Vatican City- In the Holy See Press Office,
May 2, 2002, Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger and Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez
and Archbishop Julian Herranz presented the Apostolic Letter in the form
of Motu Proprio "Misericordia Dei" On Certain Aspects of the Celebration
of the Sacrament of Penance.
Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, highlighted the personal nature of the
Sacrament of Penance as underlined in the document. This means that both
guilt and pardon "must be entirely personal." This aspect has become
confused over the last few decades as recourse to collective absolution
"came ever more frequently to be considered as a normal form of the
Sacrament of Penance: an abuse that has contributed to the progressive
disappearance of this Sacrament in some parts of the Church."
The cardinal said that "the obligation of
confession is instituted - as the Council of Trent says- by the Lord
Himself and is constituted by the Sacrament; this it is not left to
the disposition of the Church. It is not, then, in the Church's power
to substitute personal confession with general confession."
Cardinal Medina, prefect of the Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, stressed that "the
ministry of reconciliation is not a privilege or exercise of power, it
is the expression of the pastoral responsibility that each bishop and
priest assumed before God the day they were ordained. It is their dutiful
service to their brothers and sisters."
"The Motu Proprio 'Misericordia Dei' underlines
the traditional teaching of Church doctrine according to which the only
ordinary way to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance is that of a full
confession of sins to a priest, followed by personal absolution. So-called
'collective' or 'general' absolutions are to be considered as extraordinary
and exceptional, to be used only and exclusively when threatened by death or
when it is physically or morally impossible to celebrate the Sacrament in the
ordinary way."
Archbishop Herranz, president of the Pontifical
Council for Legislative Texts, indicated that this legislative document
represents "an act of ecclesial governance that is not only judicious and
timely but also fully responsive to John Paul II's Magisterium on the value
of justice as a primary requirement of charity and, at the same time, as
inseparable from mercy in the Church's legal code."
Two dimensions are highlighted in the Motu Proprio:
"The fundamental right of the faithful to receive from their pastors the Sacraments
as instituted by Christ," and the duty of the latter to "establish and secure
the unfailing application of canonical and liturgical laws that ensure the valid
and legal celebration of the Sacraments."
Archbishop Herranz affirmed that the norms of this document concern "the only ordinary way"
to receive divine forgiveness for grave sins, in other words, "individual confession," and,
secondly, the "extraordinary way to administer the Sacrament, in other words the absolution
of a number of penitents together without prior individual confession," which must happen
in only two cases: "imminent danger of death and cases of dire necessity."
Finally, the archbishop recalled, the affirmation of the Pope
that "what is written in the Motu Proprio is, by its nature, valid for the venerable
Oriental Catholic Churches, in conformity with the respective Canons of their own Code."
