VATICAN CITY, MAR 31, 2001 (VIS) - This morning the Pope held his annual meeting with the members of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the penitentiary fathers of the patriarchal basilicas of the city, and the participants in the annual course on the internal forum.
In his discourse the Holy Father emphasized that "Jesus is the sole and necessary mediator of eternal salvation. ... From this derives the necessity, with regard to eternal salvation, of those means of grace, instituted by Jesus, which are the Sacraments. The pretense of regulating our accounts with God, apart from the Church and the sacramentary economy is therefore illusory and inauspicious."
The Pope affirmed that the great flow of the faithful to sacramental Confession during the Jubilee Year showed how such a theme "is always contemporary." Referring to the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance, the Holy Father confirmed the it "is always an act of the Church," from which it follows that "both for the validity and the licitness of the sacrament itself, the priest and the penitent must faithfully keep to what the Church teaches and prescribes."
"It is also necessary to remember the provision of canon 720 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches and canon 960 of the Code of Canon Law, according to which individual and complete confession and absolution are the only ordinary way that the member of the faithful aware of grave sin can reconcile himself with God and with the Church. For this reason collective absolution, without prior individual confession of sins, must be rigorously kept within the compulsory canonical norms."
John Paul II affirmed: "Nevertheless the Sacrament of reconciliation should not be confused with a psychotherapeutic technique. Psychological practices cannot replace the Sacrament of penance, nor much less be put in its place."
The Pope continued his speech, affirming that the confessor is obligated "to offer his time and understanding patience to the faithful with full availability." Even the priest not in direct pastoral care over souls "will provide generous and ready care."
He recalled that "the very condition of ministry 'in persona Christi' establishes the absolute obligation of sacramental seal for the priest concerning the matters confessed in the Sacrament, even at the cost, if necessary, of his life itself." The confessor, as such, cannot propose 'his' personal morality or ascetics, that is his private opinions or options, but must express that truth of which the Church is depository and guarantor in the authentic Magisterium."
The Holy Father concluded by exhorting the priests of the entire world to "be generous ministers of the Sacrament of penance in order that the wave of divine mercy may reach every soul in need of purification and comfort."
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We should use the catechism to get the erring Catholics back on track too! The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in paragraph 1446 that, "Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace.""
ReplyDeleteAnd according to Pope John Paul II the Catechism of the Catholic Church "is given as a sure and authentic reference text for teaching Catholic doctrine."