Bishop ‘suspends’ sacramental anointing while rescinding controversial policy

chevyontheriver

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Julian of Norwich

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Hamlet7768

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Jesus wasnt afraid to touch a leper.....

Jesus was also not at risk of death from disease. This strikes me as a rather thorny issue. You don't want your priests getting sick, or becoming carriers of disease, and the one thing we have known for a while about COVID-19 is that it's incredibly communicable. I'm not sure what the best solution would be. The faithful need the sacraments, but we also need to make sure the ministers aren't creating more temporal problems as they solve spiritual ones.
 
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zippy2006

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The faithful need the sacraments,...

...and they aren't getting them. Communion, confession, anointing...

I don't mean to say that this is an easy situation to address, but I do think our weakness of faith is showing through. When the Church's faith is weak, religion becomes a "non-essential service."

Obviously in the case of the bishop from the OP, he tried to enact an emergency measure that was likely a response to non-negotiable hospital procedures, and was blocked by the USCCB. His hands are tied.

Jesus wasnt afraid to touch a leper.....

And that is a much, much more serious disease.
 
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Julian of Norwich

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The Sacraments aren't the Only way to get Grace, just the normal way. God can do whatever He likes. I don't think this shows lack of Faith. It is the "accidents" of the Sacraments and the avoidance of what has become part of the world He created. That is just wisdom. Jesus was able to touch the leper because He was/is God. Remember what happened to Peter when he tried walking on water like Jesus?
 
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Hamlet7768

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I guess it depends on your diocese. Mine hasn't suspended Confession, only public Masses and the like.

As doors close, windows open. The explosion in streamed Masses is a boon that will pay off for other people who are in homebound situations even after this all ends.

I do wonder if there is some way to get people Communion during the Paschal season, now that the government is talking about extending the restrictions for another month...
 
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zippy2006

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The Sacraments aren't the Only way to get Grace, just the normal way. God can do whatever He likes.

That's an argument for the idea that desert island dwellers could be saved, not for priests to abdicate their charge. If the Apostles thought this way none of them would have been martyred.

It is the "accidents" of the Sacraments and the avoidance of what has become part of the world He created.

Sacraments are not accidents, they are the primary and ordinary way that the world receives grace.

Jesus was able to touch the leper because He was/is God. Remember what happened to Peter when he tried walking on water like Jesus?

Jesus died due to his ministry years before most priests are even ordained. Remember how Peter died?

Recent estimates place the chance of dying from Coronavirus upon infection to be between 0.5-1%. For healthy priests with no known risk factors this would be much lower. Can you imagine what St. Damien Molokai would say to a young priest who wouldn't minister in this case, much less the long line of martyrs? Molokai would have ministered until he got the virus, recovered, and then ministered with immunity to the worst cases. I don't expect most priests to do that, but I also don't even believe it would necessarily count as heroic virtue. Public servants take those sorts of risks all the time even without the prospect of immunity.

I don't think this shows lack of Faith.

I think it does, and that is why I am pointing it out.
 
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chilehed

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This is a very difficult time, and I do not envy the position the Bishops are in.

I suspect that if this disease were more like leprosy there would be no suspension. But the Wuhan coronavirus is much more contagious than leprosy, kills people faster than leprosy, and unlike leprosy can be transmitted before any symptoms are presented.

Given the extreme risk that the illness poses to others and the high likelihood of transmission, it seems to me that to forego reception of the Sacrament when ill with it would be an exercise of justice toward them in exactly the same way that one would be obligated to not attend Mass while sick with it.

Maybe I'm just speaking from a position of ease, but I think that if I was sick with this thing I'd forego the Sacrament and trust to the mercy of God, who knows how much I would desire it. I may have the right to receive the Sacraments, but I do not have the right to endanger the lives of others in order to do it.
 
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Julian of Norwich

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This is a very difficult time, and I do not envy the position the Bishops are in.

I suspect that if this disease were more like leprosy there would be no suspension. But the Wuhan coronavirus is much more contagious than leprosy, kills people faster than leprosy, and unlike leprosy can be transmitted before any symptoms are presented.

Given the extreme risk that the illness poses to others and the high likelihood of transmission, it seems to me that to forego reception of the Sacrament when ill with it would be an exercise of justice toward them in exactly the same way that one would be obligated to not attend Mass while sick with it.

Maybe I'm just speaking from a position of ease, but I think that if I was sick with this thing I'd forego the Sacrament and trust to the mercy of God, who knows how much I would desire it. I may have the right to receive the Sacraments, but I do not have the right to endanger the lives of others in order to do it.


Excellent post!
 
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