A turkey is more occult and awful than all the angels and archangels. In so far as God has partly revealed to us an angelic world, He has partly told us what an angel means. But God has never told us what a turkey means. And if you go and stare at a live turkey for an hour or two, you will find by the end of it that the enigma has rather increased than diminished.
G.K. Chesterton
Month: November 2003
Annulments and Abuse
A friend of mine, who happens to be the Adjutant Judicial Vicar of his diocese, graciously allowed me to blog the following email which he sent over a canon law listserve. I have to say that my tribunal experience has not been much different than his own:
Our Judicial Vicar asked the tribunal
notaries to do a brief review of the 555 marriage cases between 1998
and mid-2003. The tribunal collected data regarding various types of
reported abuse (verbal and emotional, physical, drugs and alcohol,
and sexual), including who was the victim of the abuse, when the
abuse occurred (pre-marriage, marriage, or both), and who was the
perpetrator of the abuse. A brief summary and a 4-point summary
follows.
We are sure the results will come as no surprise to those of us who judge theses cases but thought that the results might be of interest
to the group.
BRIEF SUMMARY:
In 84% of our cases, some type of abuse occurred. In 91% of these cases, the person experienced abuse prior to the marriage, and in 58% of these cases, the person also married into an abusive relationship. In 86% of these cases, the person was abused in the
immediate or extended family, and in 52% of these cases, the person’s spouse also experienced abuse prior to the marriage. Only 2.5% of the sexual abuse cases were reported, and of these, none of the abuse that had occurred in the immediate or extended family were reported to the proper authorities.
4-POINT SUMMARY:
1) In 84% of our annulment cases, some type of abuse occurred in the person’s life – 465 cases involved some type of abuse (84% of the 555 cases).
2) In 91% of the abuse cases, at least one person had experienced abuse prior to the marriage, and in 58% of the abuse cases, at least one person in the marriage had experienced some type of abuse both prior to the marriage and in the marriage – 421 cases involved abuse prior to the marriage (91% of the 465 cases), 149 cases involved abuse prior to the marriage only (32% of the 465 cases), 43 cases involved abuse in the marriage only (9% of the 465 cases), 272 cases involved abuse both prior to and in the marriage (58% of the 465 cases).
3) In 86% of the cases where the person experienced abuse, the abuse occurred in the immediate or extended family, and in 52% of the cases where the person experienced abuse in the immediate family, he or she also married someone who had also experienced abuse prior to the marriage – 365 cases involved abuse in the immediate family (78% of the 465 cases), 36 cases involved abuse in the extended family (8% of the 465 cases), 401 cases involved abuse in the immediate or extended family (86% of the 465 cases), 189 cases involved abuse prior to the marriage by both parties (52% of the 365 cases).
4) In 19% of the cases where the person experienced some type of abuse prior to the marriage, the abuse was reported to be sexual abuse. Of these, only two of the eighty cases (2.5%) were reported to the authorities. No one reported the sexual abuse that had occurred in the immediate or extended family.
The following numbers represent that various types of abuse often accompanies other forms of abuse, e.g., alcohol abuse by a family member often accompanies verbal and/or physical abuse on others. Emotional/Verbal: 334 cases of the 421 cases with pre-marriage abuse Alcohol/Drugs: 289 cases of the 421 cases with pre-marriage abuse Physical: 168 cases of the 421 cases with pre-marriage abuse Sexual: 80 cases of the 421 cases with pre-marriage abuse General figures indicate that one of three (33%) women and one of four (25%) to seven (14%) men have experienced sexual abuse. Thus, the reported figure of 19% appears to be conservative. At the same time, it is striking that this large a number is reporting the sexual
abuse in the tribunal process.
Fraternally,
Fr. X,
Diocese of Y
Numbers on the hymn-board
Thanksgiving Day has an unusual position in the religious life of America: with its lore linked to the settlement in Massachusetts, it is basically a celebration of the country’s founding and Protestant heritage. And it’s nearly universally observed: the one high holy day of American Protestant communities. Even anti-liturgical fundamentalists who don’t believe in holy days can be expected to have a morning service on the fourth Thursday in November. Americanism vincit omnia.
The hymns of Thanksgiving Day just beg to be sung by a confident congregation. Here are two:
(Note: Some of the pages at the following links have embedded music files.)
We gather together
Come, ye thankful people, come
And now, your suggestions?
Giving thanks a day early
Probably nobody is going to be checking CL on Thanksgiving — I doubt I will — so I suggest we start the annual litany of thanks a day early. Here are some of mine:
— Being back in the United States after being in the Middle East most of the year.
— That we have a military capable of inflicting grievous damage against our enemies, and the enemies of true peace, without doing any substantial damage to the innocent.
— Despite the constant encroachments of (sometimes) well-meaning politicians, we still live in an empire of freedom.
— My family worships in a faithful church with faithful priests, and many faithful fellow parishioners.
— We have a new baby who is fat and healthy.
— Our house is small but cozy and warm, and I love coming home to it every day.
What are yours?
Update, 3:42 p.m.:
— How could I forget? A wife who loves me despite my flaws, and my other two kids who pour joy into my life.
— The people at work whom I supervise, who also tolerate me and our often-surreal working conditions.
— That I don’t have to travel today!
Yes, Fatima will remain Catholic
An article circulating among traditionalists charges that the sanctuary at Fatima is “to become an interfaith shrine”, according to statements at a recent conference:
Delegates attending the Vatican and United Nations (UN) inspired annual interfaith congress “The Future of God”, held during October in Fátima, heard how the Shrine is to be developed into a centre where all the religions of the world will gather to pay homage to their various gods. The Congress was held in the Paul VI Pastoral Centre and presided over by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon José de Cruz Policarpo.
The discerning reader will recognize right away that this is agitprop, a story perhaps with some basis, but spun to the max, in this case by people who have an interest in making the Vatican look as if it were betraying the faith. The Lefebvrites organized a protest at the site; the Grunerite press‘s representative is appalled that an interfaith conference would be held at Fatima; and the whole thing is sounding through the echo chamber of the rad-trad network.
It looks like the conference was indeed an opportunity for indifferentist talk by some participants, Catholic and otherwise, but fortunately, somebody has thought to ask the Vatican representative Abp. Fitzgerald about the rumors, and he confirms that while Fatima welcomes all people to come, talk of “an interfaith shrine” is 100% bunk.
A retired American guy named Rick Salbato lives in Fatima, putting together his web site about Catholic controversies; he’s provided his own take on the affair too.