Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 308

Questions and Answers on the Ordinariate

Go here for my latest article on Catholic Online. It's a Q&A all about the Anglican Ordinariate.

The Vicar on Marriage

I must say lads, it's been some time since I've been able to tootle on down here to the Goose and Garter to join you. Been rather busy don't you know, what with Christmas and the New Year and all that! Yes, don't mind if I do Nigel. You know my particular poison--a half pint of lager shandy and a packet of peanuts if you please!



I thought on the whole the Christmas thingy went quite well don't you? The villagers enjoy the carol service, and it was good of Daphne to bring along a few of the Romans from her church. She always grumbles that they don't know how to sing, but they seemed to do pretty well. She's got a new priest there now. Used to be one of ours. Fr. Rodney Stornaway. Reminds me of a joke they told in school...never mind.



He's a married fellow too. The Pope is bending the rules for chaps like him. Well, I thought when Fr. Stornaway and his missus came around for a meal it would be rather awkward, but not at all. We were chatting away about the Church of England just like he was still one of us. Seems with all the Anglicans going over, that the Roman Catholic Church is becoming rather more congenial. Fact is, Fr. Stornaway was rather critical of the Romans. He says his bishops aren't much better than the Anglican ones--calls them "stuffed clerical shirts" and thinks it's a case of "the bland leading the bland." Funny chap. I rather like him, and Mrs. Stornaway's a real corker. Says there's no problem with the other Catholic priests about the marriage thing. They take one look at her and thank God they're celibate. We laughed.



Ahh, thank you very much Nigel. Hits the spot doesn't it? Peanuts anyone? What's that you say? The canon up North who's got married for the third time? I don't understand it I really don't. Not too long ago he would have been out on his ear, but it seems his bishop doesn't mind too much. Full of words about being "wounded and abandoned" and "the loneliness of loss". It doesn't seem to me like the fellow's been lonely. Too much loving companionship if you catch my drift.



I admit that sort of thing comes as rather a blow. You know me lads, I'm not particularly traditionalist. Just middle of the road. All I want to do is be a good Christian in the dear old C of E. But I do think marriage is marriage. When a bishop makes excuses for a fellow to be married three times and lets him stay in his job how am I supposed to give instruction to some young couple who are tripping along to be married in the parish church? Honestly, they make my job harder every day.



I mean to say, I'm not one to judge anyone, but there have to be some sort of standards don't there? Is anyone supposed to be allowed to marry whoever they like? I don't know. I find it all rather confusing. Then do you know what else has happened over Christmas? Lavinia informed the clergy fraternal that she has gone and "married" her room mate Georgie Samsonite! Well, I never! I was shocked I can tell you. I didn't suspect that they were any more than old college chums, and now it turns out that they are actually whatchacallit--Thespians.



And to think this is happening in the parish next door and nobody is planning to do anything about it at all? Why over Christmas we had a dinner party at the Archdeacon's for the clergy and their wives and Mrs Huffington Post was telling Daphne that Lavinia was offended that Georgie hadn't been invited. Daphne gave one of her withering looks and said, "This is a dinner party for clergy and their wives. I think Georgie is Lav's husband isn't she?"



Another round? Don't mind if I do. Say, Nigel, why not make mine that whiskey you mentioned a moment ago? There's a good lad. Thanks awfully.



I suppose you're right Ian. It's all going to pot, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. Everything I thought was part of the C of E and following the Lord Jesus seems to be thrown out the window. Fr. Rodney says I ought to join this Ordinariate thingy the Pope has set up. Who ever would have guessed it? Seems you can be an Anglican and a Catholic at the same time. Can't imagine what Canon Farnsworth back at theological college would have made of it. Awfully confusing. But I suppose they're not going to have any of this business of two women marrying each other.



Very strange. Ah well, here's to the new year lads! Chin chin!

The Priest and the Veil

I get emails and phone calls from all sorts of people all over the world asking questions and making comments and observations. Some are trivial; some intense. Usually I give a short reply and can't say much else.



One came in the other day in which a woman said that her priest was discouraging her from wearing her veil to Mass. What did I think?



I know what Mantilla the Hon would say...I'm thinking fireworks in Spanish...



To me this is crazy. Why would a priest have any objection to a woman wearing a veil to Mass? What business is it of his? The simple rule is this, "No bishop or priest has the right to forbid what the universal church allows nor mandate what the universal church forbids."



If the woman wants to wear a veil, she can wear a veil. What get me is that I suspect the priest who doesn't like the veil is really objecting to the woman's take on her Catholic faith. Maybe he thinks she is a weird traddy or a dangerous conservative or whatever.



I wonder if he makes any objection to the gals who slouch into Mass chewing gum, wearing flip flops, a spaghetti strap halter top and hot pants?



Somehow I doubt it.

Attachment and Detachment

Twice a year I preach on stewardship and wealth. In January and in September. Here is today's homily on our attitude to our wealth. It considers Detachment, Attachment...

Integrated Catholic Life

Part of my aim this year is to expand the reach of this blog, and my writing and speaking ministry. Randy Hain and Deacon Mike Bickerstaff run the fairly new Catholic e-magazine called Integrated Catholic Life.



They've asked me to be a contributing editor, and today my first article for them is published. Go here to read about Benedictine wisdom and seven principles for a peaceful life.

Day Conference on English Catholicism

Why you should come:



1. Joanna Bogle is a funny, lively and motivating speaker

2. Joseph Pearce is a funny, lively and motivating speaker

3. Father Longenecker tries to be a funny, lively and motivating speaker

4. It's only $15.00 and that includes lunch

5. You'll learn about your Catholic faith

6. You'll learn about your Catholic history

7. You'll learn about your Catholic literary figures

8. You'll learn about C.S.Lewis too--who wasn't Catholic but should have been

9. You'll meet some interesting people

10. It's something different and exciting to do on a Saturday.



It starts at 8:30. At Our Lady of the Rosary Parish. More information here.

A Bit of Fun

My rendition of Twelve Days of Christmas from OLR School Christmas Pagaent. Enjoy!

Old Monk on Silence

In Silence--a Symphony

Newt's Three Marriages

How can Newt Gingrich have been married three times and now be a Catholic in good standing?



In order to understand this you have to understand the Catholic approach to marriage, and to do that we have to put on one side the common misunderstandings about the process to apply and be granted a decree of nullity from the church.



First of all, a decree of nullity is not a "Catholic divorce". For Catholics a validly married couple cannot be divorced. "That which God has joined together man cannot divide." A valid, sacramental marriage is eternal. Therefore, the Catholic Church examines whether the marriage was valid in the first place. Another way of saying this is, "A divorce says, "These two people aren't married anymore." A decree of nullity (aka an annulment) says, "These two people were never married in the first place."



For the marriage to be valid the criteria are quite simple. 1. the marriage must be between a a man and a woman 2. They must both be free to marry (in other words, not married to someone already or not having some other impediment) 3. They must enter the marriage covenant with a full understanding of marriage and 4. They must do so with a completely free act of consent. 5. They must be capable of consummating the marriage and be willing to have children. These rules apply for all marriages--Catholic or non Catholic--Christian or non Christian. That's why a Catholic marriage tribunal is willing to rule on the validity of any marriage--not just Catholic ones.



Whenever I'm asked about the Catholic understanding of marriage I say, "Like marriage itself, it's simple in principle and complex in practice." I'm not an expert, and I'm not one to judge, but let's imagine the situation with Newt Gingrich (or anyone else in a similar situation)--and I should stress that I know nothing of Newt Gingrich's personal life and am not making a personal judgment. I'm simply commenting on the issue in the largest sense.



The marriage tribunal would start by considering the person's first marriage. Maybe when the man married he was very young and did not fully understand what marriage was all about. Maybe he came from a broken home where there was no proper understanding or teaching about marriage. Maybe he married an older woman for an ulterior motive--for social or financial advantage, or for an escape from an unhappy home life. Maybe he was under psychological stress or experienced some other pressure to marry. All of these things and many more may influence either his understanding of marriage or the freedom of his will, and therefore the validity of the marriage at the time it was contracted.



A person's second marriage may have been contracted in even worse circumstances. Just because he made one mistake doesn't mean he won't make another. If it was a marriage made after an affair, and if the person was, at the time, promiscuous and never intended to be faithful or to contract a proper marriage, and did not understand what marriage really was and never intended to have children...for all sorts of reasons it might be a very simple matter to say that the second marriage was also invalid.



In saying that a marriage is invalid, the church is saying that despite appearances these two people did not make a marriage. The necessary components for a marriage did not exist.  Therefore the church declares the marriage to be invalid, and to never have existed in the eyes of the church.



Newt Gingrich went on to "marry" a third time. This time he married a Catholic. One must assume that he and his bride received proper catechesis and that this time he fully understands what marriage is and what his responsibilities are.

The Anglican Patrimony

What enriches us from the Anglican Communion? What riches will we share as Anglicans come into full communion? Consider the scholarship, the purity and the poignant beauty of this passage from the liturgical Anglican scholar Dom Gregory Dix:



"Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacle of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die of pneumonia; for a village headman much tempted to return to fetich because the yams had failed; because the Turk was at the gates of Vienna; for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for a son for a barren woman; for Captain so-and-so wounded and prisoner of war; while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheatre; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously, for the canonisation of S. Joan of Arc—one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei—the holy common people of God."