Question
Is it true that there are new rules for the sacrament of penance?
--Puzzled in Purchase
Answer
There is a new apostolic letter, a motu proprio, by Pope John Paul II called Misericordia Dei. John Huels, a noted canonist, has commented and highlights the new document:
1. It was promulgated on April 7 and took effect the same day.
2. It allows individual confessions to be heard during Mass (abrogating the provision of Eucharisticum Mysterium in 1967).
3. It restrictively interprets the meaning of cases of "grave need" when general absolution can be celebrated. For example, "the long time" required to go without sacramental grace or holy communion is said to be not less than a month. Also, the pope says such cases are "objectively exceptional, such as can occur in mission territories or in isolated communities of the faithful, where the priest can visit only once or very few times a year, or when war or weather conditions or similar factors permit."
4. It calls on all the conferences of bishops to devise new policies, or update their present ones, on general absolution in light of this motu proprio, and send it as soon as possible to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
An apostolic letter motu proprio has the force of papal law. It has the same force as the canons of the Code or the laws of the liturgical books. However, since particular laws and customs were not expressly revoked, the current policies of conferences of bishops and dioceses remain in effect until new policies replace them.
John Huels [email protected] Faculty of Canon Law Saint Paul University 223 Main St. Ottawa ON K1S 1C4 613 751-4021 Fax: 613 751-4036