Professor Ed Peters notes an LA case in which a judge has ordered a priest to answer questions about whether a suspect confessed to him; the judge claims that the confessional privilege doesn't cover that fact.
Dr. Peters explains why there's really no material evidence to be gained from such a question anyway, and spells out what a priest may not licitly disclose.
Update: There's a little news, so I'm moving up this item, which was formerly dated 12/16/05.
A social service agency that runs a program for the homeless in our parish hall has been given an extension to continue operating until April, so it's reasonable to figure that that applies to the parish too. Deo gratias!
--RC
December 16, 2005
A spokesman for the archdiocese announced on Tuesday that, contrary to earlier statements, my parish would not be closing this Thursday:
Terry Donilon, Statement:
This past spring the Archdiocese of Boston extended the closing date of Holy Trinity Parish to December 15, 2005.
Since that time, the Archdiocese has been in communication with parishoners of Holy Trinity regarding their concerns and has also been in communication with Bridge Over Troubled Waters [residence for homeless teens] and the Medeiros Center [day shelter for seniors], a program of Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses. [The two social service programs are located in our church hall and the unoccupied floors of the rectory.]
Holy Trinity Parish will not be closing on Dec 15th.
At this time, the Archdiocese intends to pursue further communications with parishoners and representatives of the tenant agencies concerning future plans.
I know that seems like a pretty non-committal announcement, but it's about par for the course, as the pastoral solicitude of the local curia goes. (The attentive reader will have noticed that the Archdiocese of Boston doesn't even know how to spell "parishioner"!)
Anyway, we're still here! A happy and holy Advent!
Charles Wilson of the St. Joseph Foundation devotes his December newsletter to an article about the parish as an institution, the relation of the parish to the diocese, and the standing of parishes in civil law. He also gives an overview of parish-related cases appealed to Rome, and the apparent fact that there really is no reliable canonical remedy for most bad administrative decisions. But that doesn't stop him from helping people seek remedies to the extent possible.
