Friday, October 14, 2005

The Plague and the Sacraments

A commenter mentioned in response to the flu planning post below, that during the Black Death, in some instances, lay people had been authorized to hear confessions and the like. I dug up the reference from the library today (Philip Ziegler's "The Black Death" New York: John Day, 1969), and, with the assistance of the commenter, located the following remarkable quote:

In January, 1349, Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, circulated a letter to all priests in his diocese which shows up vividly the demoralisation in the infected areas:
'The contagious pestilence of the present day, which is spreading far and wide, has left many parish churches and other livings in our diocese without parson or priest to care for their parishioners. Since no priests can be found who are willing, whether out of zeal and devotion or in exchange for a stipend, to take on the pastoral care of these aforesaid places, nor to visit the sick and administers to them the Sacraments of the Church ... we understand that many people are dying without the Sacrament of Penance. These people have no idea what recourses are open to them in such a case of need and believe that, whatever the straits they may be in, no confession of their sins is useful or meritorious unless it is made to a duly ordained priest. We, therefore, wishing, as is our duty, to provide for the salvation of souls and to bring back from their paths of error those who have wandered, do strictly enjoin and command on the oath of obedience that you have sworn to us, you, the rectors, vicars and parish priests in all your churches, and you, the deans elsewhere in your deaneries where the comfort of a priest is denied the people, that, either yourselves or through some other person you should at once publicly command and persuade all men, in particular those who are now sick or should fall sick in the future, that, if they are on the point of death and can not secure the services of a priest, then they should make confession to each other, as is permitted in the teaching of the Apostles, whether to a layman or, if no man is present, then even to a woman. We urge you, by these present letters, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, to do this ...


(emphasis added) There follows an assurance that people shouldn't fear to confess because the lay confessors are bound by the same canonical secrecy as the ordained, which if they break, should "incur the wrath of ALmight God and of the whole Church." Then, even more interestingly,

"The Sacrament of the Eucharist, when no priest is available, may be administered by a deacon. If, however, there is no priest to administer the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, then, as in other matters, faith must suffice."


Interesting that the Eucharist can be celebrated by a deacon, but not Extreme Unction. I wonder whether the 1983 revision of the Code of Canon Law has any such provision at all? (I don't think so ... I'll look it up of course ...).

Anway, with the bird flu spreading abroad, and the possibility that we're on the verge of a flu pandemic (that may or may not be as deadly as the Black Death), it seems a bit crass to be debating such points of ecclesial policy and canonical liceity. Let's just pray that we don't have to be in a position to wonder how to avail of the sacraments because there are no priests present. (Oy! We might well get there, without any aid from the influenza virus, if the present trends continue. But that's a whole another can of worms ... :)).

12 comments:

Dev Thakur said...

You can confess you a layperson . . . but can that layperson give a sacramental absolution?

Or is it just that this practice encourages contrition and the Church commends the penitent's confession to God?

assiniboine said...

Well, I am flattered that my little apothegms, aperçus and obiter dicta so pique your interest.

Ziegler is a far from scholarly writer; he tends to go in for biographies of royals (he was Lord Mountbatten’s authorised biographer, inter alia); he doesn’t really seem to do much original research; and his prose style is annoyingly fussy in a rather old maidish sort of way — somewhat redolent of old time parish newsletters, truth to tell.

But his material is amply documented with extensive bibliographies and footnotes so one can go to his sources for better authority if it’s thought necessary.

As for your query ("How on earth you remember all that you do is beyond me ..."): well, you wouldn't be the first person to identify me with Oliver Goldsmith's Schoolmaster in "The Rising Village," but actually I don't have it all at the tip of my tongue. It's just that your kindred spirit musings invariably dredge these things up from the nether recesses of my brain, you see.

Not everything on your blog gets me thinking, to be sure; but much of it does. (I confess that the arcana of Vatican politics are not really my line of country. Not often, anyhow.) I keep being urged to launch one of my own...but I am mildly disquieted by the thought that it is a matter of what one says to a bore that one is trapped with at a party: "You really must write all this down. At once!"

assiniboine said...

Oops. Oliver Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village" of course.

I was thrown back to my CanLit studies way back when. Sorry. A bit of provinciality there, eh!

http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem3244.html

assiniboine said...

But they kept the faith, right?

I am sincerely puzzled that your blog hasn't taken issue with the truly appalling state of Catholic liturgy in the provinces.

Our Australian Cardinal Pell is living in the ivory tower of the magnificent High Church Anglican rites of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne and St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney -- good historical reasons for that of course: the Catholic establishment here in Australia was founded by Anglicans who crossed the Tiber -- but you don't seem to give any allowance for anyone who has any idea just how AWFUL parish liturgies are in the hinterland.

As a longtime Catholic parish organist I assure you it is a nightmare. Get some low church Anglicans and Methodists and Presbyterians -- indeed, may I say, Scotch Catholics! -- into the pews!

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

Dev: given the concern that people had duirng this era to be properly shriven before they died (i.e. be absolved of their sins; this was widely understood as the only way to be sure that one died in a state of grace), it would seem reasonable to conclude that when the Bishop meant "confess to one other" he at least implied that this would be similar to what would happen if they actually confessed to a priest. That is to say, I don't know that a strict distinction between hearing confession and granting absolution ought to be made here. With Extreme Unction, the Bishop does, indeed, say, that one relies on faith. He didn't say that about confession. Now, how widespread was this practice, I don't know. This is one Bishop in England. Again, it wouldn't be unreasonable to conclude that this occurred elsewhere. What I find more interesting is letting a deacon celebrate the Eucharist!

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

assiniboine: if you want the arcana of Vatican politics try Rocco's Whispers in the Loggia or Vaticanisti. Though, I'll readily admit, I do have quite an interest in this, quite possibly a lot more than you. :) I don't see the Synod, for instance, as an exercise in Vatican arcana however ... it really does impinge on the practice of the faith worldwide.
As to the liturgy -- talk about a divisive topic, generating more heat than light! Well, I'm reasonably satisfied with liturgy at my parish, so maybe that's why I don't gripe. When I do visit elsewhere and those gripy tapes start up, I resolutely try to shut them off and pray. But, overall, yes, I agree with you about the "hinterland." If I ever thought the US was bad, the Latin-rite liturgies in India, especially the music, are atrocious. My experiences at the Cathedral in New Delhi this summer were just ... [shudder]. I'm not sure there are too many low church Anglicans or Presbyterians or Scotch Catholics around there! :)
This fall, I do intend getting to a local Tridentine Mass (they're offered once a month at the local Anglican-use parish; however, everytime I call, I get the answering service that has no clue about this; I'm not a fan, but I do want to see an FSSP rite up close), and to visit a nearby Melkite parish again. The Eastern liturgies are just something else! I'll be blogging about those visits for sure!

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

Oh -- yes -- do start a blog. You'll have quite a readership! That old party comment of yours is, by now, getting to be quite a bore ... :)

assiniboine said...

Get our friend in Bombay to take you to an Oriental Orthodox Qurbana. It will make your socks roll up and down.

assiniboine said...

You have a Melkite church nearby?! In the USA????

My Palestinian friend Nizar reports that his boss delivered herself of the gem that Arabs are the chief sources of evil in the world and if it weren't that he were at least Catholic she'd have him shipped off home...which poses a curious issue, needless to say.

Of course he is madly looking for jobs in Vancouver and Calgary.

assiniboine said...

"I'm not sure there are too many low church Anglicans or Presbyterians or Scotch Catholics around there!" You'd be surprised. What do you think the Church of North India, the Church of South India, the Church of Pakistan and the Church of Bangladesh are?

Although, truth to tell, whenever I am in Pakistan Muslim friends insist on my going to church there so they can tag along and keep an eye on me so as to be confident they are not committing any solecisms...and I have to say that the (Anglican) Church of Pakistan establishment near the Sind Club in Karachi has to be the most compelling argument for converting to Islam one could possibly imagine.

Well, truth to tell, I'm not too sure how many Scotch Catholics there are there; in the old days we Scotch Gaelic speakers used to translate ourselves en masse from Scotch Catholic to Scotch Presbyterian to Scotch Baptist ("Disciples of Christ" to our American friends, I believe) congregations and back again depending on whether the cleric "had the Gaelic," as it is said.

(Isn't Christian denominationalism great?)

The Scotch variety of Gaelic, incidentally, unlike the Irish, is correctly pronounced "phallic," incidentally -- and there are far more Scotch Gallic speakers than Irish Gaylic ones; sorry -- can't think of another rhyme.

Hence, perhaps -- well, it's my theory anyway -- the "Disruption" of 10 June 1925 when 3/4 of Canadian Presbyterians merged with the Methodists and Congregationalists and 1/4 threw their noses in the air and in their vocabulary were "continuing"; in the vocabulary of their more broad-minded fellows they were "non-concurring." Of course there was still an overwhelming Presbyterian majority in the United Church. Canadians are Scotch to their bootstraps (there may even be a few Scottish-ish personnel in Canada -- filthy Sassanachs, my Granny Macpherson called them; quite right too!); I'm quite certain that the Canadian College of Arms has by now provided the Sikhs and Ismailis with their own official tartans.

assiniboine said...

Really? An Anglican-rite Catholic parish? Now that WOULD be my scene totally! But once you've taken yourself off to an Oriental Orthodox Qurbana in India you really must then get to a Sufi prayer meeting. The hymn-singing is beyond thrilling. Makes the Taize and Iona communities look like hillbillies.

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

Anglican-use parishes operate under what is commonly termed the Pastoral Provision. We have one such parish in town -- which incorporates bits of the Roman Missal and the 1928 BCP, if I'm not mistaken. The main difference is that Father faces the altar for the bulk of Mass, and they still have communion rails. Do read this article at their website -- it mentions Al Kimley (of Pontifications) who was received into the Catholic Church at St. Mary's in Greenville, SC and Fr. Daniel Munn, the pastor at the Melkite parish I'd mentioned, across the border in Augusta, GA.