Do Charity and Love Prevail in the Diocese of Arlington?

Before I get into the subject of this post, let me explain the collage above. My oldest brother, who died in 2019, created it for his Facebook page. That's him as a baby and as a teenager. He always said he was the youngest survivor at Pearl Harbor because my mom was a few months pregnant on December 7th when the attack occurred.

My mom and dad were married on September 3,1941. Mom travelled from Ohio to California to marry Daddy before he shipped out to Pearl Harbor. When they went to the San Diego chancery to get an exception from the announcement of the banns, they met Bishop Charles Buddy who offered to celebrate their nuptial Mass in his private chapel. Only a few guests attended the mass and breakfast he held for them. I still have the inscribed New Testament he gifted them that day. How does this relate to today's post? Because it involved celebration of the Traditional Latin Nuptial Mass that so many Catholic couples, including my own parents, experienced as they began their journey of marriage. It was a good start.

My mom followed my dad to Pearl Harbor and heard the bombs exploding on December 7th. My dad was in the harbor on the U.S.S. Detroit. It was several days before she knew if Daddy was alive or dead.

My parents kept the faith their entire lives. There was a time, I believe in the late 1970s or early1980s when my dad went into a rage about the state of Baltimore under Bishop William Borders. The bishop and Fr. Robert Drinan, the pro-abortion Jesuit who served in Congress until he was ordered not to run again by Pope John Paul II, were on a Sunday talk show together spouting heterodoxy. Daddy was so angry he stormed around the house and threatened to leave the Church. My mom calmly replied, "Where should we go?" They stayed and suffered in that horrible diocese until they died.

What's my point?

The crisis in the Church is of long duration. What's happening these days is nothing new, but the persecution of those faithful to Sacred Tradition and the Traditional Mass and Sacraments has gone into overdrive. What my parents received and all the sacraments I and most of my siblings received are now verboten. Why? You tell me! The cruelty and injustice is beyond belief!

And so I'll transition to the point of this post.

I am broken-hearted once again at the division in our local church here in the Shenandoah Valley. I wrote about it in this post (Catholics! Can We Please Dispense with the Circular Firing Squads?), but the situation appears to be deteriorating further. 

Let me describe the latest conflict in the on-going battle to defend the Traditional Latin Mass and the Traditional Sacraments which were the standard in the Church for millennia and produced most of the saints and martyrs we honor today, not to mention large Catholic families like my own (I'm one of ten.) and my husband's (one of nine.). Ask yourself, how many large families do you see in the Novus Ordo parishes?

So here's the situation on the battlefield in the Arlington diocese.

Someone from the Linden SSPX chapel, or at least someone close to the situation, sent a question about marriages witnessed by SSPX priests to Fr. Z. He responded in his column on March 7th. The details in the letter and the fact that several marriages DID TAKE PLACE at the chapel recently after the bishop refused delegation for traditional nuptial masses in diocesan churches make it crystal clear we're talking about the Front Royal/Linden situation. Here's the question from Fr. Z's correspondent who obviously is familiar with the conflict:

QUAERITUR:

I am from a town where the SSPX has recently established a vibrant chapel and has been extremely generous in providing Traditional Latin Mass and other Sacraments in the traditional rite. The local diocesan parish  has also provided daily TLM but can no longer provide Traditional weddings. Recently there were a couple of weddings that took place at the SSPX chapel for which the local diocesan bishop had refused the necessary “permission”. The (diocesan) parish has announced that these couples’ marriage are of doubtful validity and that those who knowingly attended the wedding should go to Confession before approaching for Holy Communion.

Would you clarify what the canonical status of SSPX weddings (specifically those with denied permissions) is?  Also is it true that attendance at such a wedding constitutes a sin?  Thank you for all that you do those of us living in these confusing times.

And here's part of Fr. Z's reply. It's pretty obvious he was riled up by the "spiritual stinginess" of the denial. After all, how does this help win the salvation of souls? Shouldn't that be our primary objective?: 

Such unnecessary nonsense. For cryin’ out loud!  Just give the SSPX priest delegation already!  What are these bishops so afraid of?  Why are they so spiritually stingy?

Alas, from the point of view of the current Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church, without that delegation, these weddings are invalid.   For the sake of proper form, there has to be a officiating witness to the exchange of vows with proper jurisdiction (such as a pastor in his parish) or delegation of that jurisdiction (such as a visiting priest who comes to do the wedding).  SSPX chapels are not parishes and their priests are not pastors with jurisdiction to witness marriages.  Francis opened this up and made it possible for local bishops to give delegation to SSPX priests for weddings are their chapels.  Most US bishops have done this, I think, and they also have a priest who acts as a kind of liaison in these matters.  Some bishops are rather more narrow-minded and cold-hearted when it comes to the desire of people to tie the knot with the Traditional Rite, probably in the chapel where they grew up.  But why have a pastorally sensitive heart toward these people?  Right?  They are only the most marginalized and now purposely persecuted group in the entire Church. 

On another point, I’m not sure why/how the priest at the parish determined that “knowingly attending” these weddings is mortally sinful. First, if the parish needs to inform people, then they did not “knowingly attend” and therefore they did not fulfill one of the portions of committing a mortal sin, that is, knowledge that the act is mortally sinful. Secondly, there’s no prohibition in Canon Law that prohibits the faithful from attending invalid weddings.

Thirdly, while there might be an issue of scandal, to maintain that every scandalous act is mortally sinful would shock even the most hardened Jansenist.

Fr. Z apparently was so disturbed that he recommended organizing a large group to go to the said priest for confession:

Here’s a thought.  I recommend that everyone who attended these weddings go to confession.  Get organized and go together.  Go to confession, one after another, to the priest who, sua sponte, declared attendance at these weddings to be mortally sinful. It would be interesting to see his reaction as he walked into the church to hear confessions (assuming he does at all) and saw a hundred people already lined up, and have them, one after another, confess:

“Bless me Father. I attended a lovely wedding for which the cowardly and stingy bishop refused to give his permission.”

Even better would be lining up to go to confession to the bishop himself. 

Fr. Z also points out that when the Vatican allowed delegation for witnessing marriages by the SSPX, there was not one word indicating that all the previous marriages witnessed by the Society were invalid. If they were, indeed, invalid; then the Holy See has allowed those couples to continue in a state of sin, not validly and sacramentally married in the Church.

The SSPX chapel in Linden, VA where we pray at every Mass
for Pope Francis and Bishop Michael Burbidge

According to a knowledgable source, one of the couples who married at the chapel (we attended that wedding) contacted the chancery the day before the ceremony requesting permission. They were told to go ahead with the wedding and get it validated later. I'll probably see the couple on Sunday and will ask them to confirm the accuracy, but I have no reason to doubt it's true. Another couple scheduled to marry in a few months were initially told there was no problem getting permission since another couple was able to celebrate their marriage at, I believe, St. John's in Mclean. But when they petitioned for permission, they were denied.

Really! Are things confusing and chaotic enough for you - not to mention cruel and mean-spirited? Do charity and love prevail in the Church these days?

Fr. Z didn't say anything about "applied jurisdiction," but I will address that in another post. I recommend reading his entire article. SSPX Weddings

In the meanwhile, please pray for the priests who continue to offer the traditional sacraments as well as those who don't. I recently attended a solemn requiem mass in a diocesan church in West Virginia. There is something grievously wrong when I can attend that mass in West Virginia, but in my own diocese next door couples can't celebrate a Traditional Nuptial Mass. Is a couple beginning their life together to establish a Catholic family less important than saying an earthly good-bye to a loved one? Where is the sense? 

Pray for Holy Mother the Church. She is under vicious attack from within. Does anyone really believe the persecution of serious faithful Catholics is pleasing to Jesus Christ? Can someone explain to me how this helps bring about the salvation of souls which is the work of the Church?

Let strife among us be unknown.

Let all contention cease.

Be His the glory that we seek.

Be ours His holy peace.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!