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Author Topic: SSPX says "Canon Law requires pastors to keep a parish census book"  (Read 3625 times)

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Re: SSPX says "Canon Law requires pastors to keep a parish census book"
« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2019, 02:40:57 PM »

Bishop Williamson said that SSPX has "supplied jurisdiction". [....]  He said that SSPX has no power to keep people as members of their chapels. [....]  Logical conclusion: SSPX has an agreement with Rome and keeps it secret OR they are lying about having the authority to demand census cards be filled out.

Being an outsider, I can't claim any, um, sensus SSPXus, but couldn't this "census" be more readily explained as an attempt to bluff attendees of SSPX Masses and recipients of SSPX sacraments into providing docuмents that can be used as a basis for follow-on, ummm, "requests" for donations?

Some Novus Ordo parishes seem to have abandoned all subtlety, e.g., annually supplying parishoners-of-record with preaddressed envelopes bearing individually-identifying bar-codes [‡], to be used for regularly mailing donations to their parish.  I believe that I've even seen mention of a concept of being behind schedule on contributions, but perhaps that was in the context of tuition for a parochial school.

There is a fundamental prohibition in Canon Law on any quid pro quo in which a donation is treated by clergy as a requirement for reception of the sacraments [†].  How close the modernized process approaches a violation of Canon Law is an issue that I'll leave to be debated by CathIinfo members who are more familiar with Canon Law than I am.[*]

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Note *: 1917/1918 C.I.C. compilation of Pius "SSPX" X via Benedict XV, please.

Note ‡: Some privacy could be maintained for parishoners if there were no human-readable return addresses on those envelopes.  But placing cash into a traditional long-handled collection basket preserves privacy even more effectively, and doesn't depend on parish employees or volunteers meticulously following a parish's privacy rules.

Note †: I assume that this was a reform at the Council of Trent that was motivated by the "indulgences" scandal that fueled early antiCatholic preaching during the Protestant-Revolt.

Offline Quo vadis Domine

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Re: SSPX says "Canon Law requires pastors to keep a parish census book"
« Reply #11 on: June 07, 2019, 04:45:36 PM »
But you miss an important point:

None of the SSPX priests are "pastors" with jurisdiction. They are lifeboat residents in an emergency situation. (Of course, this is rapidly changing. They already are part of Conciliar Rome in all but name only, but I digress.)

I'm sure every cruise ship is required by the government to have a passenger manifest. But are official records made when people are loading onto lifeboats when the main boat is sinking -- does each lifeboat keep official paperwork? NO!  I think it would get wet. Lifeboats are small, and using them is by nature hasty, and usually during an emergency.
Excellent point.


Re: SSPX says "Canon Law requires pastors to keep a parish census book"
« Reply #12 on: June 08, 2019, 01:16:08 AM »
Next step:  You get an ID card in the mail with a computer chip in it,
which you have to scan at the chapel door to be admitted for Mass,
baptism, confession, etc.

And, of course, you cannot be buried in the cemetery without an ID card.
Fr. Rutledge was reluctant to have a funeral Mass for a guy who was in
the Resistance.  
When you die will you need an ID card to get into Heaven?

Re: SSPX says "Canon Law requires pastors to keep a parish census book"
« Reply #13 on: June 09, 2019, 11:37:58 PM »
I believe that the Baptismal Character is the normal ID required to get into heaven. There may be exceptions.

Re: SSPX says "Canon Law requires pastors to keep a parish census book"
« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2019, 04:52:56 PM »
Someone told me that an elderly lady died in St. Marys that belonged to the Resistance had purchased a plot long before she died and she wanted to have a Resistance priest bury her there but Fr.Rutledge would not allow it so she had to be buried in a different cemetery.  I would think this is illegal.  If she owned the plot then she would have an easement to get there legally.