So, writes Scriptor in this awesome rebuttal to Ed Peters and in defense of Fr. Guarnizo. Please check it out. Specially, take note of the comments posted on the site, Rorate Caeli.
Here is a snippet: “Here is a passage from a classic moral theology manual which takes into account the above mentioned factors: “The Sacraments are to be refused to a public sinner, whether he asks for them publicly or secretly…Such a one has no right to the Sacraments, with the exception of Penance [my emphasis].
Enjoy!
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/03/canonical-contribution-on-washington.html
Hi, Matt.
It has always been and always will be the duty of the Church to protect the Eucharist from profanation and sacrilege. The pertinent sections of Canon law are juridical devices towards that end. Canon law is used together with moral theology, common sense, logic, and the spirit of the law to re-instate the perennial teachings of the Church – in the Guarnizo case, for the protection of the Blessed Sacrament from profanation.
The Church has stated that doctrine taught by the Doctors of the Church is beneficial for all times, therefore we cannot say that St. Liguori’s statement is outdated or not applicable now. Certainly, the teaching of St. Liguori calls for heroism of the highest degree. It is the ideal to which a priest must strive, and which is only possible to attain with an intensive prayer life and detachment from the world. But that the ideal can be achieved, is positively evinced in the lives of the saints. Those are the kind of priests we desperately need right now. And if we had priests like that, don’t you think some of the laity would follow their lead? I think so.
Thank you for reading us!
In Their Most Sacred Hearts,
St Alphonsus wasn’t working under the 1983 Code of Canon Law though…