense others from certain obligations can also dispense himself.

A sufficient cause is always required in order that a dispensation may be both valid and licit when an inferior dispenses from a superior's law, but only for the liceity of the act when a superior dispenses from his own law. Nevertheless, in this latter case a dispensation granted without a motive would not ( in se ), except for some special reason, e.g. scandal, constitute a serious fault. One may be satisfied with a probably sufficient cause, or with a cause less than one that, of itself and without any dispensation, would excuse from the law. It is always understood that a superior intends to grant only a licit dispensation. Therefore a dispensation is null when in the motives set forth for obtaining it a false statement is made which has influenced not only the causa impulsiva , i.e. the reason inclining the superior more easily to grant it, but also the causa motiva , i.e. the really determining reason for the grant in question. For this, and in general for the information which should accompany the petition, in order that a dispensation be valid, see below apropos of obreption and subreption in rescripts of dispensation. Consequently a false statement or the fraudulent withholding of information, i.e. done with positive intention of deceiving the superior, totally annuls the dispensation, unless such statement bear on a point foreign to the matter in hand. But if made with no fraudulent intent, a false statement does not affect the grant unless the object of the statement be some circumstance which ought to have been expressed under pain of nullity, or unless it affects directly the motive cause as above described. Even then false statements do not always nullify the grant; for;

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  • (a) when the dispensation is composed of several distinct and separable parts, that part or element alone is nullified on which falls the obreption or subreption, as the case may be;
  • (b) when several adequately distinguished motive causes are set forth, the dispensation is null and void only when the obreption or subreption in question affects them all.

It is enough, moreover, that the accuracy of the facts be verified at the moment when the dispensation is granted. Therefore, in the case of dispensations ex gratiâ (or in formâ gratiosâ ), i.e. granting favours, the facts must be true when the dispensation is expedited; on the other hand, in the case of dispensations in formâ commissâ (and according to the more general opinion, in those in formâ commissâ mixtâ ), the causes alleged must be verified only when the dispensation is actually executed.

It is proper, generally speaking, that dispensations be asked for and granted in writing. Moreover, the Roman Congregations are forbidden, as a rule, to receive petitions for dispensations or to answer them by telegram. The execution of a dispensation made on receipt of telegraphic information that such dispensation had been granted would be null, unless such means of communication had been officially used by special authorization from the pope. Except when the interest of a third party is at stake, or the superior has expressed himself to the contrary, the general dispensing power, whether ordinary or delegated, ought to be broadly interpreted, since its object is the common good. But the actual dispensation (and the same holds true of dispensing power given for a particular case) ought to be strictly interpreted unless it is a question of a dispensation authorized by the common law, or one granted motu proprio (by the superior spontaneously) to a whole community, or with a view to the public good. Again, that interpretation is lawful without which the dispensation would prove hurtful or useless to the beneficiary, also that which extends the benefits of the dispensation to whatever is juridically connected with it.

  • (a) A dispensation ceases when it is renounced by the person in whose favour it was granted. However, when the object of the dispensation is an obligation exclusively resulting from one's own will, e.g. a vow, such renunciation is not valid until accepted by the competent superior. Moreover, neither the non-use of a dispensation nor the fact of having obtained another dispensation incompatible with the former is, in itself, equivalent to a renunciation. Thus, if a girl had received a dispensation to marry Peter and another to marry Paul, she would remain free to marry either of them.
  • (b) A dispensation ceases when it is revoked after due notice to the recipient. The legislator can validly revoke a dispensation, even without cause, though in the latter case it would be illicit to do so; but without a cause an inferior cannot revoke a dispensation, even validly. With a just cause, however, he can do so if he has dispensed by virtue of his general powers (ordinary or delegated); not so, however, when his authority extended merely to one particular case, since thereby his authority was exhausted.
  • (c) A dispensation ceases by the death of the superior when, the dispensation having been granted in formâ commissâ , the executor had not yet begun to execute it. But the grant holds good if given ex gratiâ (as a favour) and even, more probably, if granted in formâ commissâ mixtâ . In any case, the new pope is wont to revalidate all favours granted in the immediately previous year by his predecessor and not yet availed of.
  • (d) A conditional dispensation ceases on verification of the condition that renders it void, e.g. the death of the superior when the dispensation was granted with the clause ad beneplacitum nostrum (at our good pleasure).
  • (e) A dispensation ceases by the adequate and total cessation of its motive causes, the dispensation thereupon ceasing to be legitimate. But the cessation of the influencing causes, or of a part of the motive causes, does not affect the dispensation. However, when the motive cause, though complex, is substantially one, it is rightly held to cease with the disappearance of one of its essential elements.

A matrimonial dispensation is the relaxation in a particular case of an impediment prohibiting or annulling a marriage. It may be granted:

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  • (a) in favour of a contemplated marriage or to legitimize one already contracted;
  • (b) in secret cases, or in public cases, or in both (see IMPEDIMENTS OF MATRIMONY);
  • (c) in foro interno only, or in foro externo (the latter includes also the former). Power of dispensing in foro interno is not always restricted to secret cases ( casus occulti ).

These expressions, as stated above, are by no means identical. We shall classify the most important considerations in this very complex matter, under four heads:

  • (1) general powers of dispensation;
  • (2) particular indults of dispensation;
  • (3) causes for dispensations;
  • (4) costs of dispensations.

The pope cannot dispense from impediments founded on Divine law-except, as above described, in the case of vows, espousals, and non-consummated marriages, or valid and consummated marriage of neophytes before baptism (see NEOPHYTES). In doubtful cases, however, he may decide authoritatively as to the objective value of the doubt. In respect of impediments arising from ecclesiastical law the pope has full dispensing power. Every such dispensation granted by him is valid, and when he acts from a sufficient motive it is also licit. He is not wont, however, out of consideration for the public welfare, to exercise this power personally, unless in very exceptional cases, where certain specific impediments are in question. Such cases are error, violence, Holy orders , disparity of worship , public conjugicide, consanguinity in the direct line or in the first degree (equal) of the collateral Line, and the first degree of affinity (from lawful intercourse) in the direct line. As a rule the pope exercises his power of dispensation through the Roman Congregations and Tribunals.

Up to recent times the Dataria was the most important channel for matrimonial dispensations when the impediment was public or about to become public within a short time. The Holy Office, however, bad exclusive control in foro externo over all impediments connected with or juridically bearing on matters of faith, e.g. disparity of worship, mixta religio , Holy orders, etc. The dispensing power in foro interno lay with the Penitentiaria, and in the case of pauperes or quasi-pauperes this same Congregation had dispensing power over public impediments in foro externo . The Penitentiaria held as pauperes for all countries outside of Italy those whose united capital, productive of a fixed revenue, did not exceed 5370 lire (about 1050 dollars); and as quasi-pauperes , those whose capital did not exceed 9396 lire (about 1850 dollars). It likewise had the power of promulgating general indults affecting public impediments, as for instance the indult of 15 Nov., 1907. Propaganda was charged with all dispensations, both in foro inferno and in foro externo , for countries under its jurisdiction, as was the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs for all countries depending on it, e.g. Russia, Latin America, and certain vicariates and prefectures Apostolic.

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On 3 November, 1908, the duties of these various Congregations received important modifications in consequence of the Constitution "Sapienti", in which Pope Pius X reorganized the Roman Curia. Dispensing power from public impediments in the case of pauperes or quasi-pauperes was transferred from the Dataria and the Penitentiaria to a newly established Congregation known as the Congregatio de Disciplinâ Sacramentorum. The Penitentiaria retains dispensing power over occult impediments in foro interno only. The Holy Office retains its faculties, but restricted expressly under three heads:

  • (1) disparity of worship ;
  • (2) mixta religio;
  • (3) the Pauline Privilege [see DIVORCE (IN MORAL THEOLOGY)].

Propaganda remains the channel for securing dispensations for all countries under its jurisdiction, but as it is required for the sake of executive unity, to defer, in all matters concerning matrimony, to the various Congregations competent to act thereon, its function is henceforth that of intermediary. It is to be remembered that in America, the United States, Canada and Newfoundland, and in Europe, the British Isles are now withdrawn from Propaganda, and placed under the common law of countries with a hierarchy. The Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs loses all its powers; consequently the countries hitherto subject to it must address themselves either to the Holy Office or to the Congregatio de Disciplinâ Sacramentorum according to the nature of the impediment.

It should be noted that the powers of a Congregation are suspended during the vacancy of the Holy See, except those of the Penitentiaria in foro interno , which, during that time, are even increased. Though suspended, the powers of a Congregation may be used in cases of urgent necessity.

We shall treat first of their fixed perpetual faculties, whether ordinary or delegated, afterwards of their habitual and temporary faculties. By virtue of their ordinary power (see JURISDICTION) bishops can dispense from those prohibent impediments of ecclesiastical law which are not reserved to the pope. The reserved impediments of this kind are espousals, the vow of perpetual chastity, and vows taken in diocesan religious institutes (see RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS), mixta religio , public display and solemn blessing at marriages within forbidden times, the vetitum , or interdict laid on a marriage by the pope, or by the metropolitan in a case of appeal. The bishop may also dispense from diriment impediments after the following manner: —

  • (1) in marriages already contracted and consummated, when urgent necessity arises (i.e. when the interested parties cannot be separated without scandal or endangering their souls, and there is no time to have recourse to the Holy See or to its delegate) — it is, however, necessary that such marriage shall have taken place in lawful form before the Church, and that one of the contracting parties at least shall have been ignorant of the impediment ;
  • (2) in marriages about to be contracted and which are called embarrassing ( perplexi ) cases, i.e. where everything being ready a delay would be defamatory or would cause scandal ;
  • (3) when there is a serious doubt of fact as to the existence of an impediment ; in this case the dispensation seems to hold good, even though in course of time the impediment becomes certain, and even public. In cases where the law is doubtful no dispensation is necessary ; but the bishop may, if he thinks proper, declare authentically the existence and sufficiency of such doubt.
  • (b) By virtue of a decree of the Congregation of the Inquisition or Holy Office (20 February, 1888) diocesan bishops and other ordinaries (especially vicars Apostolic, administrators Apostolic, and prefects Apostolic, having jurisdiction over an allocated territory, also vicars-general in spiritualibus , and vicars capitular) may dispense in very urgent ( gravissimum ) danger of death from all diriment impediments (secret or public) of ecclesiastical law, except priesthood and affinity (from lawful intercourse) in the direct line.

However, they can use this privilege only in favour of persons actually living in real concubinage or united by a merely civil marriage, and only when there is no time for recourse to the Holy See. They may also legitimize the children of such unions, except those born of adultery or sacrilege. In the decree of 1888 is also included the impediment of clandestinity. This decree permits therefore (at least until the Holy See shall have issued other instructions) to dispense, in the case of concubinage or civil marriage, with the presence of the priest and of the two witnesses required by the Decree "Ne temere" in urgent cases of marriage in extremis . Canonists do not agree as to whether bishops hold these faculties by virtue of their ordinary power or by general delegation of the law. It seems to us more probable that those just described under;

  • (a) belong to them as ordinaries, while those under
  • (b) are delegated.

They are, therefore, empowered to delegate the former; in order to subdelegate the latter they must be guided by the limits fixed by the decree of 1888 and its interpretation dated 9 June, 1889. That is, if it is a question of habitual delegation parish priests only should receive it, and only for cases where there is no time for recourse to the bishop.

Besides the fixed perpetual faculties, bishops also receive from the Holy See habitual temporary indults for a certain period of time or for a limited number of cases. These faculties are granted by fixed "formulæ", in which the Holy See from time to time, or as occasion requires it, makes some slight modifications. (See FACULTIES, CANONICAL.) These faculties call for a broad interpretation. Nevertheless it is well to bear in mind, when interpreting them, the actual legislation of the Congregation whence they issue, so as not to extend their use beyond the places, persons, number of cases, and impediments laid down in a given indult. Faculties thus delegated to a bishop do not in any way restrict his ordinary faculties; nor ( in se ) do the faculties issued by one Congregation affect those granted by another. When several specifically different impediments occur in one and the same case, and one of them exceeds the bishop's powers, he may not dispense from any of them. Even when the bishop has faculties for each impediment taken separately he cannot (unless he possesses the faculty known as de cumulo ) use his various faculties simultaneously in a case where, all the impediments being public, one of them exceeds his ordinary faculties, it is not necessary for a bishop to delegate his faculties to his vicars-general ; since 1897 they are always granted to the bishop as ordinary, therefore to the vicar-general also. With regard to other priests a decree of the holy Office (14 Dec., 1898) declares that for the future temporary faculties may be always subdelegated unless the indult expressly states the contrary. These faculties are valid from the date when they were granted in the Roman Curia. In actual practice they do not expire, as a rule, at the death of the pope nor of the bishop to whom they were given, but pass on to those who take his place (the vicar capitular , the administrator, or succeeding bishop ). Faculties granted for a fixed period of time, or a limited number of cases, cease when the period or number has been reached; but while awaiting their renewal the bishop, unless culpably negligent, may continue to use them provisionally. A bishop can use his habitual faculties only in favour of his own subjects. The matrimonial discipline of the Decree "Ne temere" (2 Aug., 1907) contemplates as such all persons having a true canonical domicile, or continuously resident for one month within his territory, also vagi , or persons who have no domicile anywhere and can claim no continuous stay of one month. When a matrimonial impediment is common to both parties the bishop, in dispensing his own subject, dispenses also the other.

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A vicar capitular, or in his place a lawful administrator, enjoys all the dispensing powers possessed by the bishop in virtue of his ordinary jurisdiction or of delegation of the law ; according to the actual discipline he enjoys even the habitual powers which had been granted the deceased bishop for a fixed period of time or for a limited number of cases, even if the indult should have been made out in the name of the Bishop of N. Considering the actual praxis of the Holy See, the same is true of particular indults (see below). The vicar-general has by virtue of his appointment all the ordinary powers of the bishop over prohibent impediments, but requires a special mandate to give him common-law faculties for diriment impediments. As for habitual temporary faculties, since they are now addressed to the ordinary, they belong also ipso facto to the vicar-general while he holds that office. He can also use particular indults when they are addressed to the ordinary, and when they are not so addressed the bishop can always subdelegate him, unless the contrary be expressly stated in the indult.

A parish priest by common law can dispense only from an interdict laid on a marriage by him or by his predecessor. Some canonists of note accord him authority to dispense from secret impediments in what are called embarrassing ( perplexi ) cases, i.e. when there is no time for recourse to the bishop, but with the obligation of subsequent recourse ad cautelam , i.e. for greater security; a similar authority is attributed by them to confessors. This opinion seems yet gravely probable, though the Penitentiaria continues to grant among its habitual faculties a special authority for such cases and restricts somewhat its use.

When there is occasion to procure a dispensation that exceeds the powers of the ordinary, or when there are special reasons for direct recourse to the Holy See, procedure is by way of supplica (petition) and private rescript. The supplica need not necessarily be drawn up by the petitioner, nor even at his instance; it does not, however, become valid until he accepts it. Although, since the Constitution "Sapienti", all the faithful may have direct recourse to the Congregations, the supplica is usually forwarded through the ordinary (of the person's birthplace, or domicile, or, since the Decree "Ne temere", residence of one of the petitioners), who transmits it to the proper Congregation either by letter or through his accredited agent; but if there is question of sacramental secrecy, it is sent directly to the Penitentiaria, or handed to the bishop's agent under a sealed cover for transmission to the Penitentiaria. The supplica ought to give the names ( family and Christian ) of the petitioners (except in secret cases forwarded to the Penitentiaria), the name of the Ordinary forwarding it, or the name of the priest to whom, in secret cases, the rescript must be sent; the age of the parties, especially in dispensations affecting consanguinity and affinity ; their religion, at 1east when one of them is not a Catholic ; the nature, degree, and number of all impediments (if recourse is had to the Congregatio de Disciplinâ Sacramentorum or to the Holy Office in a public impediment, and to the Penitentiaria at the same time in a secret one, it is necessary that the latter should know of the public impediment and that recourse has been had to the competent Congregation). The supplica must, moreover, contain the causes set forth for granting the dispensation and other circumstances specified in the Propaganda Instruction of 9 May, 1877 (it is no longer necessary, either for the validity or liceity of the dispensation, to observe the paragraph relating to incest intercourse, even when probably this very thing had been alleged as the only reason for granting the dispensation). When there is question of consanguinity in the second degree bordering on the first, the supplica ought to be written by the bishop's own hand. He ought also to sign the declaration of poverty made by the petitioners when the dispensation is sought from the Penitentiaria in formâ pauperum; when he is in any way hindered from so doing he is bound to commission a priest to sign it in his name. A false declaration of poverty henceforth does not invalidate a dispensation in any case; but the authors of the false statement are bound in conscience to reimburse any amount unduly withheld (regulation for the Roman Curia, 12 June, 1908). For further information on the many points already briefly described the reader is referred to the special canonical works, wherein are found all necessary directions as to what must be expressed so as to avoid nullity. When a supplica is affected (in a material point) by obreption or subreption it becomes necessary to ask for a so-called "reformatory decree " in case the favour asked has not yet been granted by the Curia, or for the letters known as "Perinde ac valere" if the favour has already been granted. If, after all this, a further material error is discovered, letters known as "Perinde ac valere super perinde ac valere" must be applied for. See Gasparri, "Tractatus de matrimonio" (2nd ed., Rome, 1892), I, no. 362.

Dispensation rescripts are generally drawn up in formâ commissâ mixtâ , i.e. they are entrusted to an executor who is thereby obliged to proceed to their execution, if he finds that the reasons are as alleged ( si vera sint exposita ). Canonists are divided as to whether rescripts in formâ commissâ mixtâ contain a favour granted from the moment of their being sent off, or to be granted when the execution actually takes place. Gasparri holds it as received practice that it suffices if the reasons alleged be actually true at the moment when the petition is presented. It is certain, however, that the executor required by Penitentiaria rescripts may safely fulfil his mission even if the pope should die before he had begun to execute it. The executor named for public impediments is usually the ordinary who forwards the supplica and for secret impediments an approved confessor chosen by the petitioner. Except when specially authorized the person delegated cannot validly execute a dispensation before he has seen the original of the rescript. Therein it is usually prescribed that the reasons given by the petitioners must be verified. This verification, usually no longer a condition for valid execution, can be made, in the case of public impediments, extra-judicially or by subdelegation. In foro interno it can be made by the confessor in the very act of hearing the confessions of the parties. Should the inquiry disclose no substantial error, the executor proclaims the dispensation, i.e. he makes known, usually in writing, especially if he acts in foro externo , the decree which dispenses the petitioners; if the rescript authorizes him, he also legitimizes the children. Although the executor may subdelegate the preparatory acts, he may not, unless the rescript expressly says so, subdelegate the actual execution of the decree, unless he subdelegates to another ordinary. When the impediment is common to, and known to, both parties, execution ought to be made for both; wherefore, in a case in foro interno , the confessor of one of the parties hands over the rescript, after he has executed it, to the confessor of the other. The executor ought to observe with care the clauses enumerated in the decree, as some of them constitute conditions sine quâ non for the validity of the dispensation. As a rule, these clauses affecting validity may be recognized by the conditional conjunction or adverb of exclusion with which they begin (e.g. dummodo , "provided that"; et non aliter , "not otherwise"), or by an ablative absolute. When, however, a clause only prescribes a thing already of obligation by law it has merely the force of a reminder. In this matter also it is well to pay attention to the stylus curiœ , i.e. the legal diction of the Roman Congregations and Tribunals, and to consult authors of repute.

Following the principles laid down for dispensations in general, a matrimonial dispensation granted without sufficient cause, even by the pope himself, would be illicit; the more difficult and numerous the impediments the more serious must be the motives for removing them. An unjustified dispensation, even if granted by the pope, is null and void, in a case affecting the Divine law ; and if granted by other bishops or superiors in cases affecting ordinary ecclesiastical law. Moreover, as it is not supposable that the pope wishes to act illicitly, it follows that if he has been moved by false allegations to grant a dispensation, even in a matter of ordinary ecclesiastical law, such dispensation is invalid. Hence the necessity of distinguishing in dispensations between motive or determining causes ( causœ motivœ ) and impulsive or merely influencing causes ( causœ impulsivœ ). Except when the information given is false, still more when he acts spontaneously ( motu proprio )and "with certain knowledge ", the presumption always is that a superior is acting from just motives. It may be remarked that if the pope refuses to grant a dispensation on a certain ground, an inferior prelate, properly authorized to dispense, may grant the dispensation in the same case on other grounds which in his judgment are sufficient. Canonists do not agree as to whether he can grant it on the identical ground by reason of his divergent appreciation of the latter's force.

Among the sufficient causes for matrimonial dispensations we may distinguish canonical causes, i.e. classified and held as sufficient by the common law and canonical jurisprudence, and reasonable causes. i.e. not provided for nominally in the law, but deserving of equitable consideration in view of circumstances or particular cases. An Instruction issued by Propaganda (9 May, 1877) enumerates sixteen canonical causes. The "Formulary of the Dataria" (Rome, 1901) gives twenty-eight, which suffice, either alone or concurrently with others, and act as a norm for all sufficient causes. They are: smallness of place or places; smallness of place coupled with the fact that outside it a sufficient dowry cannot be had; lack of dowry; insufficiency of dowry for the bride; a larger dowry; an increase of dowry by one-third; cessation of family feuds; preservation of peace; conclusion of peace between princes or states; avoidance of lawsuits over an inheritance, a dowry, or some important business transaction; the fact that a fiancée is an orphan ; or has the care of a family ; the age of the fiancée over twenty-four; the difficulty of finding another partner, owing to the fewness of male acquaintance, or the difficulty the latter experience in coming to her home; the hope of safeguarding the faith of a Catholic relation; the danger of a mixed marriage ; the hope of converting a non-Catholic party; the keeping of property in a family ; the preservation of an illustrious or honourable family ; the excellence and merits of the parties; defamation to be avoided, or scandal prevented; intercourse already having taken place between the petitioners, or rape; the danger of a civil marriage ; of marriage before a Protestant minister revalidation of a marriage that was null and void; finally, all reasonable causes judged such in the opinion of the pope (e.g. the public good), or special reasonable causes actuating the petitioners and made known to the pope, i.e. motives which, owing to the social status of the petitioners, it is opportune should remain unexplained out of respect for their reputation. These various causes have been stated in their briefest terms. To reach their exact force, some acquaintance is necessary with the stylus curiœ and the pertinent works of reputable authors, always avoiding anything like exaggerated formalism. This list of causes is by no means exhaustive; the Holy See, in granting a dispensation, will consider any weighty circumstances that render the dispensation really justifiable.

The Council of Trent (Sess. XXIV, cap. v, De ref. matrim.) decreed that dispensations should be free of all charges. Diocesan chanceries are bound to conform to this law (many pontifical documents, and at times clauses in indults, remind them of it) and neither to exact nor accept anything but the modest contribution to the chancery expenses sanctioned by an Instruction approved by Innocent XI (8 Oct., 1678), and known as the Innocentian Tax ( Taxa Innocentiana ). Rosset holds that it is also lawful, when the diocese is poor, to demand payment of the expenses it incurs for dispensations. Sometimes the Holy See grants ampler freedom in this matter, but nearly always with the monition that all revenues from this source shall be employed for some good work, and not go to the diocesan curia as such. Henceforth every rescript

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IMAGES

  1. 9-DISPENSATION CHART

    travel dispensation catholic

  2. Printable 7 Dispensations Chart

    travel dispensation catholic

  3. Catholic dispensation

    travel dispensation catholic

  4. St. Patrick's Day Dispensation

    travel dispensation catholic

  5. Catholic travel dispensation for Mass?

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  6. dispensational chart

    travel dispensation catholic

COMMENTS

  1. Travel and Catholics' Sunday Obligation to Attend Mass

    For that reason, they are binding under pain of mortal sin, so it's important not to disregard them for anything less than serious reasons. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the first precept is "You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor." You'll notice that the statement isn't ...

  2. When Can You Get a Dispensation, and Who Can Grant It?

    A: In " Marriage Between a Catholic and a Non-Catholic ," we looked at the concept of dispensation from church laws. As a rule, of course, the Church makes laws and expects us to obey them. But sometimes, circumstances are such that it can be possible to obtain a dispensation from obeying a law, which means it doesn't have to be observed.

  3. Don't Blow Off Mass While Vacationing

    Without prejudice to the right of diocesan bishops in canon 87, a parish priest, in individual cases, for a just reason and in accordance with the prescriptions of the diocesan bishop, can give a dispensation from the obligation of observing a holy day or day of penance, or commute the obligation into some other pious works (can. 1245).

  4. Do I have to go to Sunday Mass When Traveling?

    Q. Is there an automatic dispensation from Sunday Mass for those who are traveling over the holidays or at other times? A. No, there is not. Catholics have a serious obligation to attend Mass on Sundays, not only to keep the Third Commandment, but also to give thanks to God for His many blessings. God asks for only one hour of our week to fulfill this responsibility, and that's less than 1% ...

  5. Explainer: Your bishop said it's time to come back to church. Is it a

    Whenever dioceses choose to lift dispensations, like with other difficult pandemic-related decisions, individual believers will have to decide for themselves when they feel safe going back to church.

  6. Dispensation and Obligation to Attend Mass on Sundays

    Bishop Luis offers this reminder that the obligation to attend Mass is also an invitation to return to our churches and renew ourselves in receiving God's love through the Eucharist. "The doors of our churches are wide open," said Bishop Luis. "Now let us open our hearts, embracing each other in community and fully embracing the gift of ...

  7. Canon law, COVID-19 and our dispensation from attending Sunday Mass

    Canon law, COVID-19 and our dispensation from attending Sunday Mass By Very Rev. Joseph Newton, JCL, VJ (Special to The Criterion). Given the centrality of the Eucharist as "the source and summit of the Christian life" (Lumen Gentium, #11), and keeping in mind the Third Commandment to "remember the sabbath day, [and] to keep it holy," the Catholic Church states that "on Sundays and ...

  8. PDF WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I CAN'T GO TO MASS?

    Coronavirus Dispensation and Prayers What is a Dispensation from Mass? A dispensation from the diocesan Bishop releases Catholics from the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. Attendance at public Masses in the Archdiocese of Washington is severely restricted due to public health directives due to the pandemic.

  9. Missing Mass on Vacation?

    "In our Catholic tradition, we do have something called a travel dispensation. If it is a full travel day and you're going from taxis to the airport and whatnot, the Catholic Church does not consider it a mortal sin. Particularly because you were concerned enough to call a radio show and ask about it." (Original Air 5-10-16)

  10. What is the Sunday obligation for Catholics?

    Dispensation for Serious Reasons At the same time, the obligation to attend Mass can be dispensed for a grave reason, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains .

  11. DISPENSATION FROM SUNDAY MASS FAQS

    Since the Bishop has no authority to dispense from a Divine Law, in this case, the commandment requiring us to keep the Lord's Day holy, one may consider the Divine Law fulfilled if, from 4 p.m. the Saturday before or on Sunday itself he/she: watches a Sunday Mass on television or via live-stream (visit www.rcbo.org for a complete list); or ...

  12. Dispensation

    Cessation of Dispensations .—. (a) A dispensation ceases when it is renounced by the person in whose favor it was granted. However, when the object of the dispensation is an obligation exclusively resulting from one's own will, e.g. a vow, such renunciation is not valid until accepted by the competent superior.

  13. Rite Questions: Who can be dispensed from the Sunday obligation to

    Perhaps a farmer might be in desperate need to harvest a crop and so requests a dispensation from his pastor. The pastor considers the spiritual good of the parishioner and weighs the cause being put forward for the dispensation. The law also gives the pastor the ability to commute the obligation to another pious work (CIC 1245).

  14. Missing Sunday Mass While on Vacation

    It is a deplorable fact that in recent years the sin of missing Mass on Sunday has become more common among Catholics in the United States. Priests should recognize the danger to the faith inevitably connected with this custom, and strive to avert it by impressing our people with the importance of Sunday Mass in Catholic life. It is true, there ...

  15. Canon 1246, §2

    As President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, I hereby declare that the effective date of this decree for all the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America will be January 1, 1993, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Given at the offices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC, November 17, 1992.

  16. Dispensations That Allowed Catholics To Attend Mass Virtually To Be

    The General Dispensation from attendance at Sunday Mass and Holy Days is lifted as of Palm Sunday, beginning with the Vigil Mass, the 27th of March, 2021. For the Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday ...

  17. Dispensation (Catholic canon law)

    e. In the jurisprudence of the canon law of the Catholic Church, a dispensation is the exemption from the immediate obligation of law in certain cases. [1] Its object is to modify the hardship often arising from the rigorous application of general laws to particular cases, and its essence is to preserve the law by suspending its operation in ...

  18. Have That Burger on These Lenten Fridays

    In addition, sometimes diocesan bishops provide a dispensation on a Lenten Friday, such as when St. Patrick's Day (March 17) lands on a Friday, as it did this year. And if you happen to be traveling to another diocese on St. Patrick's Day, i.e., when it falls on Lenten Friday again, you should observe the regulation of that diocesan bishop.

  19. Vladimir Soloviev, prophet of Russia's conversion

    Vladimir Soloviev, aged twenty. T HE conversion of Russia will not be the work of man, no matter how gifted he may be, but that of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, the Mediatrix of all graces, because this is God's wish, which he revealed to the world in 1917. The life and works of Vladimir Soloviev are a perfect illustration of this ...

  20. The trains and stations of the Moscow Metro · Russia Travel Blog

    2 Comments · Posted by Alex Smirnov in Cities, Travel, Video. The Moscow Metro is the third most intensive subway system in the world after Tokyo and Seoul subways. The first line was opened on May 15, 1935. Since 1955, the metro has the name of V.I. Lenin.

  21. Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

    6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders. Novoslobodskaya metro station. 7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power.

  22. Dispensation

    Free World Class Education. FREE Catholic Classes. ( Latin dispensatio ) Dispensation is an act whereby in a particular case a lawful superior grants relaxation from an existing law. This article will treat: I. Dispensation in General; II. Matrimonial Dispensations. For dispensations from vows see VOWS and RELIGIOUS ORDERS; and from fasting and ...

  23. Elektrostal to Moscow

    Rome2Rio is a door-to-door travel information and booking engine, helping you get to and from any location in the world. Find all the transport options for your trip from Elektrostal to Moscow right here. Rome2Rio displays up to date schedules, route maps, journey times and estimated fares from relevant transport operators, ensuring you can ...