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Rabbi Marc Gellman began his studies in 1969 at the University of Wisconsin, and went on to attend the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of ...
Read more about By Rabbi Marc Gellman, Tribune Media Services.
THANKS FOR THE TIPS
By Rabbi Marc Gellman, Tribune Media Services
I'm so grateful to the many Catholic authorities who give me the
correct answers on matters of Canon Law, and to the other Catholic
authorities who write to tell me that the people advising me don't
know what they're talking about! As a rabbi, I'm happy when I get any
Catholic thing right. Herewith, some further points of Canon Law
raised by my attempts at Catholico-rabbinic spiritual succor:
In a previous column, I responded to a question from a Lutheran man (turned Catholic) married to a Catholic woman, who wondered if non-Catholic relatives on his side of the family could receive the Eucharist at his child's First Communion. My friend Msgr. Donald Beckman wrote to add more details to my correct answer that the relatives, indeed, could not receive communion.
As Msgr. Beckman explained, and as I knew, all non-Roman Catholic churches fall into one of three categories in their relationship to the Roman Church:
1. Churches in "full communion" with Rome, like the Byzantine Catholic and Ukrainian Catholic churches. Roman Catholics can take communion at these churches with no restrictions of any kind. (This has nothing to do with the question at hand but it's nice to know.)
2. Churches where there is a "close but not full communion" with Rome, like the Orthodox Churches (Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic Churches). Members of these churches can receive the Eucharist if there are "specific exception situations." For example, if a person cannot receive communion in their Orthodox Church, they can receive it in a Roman Catholic Church. There must also be the presence of some "grave spiritual need" reflected in the request of an Orthodox Christian to receive Roman Catholic communion. In addition, the person making the request must also believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the bread and wine. Believing that the bread and wine are merely symbolic of Jesus' sacrificial death is not enough. Conversely, Roman Catholics can receive communion in Orthodox Churches, but only if they can't receive it in their own parishes. (Obviously, our questioner's relatives don't fall into this category.)
3. Churches that have a "real and important but impaired communion" with Rome, like all the Protestant churches. Catholics can't receive communion in these churches for any reason, and members of these churches can't receive communion in a Catholic Church except in conditions of significant spiritual need. In conditions of special need, they must, of course, also believe in the Real Presence of the body and blood of Jesus in the transubstantiated host. Most Lutheran churches hold to the belief that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ, but they don't believe the elements are made into Christ's body and blood, or transubstantiated, by a Catholic priest. Without knowing what my questioner's relatives believe about communion, it's still clear that merely wanting to receive the Eucharist at his child's First Communion service is not enough to justify the request.
I endorse the reasoning of the Catholic Church on this. I know it's often hard to understand the importance of theology to the rituals of religion, but what we do is the result of what we believe. One need not agree with such ritual limitations, but one must understand the deep place of reverence from which they come.
***
Also in a previous column, I answered a question from a Catholic/Jewish couple who wanted a priest to marry them in an interfaith wedding at a hotel or catering hall. I wrote that priests can only officiate in a church, and that the Catholic had to promise to do everything in his or her power to raise the couple's children as Catholics. Kathleen Ross, of West Babylon, N.Y., wrote to explain that I was partly wrong, or, as I like to say it, I was partly right. The requirement of the promise was correct. However, as strange as this may seem, a priest CAN officiate in a hotel or catering hall if a Catholic is marrying a non-Catholic. The priest is not allowed to officiate on the beach or outside in the open, however; the ceremony must be inside a building.
So, here's the situation: If you're a Catholic marrying a Catholic and you want a priest to officiate outside of a church, you can't do it, but if you're not marrying a Catholic, you can. I think this makes no sense. I can understand, and I heartily agree, that Catholic weddings should be church weddings. Churches are places of sanctity and the most proper place to consecrate the sanctity of marriage.
Why a priest can leave the church and go to a catering hall if one of the people getting married is not Catholic is utterly beyond my comprehension. Then again, I'm an outsider on the inner workings of Canon Law. (Happy to clear up this point, sort of.)
***
My favorite column has been the one in which I answered a query from Man A and Lady B, who wanted to get married (Man A, after a Catholic marriage and the subsequent divorce from and death of his first wife, Lady A. And Lady B after a civil marriage and civil divorce from her still-living ex-husband, Man B).
Bob O'Donnell, a Tribunal Advocate from the Diocese of Harrisburg. Penn., praised me for being "correct up to a point." This is the highest praise I can ever expect!
He wrote that, "Before Lady B, who is a Catholic, can have her marriage to Man A convalidated in the Catholic Church, she would have to have her first marriage annulled by completing a questionnaire called a Lack of Form. Such a form is provided either by a Parish Priest or the Diocesan Tribunal. Through this form, her first marriage would be confirmed and her Catholicity proven."
Thanks, Bob. I'll send this on to Lady B, though she may be on the way to Bora Bora to pick up a load of dreidels (you had to read the column).
(Send QUESTIONS ONLY to The God Squad, c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207, or email them to godsquadquestion@aol.com.
(c) 2008 THE GOD SQUAD DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
This news arrived on: 04/24/2008
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