Toepassing van het geldend kerkelijk recht

Canonist Dr. Gero Weishaupt beargumenteert dat de celebratie-richting versus orientem of versus Deum louter een toepassing is van het geldend kerkelijk recht en dus niet kan beschouwd worden als een 'hervorming'.

"Die Zelebration „versus Deum“ ist - zusammen mit der Mundkommunion und der lateinischen Kultsprache - nicht Gegenstand der von Papst Benedikt XVI. gewünschten „Reform der Reform“ der Liturgie, sondern Verwirklichung geltenden Rechtes. Es geht hierbei um die Korrektur einer Fehlentwicklung nach dem Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil."

Lees hier het gehele artikel.

Dit roept natuurlijk -en opnieuw in het licht van hét onderwerp van de katholieke blogosfeer in Nederland vandaag- de vraag op naar oorzaken en verantwoordelijkheden van de niet-toepassing van het geldend kerkelijk recht.
Als onderdeel van een antwoord geldt het volgende:
In CIC 392 § 1 lezen we: " Episcopi dioecesani est Ecclesiam particularem sibi commissam cum potestate legislative, exsecutiva et iudiciali regere, ad normam iuris".

In Christus Dominus nr. 15 lezen we: " ipsi itaque Episcopi praecipui sunt dispensatores mysteriorum Dei, sicut et totius vitae liturgicae in Ecclesia sibi commissa moderatores, promotores atque custodes."

Why Europe needs St. Thomas Aquinas!

Robert Barron pr. beargumenteert waarom Amerika vandaag Sint-Thomas van Aquino nodig heeft, maar de intellectuele malaise is net zo zeer aanwezig in Europa; daarom...

America Needs You, Thomas Aquinas

By Rev. Robert Barron

Just last week I was in Toulouse France, filming for my ten part documentary on Catholicism. I will admit that I was in Toulouse for fairly personal reasons. In the Dominican church of the Jacobins, in a golden casket situated under a side altar, are the remains of my hero, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Lees hier meer

Pius XII - Pope of the People

Etymologische misleiding

Pastoor Mennen schrijft: "Zeer symptomatisch voor de wijze waarop bisschoppen hun handelwijze of hun niet-handelen theologisch verantwoorden is dat je hen voor de duiding van hun ambt nooit hoort beroepen op de betekenis van het Griekse woord “episkopos”, de originele christelijke naam van hun ambt waar het Nederlandse woord bisschop toch rechtstreeks van is afgeleid. Dat betekent immers “toezichthouder” of “inspecteur”, een term die door de oergemeente waarschijnlijk toch niet voor niets gekozen is. Nee, men beroept zich liever op een latere meer heidense ambtstitel “pontifex” dat men gemakshalve met “bruggenbouwer” vertaalt. En dat wordt dan zo uitgelegd dat bisschoppen geroepen zouden zijn bruggen te bouwen tussen mensen en tussen (tegengestelde) groepen van mensen, een soort verbindingsman in een gepolariseerde Kerk. Dat deze verklaring niet de echte is, kan ieder verklarend woordenboek uitleggen. Daar zal men vinden dat “pontifex” een wegbereider naar de godheid is maar dat was blijkbaar niet het belangrijkste. De verzonnen uitleg was een theologisch excuus om altijd vriendelijk te kunnen blijven en nooit te hoeven optreden."

Lees hier geheel de column van pastoor Mennen

Bossche seminarist als subdiaken

Een Herder die leidt

Terwijl wij de kritiek pro libertate et exaltatione sanctae Matris Ecclesiae op enkele bisschoppen in de Lage Landen van op afstand observeren, kijken wij vaak met "blijde ogen" naar wat verder ligt dan het provinciale, bv. naar Mgr. Edward Slattery, bisschop van het bisdom Tulsa. Hij schrijft in het September 2009-nummer van het bisdomblad (zie hier het nummer in PDF):

Even before his election as the successor to St. Peter, Pope Benedict has been urging us to draw upon the ancient liturgical practice of the Church to recover a more authentic Catholic worship. For that reason, I have restored the venerable ad orientem position when I celebrate Mass at the Cathedral. This change ought not to be misconstrued as the Bishop “turning his back on the faithful,” as if I am being inconsiderate or hostile. Such an interpretation misses the point that, by facing in the same direction, the posture of the celebrant and the congregation make explicit the fact that we journey together to God. Priest and people are on this pilgrimage together.

Gehele Romeinse ritus op het seminarie

Onderstaand bericht heeft misschien ook betrekking op de studie en de praktijk van de gehele Romeinse Ritus op de seminaries?

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 19, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican is aiming to prepare a "brief, forceful and very clear" document on the formation of seminarians as one of the elements to close the Year for Priests.

This was affirmed by Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès, secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano today.

The archbishop explained that the preparation of the document over upcoming months will imply a meeting of the congregation's permanent commission, made up of members of various dicasteries who deal with the formation of future priests.

The congregation, the prelate added, wants to send a message to priests that they have been "chosen, [the priesthood] is an honor. Be happy to be a priest."

Archbishop Bruguès added that "a good number of the youth who apply to the formation centers in nations such as Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the United States have a very good professional formation, sometimes high level university education, but they lack general culture, and above all, a Christian culture."

The archbishop recommended compensating for this lack with a preparatory year at the beginning of seminary formation, such that the formation process itself is adapting to the profile of present generations.

The congregation oversees 2,700 seminaries, 1,200 Catholic universities and 250,000 Catholic schools around the world.

Forma ordinaria of forma extraordinaria op het seminarie

Kun je als seminarist kiezen tussen de forma ordinaria of de forma extraordinaria?...
Ja dus, zoals Rorate Caeli opmerkt, maar dan wel in het Franse bisdom van Frejus-Toulon waar op 26 september in de kathedraal de bisschop Mgr. Dominique Rey twee priesters voor zijn bisdom zal wijden volgens de buitengewone vorm.

De kiesgerechtigde kardinalen

Wat en waar hebben de 113 kiesgerechtigde kardinalen gestudeerd? (Informatie op basis van deze website volgens de hoogst behaalde graad)

Kerkelijk recht
Urbanianum 1
Gregorianum 14
Lateranum 9
Angelicum 1
Elders: München 1
d.w.z. 29, 38 % van de kiesgerechtige kardinalen heeft een graad in kerkelijk recht

Theologie
Urbanianum 6
Gregorianum 21
Lateranum 6
Angelicum 1
Salesianum 1
Alphonsianum 1
Anselmianum 1
Antonianum 1
Biblicum 2
Elders waaronder Leuven 1, Paderborn 1, Salamanca 1, Krakow 1, Sorbonne 1, Fribourg 1, Comillas 1, Institut Catholique de Paris 3,
d.w.z. 39, 55 % van de kiesgerechtige kardinalen heeft een graad in kerkelijk recht of theologie behaald aan de Gregoriana.

Filosofie
Angelicum 1 (Foley)
Salesianum 1
Elders waaronder Oxford 1 (Pell), Fribourg 2 (o.a. Tumi), Genova 1 (Bagnasco), Pamplona 1, Sorbonne 1 (Barbarin), Tulane university 1 (George).


De interpretatie van deze gegevens kan tot vele conclusies leiden, maar deze laten wij over aan de lezers.

Sint-Thomas en Der Fall Wagner

Het Nederlands Thomas Genootschap publiceert de eerste Nederlandse vertaling van Quodlibet 5, kwestie 11, artikel 2 waar Sint-Thomas als het ware antwoordt op de canonieke verwikkelingen van enige tijd geleden rond Dr. Gerhard Maria Wagner in Linz. Maar misschien hadden de 'medebroeders' van Dr. Wagner beter eerst S. Th. III, q. 185, a. 1 gelezen-waarvan ook een Nederlandse vertaling op deze website beschikbaar is.
Of hoe de studie van Sint-Thomas pas een echt aggiornamento in de Kerk kan brengen!

A Man for All Seasons: Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange O.P.

Wat hebben het ontluisterende bericht van het CBS over "Religie in de 21ste eeuw" (link, beschouwingen van Observatrix), het Jaar van de Priester en Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange O.P. met elkaar gemeen? Ogenschijnlijk heel weinig. Vragen we echter naar de oorzaken van de voortdurende verdamping van het katholiek leven in de Nederlanden. De dooddoener van de secularisering -zo vaak gehoord in de 60-er en 70-er jaren - is enkel een uiting van een dieperliggend probleem. De volgende dooddoener, één die we vooral dankzij de inspanningen van kardinaal Ratzinger hebben leren kennen maar één waaraan velen nog niet gewend zijn, nl. "Die Geburt der Liturgie aus dem Geiste des Konzils" om een filosoof te parafraseren, is inderdaad een dieperliggende oorzaak maar gaat nog niet ver genoeg. In diens "What went wrong with Vatican II" heeft professor en Thomist Ralph McInerny enkele jaren geleden de interessante stelling verdedigd dat de crisis na Vaticanum II niet door Vaticanum II maar door de bisschoppelijke reacties op Humanae Vitae in 1968 is veroorzaakt. Toen werd immers voor het eerst op grote schaal de ongehoorzaamheid van bisschoppen en theologen, voorheen de pilaren van orthodoxie, merkbaar voor het 'volk Gods'. Woorden wekken, voorbeelden trekken. Alhoewel deze stelling in het boek misschien wat te beknopt en éénzijdig wordt uitgewerkt, duidt McInerny terecht het probleem van de ecclesiologische orthodoxie aan als véél dieperliggend dan wereldlijke (secularisatie) en sensitieve, d.i. met zintuigen vaststelbare (liturgie) oorzaken.
Paus Paulus VI zag misschien de bui al hangen toen hij zich genoodzaakt zag de beruchte Nota praevia toe te voegen aan Lumen gentium om zijn eigen, d.w.z. katholieke, positie te midden van al te zeer naar democratische normen begrepen bisschoppelijke collegialiteit, veilig te stellen.

Nu, de thema's bisschopsambt, de van Godswege hiërarchische structuur van de Kerk, de taak van de theoloog, etc. brengen ons bij de échte oorzaak van de ontluisterende cijfers van het CBS, nl. de orthodoxie of de afwezigheid daarvan. De plaats bij uitstek waar de orthodoxie wordt overgeleverd is het seminarie waar opnieuw een Denzinger-theologie (niet te verwarren met een vaak beoefende C.I.C.-theologie) dient beoefend te worden. Hét voorbeeld hiervan in de 20ste eeuw is de Franse Thomist Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange. En zo is de cirkel rond. Of nog, indien het klassieke thomisme in de theologie niet opnieuw gepractiseerd wordt in de seminaries en als criterium nr. 1 geldt voor wijdingen en suspenderingen, is de kans klein dat het CBS een rapport publiceert over de Religie in de 22ste eeuw.

Om dit te onderstrepen publiceren we hieronder het artikel uit First Things van Professor R. Reno van Creighton Univerisity over Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, wiens denken sinds enige jaren een echte revival kent.

"Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877–1964), was the twentieth-century Catholic theologian whose outlook and intellectual projects epitomized the confident intransigence of the pre-Vatican II Church. Professor of theology at the Angelicum in Rome for many decades, Garrigou-Lagrange taught Aristotle and St. Thomas to many generations of seminarians. As a consultant to the Holy Office, he played an important role in the intellectual politics of mid-century Catholicism. His reputation was clear: hardnosed about truth and in favor of the use of church authority in its defense.

In recent decades, Garrigou and the Catholic sensibility he embodied has been out of style, very out of style. Richard McCormick, Roger Haight, Elizabeth Johnson, Monica Hellwig, Charles Curran, Gregory Baum, David Tracy, and other post-Vatican II theologians emerged as the standard bearers for what they hoped would be a new church, a new spirit, and a new age. They wanted to be flexible and pluralistic when it came to truth, and they were suspicious when it came to authority, especially church authority.

Time has passed. The young progressives have aged and grayed. Critical theology became contextual theology, which turns out to be progressive political platitudes lightly seasoned with pious phrases. For the rising generation, the old, supposed authoritarian and discredited tradition so roundly denounced by the liberals (who have their own authoritarian tendencies) has begun to seem relevant, even attractive. Any enemy of my enemy is a potential friend.

So things now seem to stand. In the last few years two books devoted to the rehabilitation of Pére Garrigou-Lagrange have appeared—The Sacred Monster of Thomism: An Introduction to the Life and Legacy of Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., by Richard Peddicord, O.P., and Reason with Piety: Garrigou LaGrange in the Service of Catholic Thought, by the prolific and popular theological writer Aidan Nichols, also of the Order of Preachers. Taken together, these two volumes provide a useful survey of Garrigou’s philosophical and theological work. They also suggest reasons why his once vast influence should be renewed. [Als eerste, zo voegen wij hieraan toe, geldt echter het thema-nummer van Doctor Angelicus in 2004, bij gelegenheid van de 40ste verjaardag van Garrigou-Lagrange's overlijden]

The standard liberal histories of Catholicism offer a self-serving dichotomy. The decades before the Second Vatican Council are labeled anti-modern, and the period after the Council is described as a season of engagement. In other words, before the Council the Church had its head in the sand, and after the Council courageous theologians finally got on with the business of taking the modern world seriously. A Heroic Generation finally overcame a weak, defensive, world-denying generation that only survived by the raw and cynical exercise of ecclesiastical power.

This historical caricature is worse than inaccurate. In a technical sense, the Catholic Church was anti-modern. In 1864, Pius IX published the Syllabus of Errors. The last proposition (to be rejected, of course) was that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.”

Pius IX was surely right. Insofar as modern Western culture claims to be the font and judge of all truth, then, yes, of course the Catholic Church was (and remains) anti-modern. The Syllabus of Errors denounces a wide range of theological, philosophical, and political perversions. One can agree or not. But across the list of eighty errors, it becomes transparently clear that the nineteenth century Catholic Church was quite aware of modern intellectual, social, and political trends—and was sharply critical of them. She hardly hid her head in the sand.

Garrigou-Lagrange exercised such an important role in the history of early twentieth century Catholicism because he was one of the clearest expositors of Neo-Thomism, the intellectual project that provided the most sophisticated and successful philosophical and theological arguments for sustaining the basic claims of the Syllabus of Errors. He and Neo-Thomism flourished because it was engaged, very engaged, with the pressing issues of modernity.

Nichols gives a helpful example. More than a hundred years ago, Catholic scholars adopted assumptions about the historical structure of Christian faith that threatened the Church’s claims about revelation. These scholars presumed that, because all knowledge and belief is socially and historically and subjectively constituted, therefore what counts as Christian truth changes according to historical and personal frameworks. This tendency toward historical and subjective relativism was condemned as modernism by the encyclical Pascendi (1907).

The modernist crisis came to a boil while Garrigou was a young scholar, and he put his finger on the underlying issue. Is our knowledge so thoroughly historically or subjectively determined that the Magisterium cannot teach with reliable authority? Are the concepts of person and substance, for example, so historically conditioned that a modern person does not grasp the same truth as an ancient when confessing the unity of divine substance and trinity of divine persons?

Garrigou recognized that the very idea of historical revelation collapses if a fourth-century Christian in Constantinople confesses something different from a twentieth-century Christian in Paris simply because of the intervening centuries. If historical and subjective frameworks are all determining, then God does not reveal himself in Jesus Christ. Instead, God reveals himself in our historical categories and personal religious experience. As Karl Barth once said, this approach to revelation amounts to “talking about God by talking about man in a loud voice.”

To combat the underlying historicism and subjectivism, Garrigou demonstrated that truth has an objective solidity and permanence. Drawing on the Thomistic tradition, Garrigou gave a clear explanation of the priority of existence over essence, a metaphysical principle that allowed him to show how reality anchors the intellect rather than the intellect constructing or constituting reality. Truth comes from the way things are, not from the way we see things.

Neo-Thomism was trashed by progressives in the aftermath of Vatican II. “It fails to take history serious. The theology is remote from the real experience of modern men and women,” we were told. In the place of the Neo-Thomist synthesis, the Rahnerians promised a transcendental theology that would magically transform subjective categories into the language of faith. History, social context, personal experience—these human-centered phenomena would somehow extend the hand of friendship to the official teachings of the Church.

Garrigou fought against the new theologies that were advanced in the decades immediately prior to Vatican II. Indeed, his opposition was notorious. In the late 1940s, Henri de Lubac was bitter about “the kind of dictatorship that Father G-L is trying to exercise in the Church.” But Garrigou was prescient. Indeed, less than two decades after Vatican II, Henri de Lubac would end up ringing the theological alarms, reiterating the spirit if not the letter of Garrigou’s clear and rigorous Neo-Thomism.

I have never understood the animus against Neo-Thomism in the post-Vatican II Church. By my reading, the Second Vatican Council was a remarkable event, one that endorsed all sorts of changes and new directions in the Catholic Church. Historians rightly emphasize these changes. Yet, all the bishops who attended the Council, all the theological advisors who drafted the documents that were eventually adopted, all the major players were educated within the Neo-Thomist synthesis. Garrigou himself was the teacher of many important figures at the Council. Therefore, by any responsible historical judgment, the creative and lasting significance of the Council necessarily owes a great deal to the supposedly antiquated and discredited manual theology of Neo-Thomism.

We need not rely on generalizations. John Paul II was a young bishop at Vatican II. Throughout his long pontificate, he remained enthusiastic about the achievements and significance of the Council, especially the renewed emphasis on the Church’s engagement with the world. The Church contributes to world by speaking the truth about our humanity, a truth vouchsafed in Christ, a truth that must be spoken in season and out. And who directed Karol Wojtyla’s doctoral dissertation? Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange.

Neither Peddicord nor Nichols ask us to turn back the clock. We don’t need to, because time seems to be catching up with Garrigou. As Nichol’s observes, Garrigou consistently saw relativism as the “generative principle” of errors, and he saw “the need to re-establish the ‘exigence of truth’ for both culture and life.” Today, Benedict XVI denounces the “dictatorship of relativism” and calls for the renewal of a culture of truth.

The specific teachings of the Neo-Thomism that Garrigou represented so well may or may not provide a fully adequate theology for the Church. For all its limitations, I am of the opinion that it still offers an enviable clarity and coherence for beginning theological students. Garrigou’s books helped me when I was a confused graduate student. But some think otherwise, working instead for a Balthasarian or neo-patristic synthesis to provide adequate systematic coherence. They have my best wishes. The Church only stands to benefit. Nonetheless, one feature of Garrigou’s theology is indispensable: a deep and—dare I say—inflexible commitment to truth.

R.R. Reno, features editor at First Things, is a professor of theology at Creighton University.