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Forty-some years ago, at the baptism of our fourth infant son, I murmured a half-serious doubt to a fellow graduate student, Should the church really be baptizing babies without their awareness? One month later this question came back with a vengeance, when on my 28th birthday I discovered our baby
When Pope Benedict XVI was elected, and celebrated his inaugural Mass last year, I was in India. Later I visited Thailand and Laos. In all three countries the events in Rome were well covered in the local mediaperhaps less thoroughly in Laosthough only about 1 percent of the populations of these cou
For as long as I can remember, a nearly two-foot-tall statue of the Sacred Heart has stood atop my mother’s bedroom dresser. I occasionally wondered whether there was a story to go with it, but never asked. It seemed odd to this child that people would place such a statue in their home. A rect
Conscience Must Concur With Moral PrinciplesResponding to a recent statement by Catholic Democrats in the House of Representatives affirming the primacy of conscience in their voting decisions, three key leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said conscience must be consistent with funda
Sometimes a pope, a bishop or a national conference of bishops will issue a challenging statement on a matter of public policy. Topics like capital punishment, abortion, economic justice and the pre-emptive use of military force come readily to mind. Those who object to such interventions by religio

How to Help

I loved the editorial, The Meanest Cities (3/6). It reminded me of when I was stationed in New York City during one of the coldest periods in history and Mayor Edward Koch challenged the churches and synagogues to allow the homeless to sleep in these sacred places. When the churches and synagogues tried to do this, everyone found out that this was in violation of a host of city and state ordinances. Somehow, in cooperation with local authorities and the help of countless volunteers, these obstacles were overcome, and many homeless found temporary shelter during that terrible period. It took a dedicated effort of lay volunteers to watch over these people during the long nights. Somehow, it worked.

Jeffrey Mickler, S.S.P.

Silver Medal Losers?How to explain the disappointing performance of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in the television ratings, the lowest since 1968? Perhaps this year’s Olympic hopefuls were simply too hyped. When everyone is touted as a future gold medalist, anything less is seen as a loss. Or

Truth of the Law

In the article A New Impediment (2/27), Msgr. Thomas D. Candreva writes concerning The Instruction on the Criteria of Vocational Discernment Regarding Persons With Homosexual Tendencies: This document, if I am not mistaken, establishes a new impediment to ordination.... Further: The document does not use the word impediment,’ but it seems to be the proper category under which this prohibition must be considered. Then he proposes an interpretation as if a legal impediment had indeed been established.

For the sake of the truth of the law, I submit that Monsignor Candreva’s interpretation is incorrect and misleading. First, no Roman congregation has the legislative power to establish a new impediment; second, an instruction can never be equivalent to the enactment of a law.

To the first: only the pope has the power to add anything to the Code of Canon Law.

To the second: an instruction is always meant to facilitate the application of an existing law. See Canon 34: Instructions clarify the prescripts of the laws and elaborate on and determine the methods to be observed in fulfilling them. Also, the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law stated as a guiding principle, No law can be enacted in the form of instruction (Communicationes, 1982, p. 136).

It follows, on two counts, that the instruction is not and cannot be a piece of legislation. Consequently it does not establish a new irregularity or impediment to ordination, as they are defined and listed (following an old tradition) in Canons 1041 and 1042 of thecode.

The instruction has the authority of a prudential directive (nothing more and nothing less), strictly within the framework of the existing laws, as to how the general criteria for admission to seminaries should be applied. It leaves, however, the final concrete judgment about the suitability of a given candidate to the discretion of the person authorized to admit him. Interestingly, the congregation is putting more trust in the judgment of a living person who meets the candidate than in an abstract, general and impersonal legal normas an impediment would be. This makes a world of difference in theory and in practice, in approaching the problem and in dealing with human beings. Verbum sap sat: let the wise understand it.

Ladislas Orsy, S.J.

Pope Pius XI and Benedict XVI at Vatican RadioThe idea of capturing and carrying someone’s voice across oceans and continents was a radical idea at the turn of the 20th century, and one pope saw the groundbreaking possibilities in such a project. Pope Pius XI was fascinated by this awesome inv
Milwaukee School Choice Program to ExpandWith just days left before a rationing plan was to begin for students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, Wisconsin’s Gov. Jim Doyle and Assembly Speaker John Gard announced on Feb. 17 that the enrollment cap will increase next fall by 7,500 stude