Does laicization remove a priest's powers?

Does laicization remove a priest's powers?

Full Question

I've heard that when a man leaves the priesthood, he undergoes a process called "laicization," which takes away his priestly powers, making him a regular layman. Is this correct?

Answer

It is only partly correct. Laicization is a process which takes from a priest or other cleric the licit use of his powers, rights, and authority. Laicization occurs automatically when a priest, deacon, or monk marries or joins the military without permission. Major clerics (priests and deacons) are directly laicized through their superiors by the penalty of degradation. The Holy See also has the privilege of laicizing major clerics.

Laicized clerics are forbidden to wear clerical dress or to perform ceremonies or to administer the sacraments ordinary to their former offices. Priests who are laicized are required to continue practicing celibacy, although dispensations from this discipline are frequently given. Otherwise, laicization renders a cleric for ecclesiastical purposes the equivalent of a layman.

The supernatural mark of holy orders and the powers connected with the sacrament (especially for the priest) remain even after laicization, although they cannot be used licitly. A laicized priest has the power to confect the Eucharist. Although to the world he may live as a layman, in a sense "once a priest, always a priest."

Answered by: Catholic Answers Staff

How can I show that Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong about birthday celebrations?

How can I show that Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong about birthday celebrations?

Full Question

My wife is studying with Jehovah's Witnesses, and they have convinced her that celebrating birthdays is a pagan custom and not something Christians should do. She refuses to allow our children to celebrate their birthdays. What should I do?

Answer

Birthday celebrations are mentioned only a few times in Scripture, and nowhere are they condemned. Witnesses wrongly assume that celebrating birthdays is evil because the only two explicit biblical mentions of birthday celebrations are those in honor of a pagan, Pharaoh (Gn 40:20-22), and a wicked man, Herod Antipas (Mk 6:21; cf. Mt 14:1-12). To compound the issue, King Herod's birthday festivities were the occasion of sexual immorality involving the daughter of his brother's wife, Herodias, and led to the murder of John the Baptist. Witnesses wrongly reason that, because these biblical occurrences depict the celebration of the birth of wicked men, celebrating anyone's birthday is in itself sinful. You can demonstrate that this does not logically follow by showing that the Bible says that the birthday of John the Baptist would be the cause of "joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord" (Lk 1:14-15). While this passage does not explicitly mention an annual celebration of John the Baptist's birth, it certainly allows for such an interpretation and at the very least demonstrates that it is good to celebrate the birth of a holy person.

Answered by: Catholic Answers Staff

Should I read the novel "Joshua" by Fr. Joseph Girzone?

Should I read the novel "Joshua" by Fr. Joseph Girzone?

Full Question

Our parish is abuzz over the book Joshua by Fr. Joseph Girzone. Is this a good book to read?

Answer

We won't make a judgment on taste, but if it's orthodoxy you're after, you may want to stay away from Joshua. The book tells of a man by that name who begins to preach in an anonymous American town. The implication is that Joshua is Jesus reincarnate on earth.

This Joshua gathers a following of people attracted to his goodness and gentle spirituality. In a book written by a priest, you'd think Joshua (Jesus) would send these followers straight up the steps of the nearest Catholic Church, but he doesn't. He visits a Catholic church (and is treated rather unkindly by the priest), as well as a synagogue (where he impresses the congregation with his knowledge of Hebrew) and a variety of Protestant assemblies, blessing them all and giving special favor to none.

Joshua preaches a suspiciously simple gospel, one that emphasizes social justice and inner spirituality over ceremony and dogma. He speaks disparagingly of "religions" which "bind" people in fear with laws and doctrines instead of teaching the simple message of God's love. Sound familiar? Finally, in a most extraordinary incident, he is called to Rome to answer for his actions to the all-seeing, all-knowing authority: the pope, who, we are supposed to believe, consider this small-time American holy man a threat to his dominion.

This is nonsense, of course, but it makes sense when you realize that Fr. Girzone is a well-known dissenter from the "institutional" Church, and in Joshua (and its sequels) has found a vessel to spread his heterodox views.

Answered by: Catholic Answers Staff

What organizations exist to protect the civil and ecclesial rights of Catholics?

What organizations exist to protect the civil and ecclesial rights of Catholics?

Full Question

Secularists have the American Civil Liberties Union, and Protestants have the Rutherford Foundation, but are there any Catholic legal defense organizations to protect the legal and civil rights of Catholics? Are there any organizations to make sure they get their ecclesial rights within the Church?

Answer

Yes to both questions. For cases where Catholics are being denied their rights in the secular world, contact the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 450 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10123, phone (212) 371-3191. This organization exists to help defend the rights of Catholics in American courts.

For cases where Catholics are being denied their ecclesial rights within the Church, contact the St. Joseph Foundation, 11107 Wurzbach Ste. 601B, San Antonio, Texas 78230-2570, phone (210) 697-0717.

Answered by: Catholic Answers Staff

What is the JEDP theory, and does it disprove Genesis?

What is the JEDP theory, and does it disprove Genesis?

Full Question

We sometimes hear people say that we cannot trust the accuracy of the book of Genesis because of the "JEDP" theory. What is that, and why is it supposed to disprove Genesis?

Answer

The JEDP theory claims that the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, were compiled from four sources or traditions, which are respectively known as the Jahwist, Elohist, Priestly, and Deuteronomist sources (hence the abbreviation JEDP). This theory is also known under other names, such as the Wellhausen hypothesis (named after Julius Wellhausen, who pioneered the theory).

This theory states that a final editor or compositor (or a number of them) drew upon these different traditions in assembling the Pentateuch and that one can identify the source by noting certain clues in the text. For example, the Jahwist source is supposed to favor the divine name Yahweh "(I AM"), while the Elohist source is supposed to favor the term Elohim or El ("God").

Three of the sources, J, E, and P, are thought to have gone into the writing of Genesis. The reason many think this undermines the historicity of Genesis is that all of these sources are considered inaccurate, written centuries after the time of Moses.

In fact, the conclusion that they are inaccurate does not follow from the idea that they are from a late date. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit even late sources are infallible, just like early sources. The conclusion that Moses did not edit or oversee the editing of the Genesis is also not required. Even if J, E, D, and P were real sources, Moses could have been the one who wove them together. There are other problems with the JEDP theory. For example, many passages in Genesis contain references to God using both divine names ("the Lord God" or "Yahweh Elohim").

For an excellent discussion and critique of the JEDP theory, see Before Abraham Was by Isaac Kikawada and Arthur Quinn.

At Catholic Answers, we prefer the GELND theory, which claims that the Pentateuch is a compilation of five sources: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Answered by: Catholic Answers Staff

What can you tell me about the "Poem of the Man-God"?

What can you tell me about the "Poem of the Man-God"?

Full Question

What can you tell me about the book Poem of the Man-God? Has it been condemned by the Church?

Answer

Poem of the Man-God, a multi-volume work of prose written by Maria Valtorta, purports to be a factual account of the life of Christ as revealed by Jesus himself. Interest in the work grew after one of the alleged seers from Medjugorje claimed that the Virgin Mary okayed the reading of the book. The history of the book leads one to question the credibility of this claim. In 1960 The Poem of the Man-God, then a four-volume set, was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books. The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, summarized the findings of the Holy Office in an article titled "A Life of Jesus Badly Fictionalized." When the publishers tried to get around this condemnation the next year by publishing a new ten-volume set, the work again was condemned in the Vatican paper which called it "a mountain of childishness, of fantasies, and of historical and exegetical falsehoods, diluted in a subtly sensual atmosphere."

In correspondence with Catholic Answers, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, pointed out that, although the Index was abolished in 1965, it still retains its moral force, and faithful Catholics should heed the reservations and cautions expressed in it.

Answered by: Catholic Answers Staff

Why didn't Jesus' preaching and miracles convince more Jews to follow him?

Why didn't Jesus' preaching and miracles convince more Jews to follow him?

Full Question

Why didn't Jesus' preaching and miracles convince more Jews to follow him? It seems that he should have been more successful in influencing them.

Answer

It is a mistake to believe that Jesus wasn't successful in influencing people to believe in him. The Pharisees and chief priests who had him arrested and killed testify otherwise. When Jesus entered triumphantly into Jerusalem, the Pharisees exclaimed, "Look, the whole world has gone after him" (Jn 12:19). When the chief priests and scribes were plotting a way to arrest and kill Jesus, they said, "Not during the festival [Passover], for fear that there may be a riot among the people" (Mk 14:2). The plotting and arrest were done at night for fear that the people would revolt. He was seized in Jerusalem where he had come for only a few short visits; most of his preaching and miracles were done in Galilee. The original Jewish converts lost their Jewish identity once they intermingled with Gentile Christians. This, along with the fact that modern Jews are descendants of those who rejected Jesus, gives us the mistaken notion that few were influenced by him 2,000 years ago.

Answered by: Catholic Answers Staff