Yesterday, the Vatican announced a series of new or modified legal measures focused on sins against the sacraments and other serious issues. That’s not what anyone heard. They heard U.S. News & World Report say: Catholic Church Equates Sex Abuse With Female Ordination. I am not faulting the Press. They got it right, because that is exactly what they heard, with ears that have no training in such matters.

The Young Fogey and Damian Thompson of the Telegraph get what went wrong — horribly wrong — with the way the new rules were offered to the world. They were offered on a silver platter that held the head of the Vatican Press Office’s director along with the heads of a goodly number of high ranking clergy and the Bishop of Rome — none of whom get it. They let the fiasco happen. The focus was on process and legalities, and the underpinnings were never discussed.

Some things not commonly understood, actually not even understood by most Roman Catholics:

Much of this was about legal processes. The Roman Church has them in spades. If people joke about the voluminousness of the Byzantine Code, they would be equally amused by all the legalisms and processes that live in the Roman Church. Have a problem — there a rule for that. Have a conflict — there’s a tribunal for that. Didn’t do your job — a requisite penalty in Chapter X. The following sins were heard in confession — look to the book of appropriate penances.

Yesterday was about announcing heady legal stuff about cases, the practice of law, rights, obligations, defenses, witnesses, trials, attorneys, and more. Certain Roman clergy and a few lay members of the Roman Church spend years pursuing a doctorate in Canon Law. They proudly carry the initials J.C.D. after their name (The Latin abbreviation for: Juris Canonici Doctor). They need it to understand stuff like this:

Art. 18

With full respect for the right of defense, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith may sanate acts in cases lawfully presented to it if merely procedural laws have been violated by lower Tribunals acting by mandate of the same Congregation or according to art. 16.

Art. 19

With due regard for the right of the Ordinary to impose from the outset of the preliminary investigation those measures which are established in can. 1722 of the Code of Canon Law, or in can. 1473 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, the respective presiding judge may, at the request of the Promotor of Justice, exercise the same power under the same conditions determined in the canons themselves.

Art. 20

The Supreme Tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judges in second instance:

1° cases adjudicated in first instance by lower tribunals;
2° cases decided by this same Supreme Apostolic Tribunal in first instance.

If you have ever looked at the U.S. tax law you would know what I mean. Laws have a nasty habit of growing and increasing, defining and redefining, adjusting, and correcting. Beyond written law, you have case law, the precedent decisions of judges on cases which set the parameters for future decisions and interpretations. One block being built upon another until you have a Tower of Babel. After a while you have the tax code, or the laws of the Roman Church. Somewhere in all of that the mission, the purpose, and the point of it all gets lost — but at least lawyers and accountants have jobs.

The Roman Church attempted to backtrack a little today, trying to fix the PR mis-step. In doing that they further inserted foot into mouth. See the NY Times: Women Priests And Sex Abuse Not Equal Crimes: Vatican for instance.

Why the problem with the attempt at correction? Because of the complexity of these laws, and their basis in protecting all the sacraments, and the Catholic understanding of what sacraments are, the crimes the laws address are equally serious. Is it serious matter to sexually abuse a child? — Yes. Is it serious matter to defile the Eucharist or tell a confession? — Equally, yes.

The sacraments are a physical conveyance of God’s grace by the means entrusted to the Church to bring this about. When the priest consecrates the bread and wine — it is no longer bread and wine. When sins are forgiven, they are actually wiped away and forgotten, God has stepped in to forgive. When a priest is ordained, the Holy Spirit has changed him so that the particular man can do a share of the Bishop’s ministry. When the sick are anointed, God brings about true healing. It is not magic or voodoo, it is not a commemoration alone, but a direct promise from God that when offered in the way Jesus offered these same gifts, they are offered to us anew by God, and He is present.

The Church is saying that they have a tremendously precious gift, more precious than any treasure found on earth, and they are making certain laws to protect those gifts. As we attempt to protect ourselves, our borders against terrorists, the Roman Church is making its own “Patriot Act,” and is attempting to protect what is most precious — the eternal life and the good of its members.

So yes, attempting to turn a cheese tray and a Bud into the body and Blood of Jesus is grave, as is attempting to confect orders on a person who cannot by nature receive that gift, as is blabbing someone’s confession on YouTube, as is a man using the power and place he has been given so as to abuse children. All very serious because they trifle with the things of God, holy things.

The public perception cannot be overcome. I am not sure there would have been a way to fix this even if all this had been laid out in briefing books. The Press will do as they will. What may have worked, however, is to express the seriousness accorded to what the Church teaches – Scripture, Tradition, and adherence to the Christian way of life. It wasn’t the fact that they laid down more legalities and procedures, the things they did focus upon. It was rather that they should have talked about the central message in a maximum of two phrases: They were calling themselves back to who they should be, and were taking it seriously. Actually, the Patriot Act analogy would have been a great talking point.

I am not sure that making laws will accomplish any of this in the end, but perhaps it helps in R.C. culture. Better that they find and focus on the central message, and give a few examples of lives lived in accord with Christ as the means to convey that message.

Oh, and the whole schism thing — basically meaning I no longer accept that the Bishop of Rome has special powers beyond those accorded to every bishop, that I reject his claim to such, along with a few other more nuanced “doctrines.” Since I engaged in schism as an adult (schism according to Roman Catholic laws — which, since I don’t believe in them means they hold no power over me), do I get a free trip to Rome to stand trial before the appropriate congregation (on their dime of course)? I hereby demand that Bishop Howard Hubbard take action in accord with the Norms prescribed in Art. 2, § 2 and provide me with a formalization of my “latae sententiae excommunication and likewise … undertake a judicial trial in the first instance or issue an extrajudicial decree, with due regard for [my] right of appeal or of recourse…”

Are they going to do this for every former Roman Catholic that has publicly declared themselves apart from the Roman Church? I did serve my last R.C. Pastor with proper notice in accord with R.C. Church law. He never bothered to follow-through I guess. Que Sera, Sera, another one bits the dust… Then again, when my wife and I first visited that parish and signed the book, specifically there for the purpose of noting we wished to speak to the pastor about membership, all we received was a set of “envelopes” in the mail. That, 6 months later. No call, and the worst possible follow-through. You do have my mailing address, don’t you? I still receive your mailings and envelopes…