State-sanctioned suicide and ecclesiastical funerals
My guest column, "State-sanctioned suicide and ecclesiastical funerals" is coming available in the New Oxford Review (June 2009) at 39-40. In the column, I ask whether the conditions for withholding ecclesiastical funerals from Catholics who kill themselves in accord with recent civil suicide legislation might be met. As American law continues its headlong pursuit of calling evil good (Isaiah V:20), Canon 1184 frames a question that, I fear, we Catholics are going to have to ask ourselves ever more frequently.
This blog represents my own opinions and I am solely responsible for its content. I believe that the opinions expressed here are consistent with c. 212 § 3, but I submit all to the ultimate judgment of the Catholic Church. The letter "c." stands for "canon" of the Code of Canon Law (CIC). All translations of the 1983 Code are from the 1999 CLSA revision.
Canon and civil lawyer Edward N. Peters offers a compelling presentation of ex-communication based on the current Code of Canon Law, answering some of the most commonly-asked questions about this most serious canonical penalty.
Thanks to Canada's gift of the revised edition of Code Annotated, English-speaking clergy and faithful can experience a valuable share of continental Europe's approach to the many canonical issues that the Catholic Church faces.
Dr. Edward Peters has been teaching Ecclesiastical Latin to children, young people, and adults for many years. For a beginning primary textbook he suggests this book.
"... a most helpful tool both for those who are beginning their study of the church's lingua materna, as well as for those who are working to renew and improve their knowledge of church Latin." Monsignor Raymond Burke
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