One of my Catholic friends expressed the following sentiment this evening, reacting to the above story:
"This is exactly why Rome is so toxic. The Gospel is good news. God came to free us from sin... He didn’t come to suffocate us with details."
"This is exactly why Rome is so toxic. The Gospel is good news. God came to free us from sin... He didn’t come to suffocate us with details."
I want to share and expand on my response to this, because I actually do think it's important.
As a canon lawyer who genuinely does “believe in this level of ritual requirement”, I think her basic instinct to identify an attitude of fear in this matter as "toxicity" is correct.
As a canon lawyer who genuinely does “believe in this level of ritual requirement”, I think her basic instinct to identify an attitude of fear in this matter as "toxicity" is correct.
I could write an entire essay explaining why, theologically and canonically, Fr. Hood's situation was handled correctly. I could give you citations from Aquinas, Denzinger, and Prümmer. I could defend the necessity of judging when sacraments are technically valid or invalid.
But all of those technicalities *do* become toxic if they are wedded with an attitude of fear/scrupulously that would portray God as "an ATM of grace that can only be accessed with the correct code", rather than as a merciful Father who will not fail to give us what we ask for.
If we do not approach situations like this with peaceful trust in the overabundant mercy of God to provide grace in an extraordinary manner outside of His sacraments, when necessary, we risk transforming the joy of the Gospel into a suffocating nightmare of fear for salvation.
Yes, this situation was a theological-canonical nightmare. Real mistakes were made, with significant real-life consequences, and it was (and is) good that we honestly identify and mend such mistakes when they come to our attention. But we do so with a spirit of peace, not fear.
Rephrased, and not to put too fine a point on it: I think it is in fact wildly obvious that not one single innocent soul has *truthfully* had their salvation jeopardized, for even a moment, by these very real (and grave) human errors. Because God is not a legalistic monster.
