An Apologia for the Underground: Objections and Replies on the Subject of “Underground” Masses during COVID-19

The following article was submitted to Rorate from a writer in the American Midwest.

The unprecedented suspension of public Masses during COVID-19 left many lay Catholics with the question: “During suspension of public Masses ordered by the bishops of the Church in response to COVID-19, could members of the lay faithful assist with clear consciences at Masses where priests ignored their bishops’ rulings and did not lock the doors?” In the following objections and replies, I develop an answer to this question. I am not a canon lawyer; I claim to have no authority in matters of Church law. With Saint Teresa of Jesus, I simply say,

If these writings contain error, it is through my ignorance; I submit in all things to the teachings of the holy Catholic Roman Church, of which I am now a member, as I protest and promise I will be both in life and death. May our Lord God be forever praised and blessed! Amen, Amen. [1]

Objection 1: 

The lay faithful don’t necessarily have a right to be present at Holy Mass. Therefore, their concern at being barred from Mass by their bishops during the COVID-19 pandemic is not warranted.

De Mattei: Martyrs and Violators of the Confessional Seal

Roberto de Mattei

  Corrispondenza Romana

December 29, 2018 

The inviolability of the secrecy of the confessional is one of the pillars of Catholic morality. The new Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents' lives. This secret, which admits of no exceptions, is called the "sacramental seal," because what the penitent has made known to the priest remains "sealed" by the sacrament.” (n.1467) The New Code of Canon Law, inflicts latae sententiae excommunication on the priest who violates the sacramental seal (Canon 1388 - §1). For the Church no reason whatsoever can justify the violability of the seal of the confessional, since, as St. Thomas explains “the priest has knowledge of those sins, not as a man, but as God knows them”. (Summa Theologiae, Suppl., 11,1ad2).

Four Days After Synod Closes, CDF responds officially: NO COMMUNION FOR "REMARRIED" DIVORCEES WHO LIVE AS IF THEY WERE MARRIED, PERIOD. - Full text -

INDISSOLUBLE MEANS INDISSOLUBLE

Father Claude Barthe

[French Catholic periodical] L'Homme Nouveau

November 12, 2014

Benson at 100: Paganism and Puritanism, Enemies of the Church's Immutable Standards of Moral Perfection

"The Church alone has the
secret of the sinner's cure."

"No Confessions will be heard" - A Confessor's Examination of Conscience

A guest-post by Fr. Bec (pen name)

Eugène Ernest Hillemacher
A confessional at Saint Peter's, Rome, on Easter Sunday (1847)
Musée d'Orsay

___________________________________________

A few days before Christmas last year, a sign appeared on the door of a confessional in a certain cathedral that read, "No Confessions will be heard from Sunday 22nd to Wednesday 25th."

​In this same church, priests have often been seen closing the confessional and walking past as many as twenty, thirty, and even more persons who have waited patiently but unsuccessfully to go to confession during the half hour scheduled before noon Mass. For several years, each time he has made it into that confessional, at least one of those penitents has requested more time or more confessors, to meet the obvious need.

At being made aware of this, my first reaction as a priest was to pity those souls, and to rashly judge the priests who were not hearing their confessions. But quickly I realized that neither of these was appropriate. Instead, I should offer to help, both penitents and priests, perhaps by sitting in the other confessional, perhaps hearing confessions for a longer time. Perhaps the people and the priests would accept such an offer of help from another priest.

But what if they did not? What else could a priest do in such circumstances? If pity and indignation are not appropriate, then what is?

O Lord, have mercy on those who seek Your forgiveness and healing through absolution! O Lord, have mercy on those men You chose to be priests to offer that absolution. O Lord, have mercy on me, who like them, am a sinner and a priest. Enlighten me, O Lord, as a priest and sinner. Show me what I should do. Show me how I can help.

If sinners should examine their conscience, admit their guilt and reform their lives, all with the help of Your grace, then I as a priest with the power and mission to absolve sinners, should do the same.

Confessor's Examination of Conscience :