With apologies for another vanity posting…
I’m often asked, as both a journalist and a canon lawyer, how Boston has affected the Church in North America. In some ways it has been for the good – sexual abuse is no longer covered up in the Church. In other ways, not so good. Young priests get nasty stares whenever they wear their collar in public.
Anyway, a number of my colleagues in the canon law world agreed to go on record with me for a story in today’s Washington Times.
Author: Pete Vere
Dom Calvet’s funeral held today
Today is the funeral of Dom Gerard Calvet, founder of the post-conciliar traditional Benedictine movement. He was a good man, and it was because of his loyalty to the Church and the traditional liturgy that traditional Catholics now feel at home in the Church. I hope the Church will one day find him worthy of canonization.
That being said, it was an honour to write his obituary for LifeSite News and The Washington Times. I’ve also been invited to write his obituary for The Wanderer and Challenge Magazine:
– Renowned French Pro-Life Abbott Dies at Age 80
– Calvet, 80, mourned in France
May Father Abbot’s soul, and the soul of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Dom Gerard Calvet, RIP
This is just going to be rambles. I loved the man as much as I loved Pope John Paul II.
Fr. Arnaud Devillers alerted me this morning that Dom Gerard Calvet, the former abbot of Le Barroux, passed away yesterday. For those who are traditionalist in communion with Rome, Dom Gerard became our spiritual leader after the split with Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988. As founder of the traditionalist movement’s Benedictine branch, Dom Calvet had been a close collaborator with Lefebvre up until the split, and always hoped and prayer that Lefebvre would die reconciled with Rome.
His book Demain la Chretiente was a blue-print for the traditionalist movement. And it was an honour to assist on the English translation. Most importantly, Calvet was a man of deep prayer.
Calvet was also a pro-life example. He was the source of riots in France after spending Christmas in jail one year, because he and his monks had walked into the local abortuary one morning and, with reinforced chains, chained themselves to the machine. It took firemen and police something like twelve hours to unchain them.
May Father Abbot’s soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
How excommunication is administered
Actually, Rich, an excommunication can be administered in two ways:
– as a penalty after a judicial trial (ferendae sententiae)
– declared if incurred automatically by the individual’s action (latae sententiae) if he or she violates a law that carries with it the penalty of excommunication.
Schism is one such action. Schism is failure to subject oneself to the Roman Pontiff, or to act in communion with those in communion with the Roman Pontiff. In this case, the bishop is stating that the mystic refuses to subject herself to him – he being the lawful bishop in communion with the Roman Pontiff. This carries an automatic excommunication for schism when the refusal is obstinate and on-going.
For more explanation on this topic, see my article published last summer in This Rock Magazine, “Strong Medicine: Canon Law and Excommunication”. Or better yet (shameless plug alert) check out a copy of my new book with Michael Trueman, just recently released, Surprised by Canon Law, Volume 2.
Golden Compass boring
At the request of several Catholic and pro-life organizations, I went to see The Golden Compass last night. Setting aside the moral objections, the $200-billion-dollar film commits the unforgivable sin among fans of the fantasy genre: It’s boring.
You can read my full review here.