Barriers to the sacraments:

...The contemporary Code contains less than two thousand canons, yet these touch upon and govern nearly every structure of the Roman Catholic church...

...Exemptions are not to be granted easily...

...If the law does not make sense, we expect it to be changed...

...Experience shows that an hour allocated and advertised for the sacrament of penance on Holy Saturday morning will offer such penitents moments for significant spiritual encounters and still enable liturgical ministers properly to prepare to celebrate the sacred rites of those days...

...Still, because of the sensitive nature of this sacrament, it seems appropriate to raise the issue of providing choices, lest unwise and inhibiting procedures become commonplace...

...Clergy and staff urge them to reflect their faith by regular involvement at weekly Mass and in the life of the faith community...

...Without entering into a discussion of how often or at what Masses a parish should celebrate baptism within Mass, I pose the question: Must all baptisms be before the entire community...

...Judges tend to interpret legislation narrowly and inflexibly...

...Peter's and by his words to the New York State bishops on their ad limina visit, has urged priests to make scheduled opportunities available for reconciliation during the Triduum...

...Subsequently, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) approved a statement, later confirmed by the Holy See, which called such spaces desirable...

...When first communicants are trained only for the face-to-face arrangement, are offered that sole possibility, and are taught that it is the preferred way of receiving reconciliation, these children are deprived of their legitimate options...

...I contend, however, that in the post-Vatican II era a new kind of legalism has begun to emerge...

...it has been traditionally interpreted...

...As John A. Alesandro has suggested in The Code of Canon Law: A Text and Commentary (Paulist), we Americans consider the law to be supreme...

...It enshrines generic values instead of proposing specific regulations...

...according to the flexible, adaptable manner in which it was written, and by which it has been traditionally interpreted...

...But there are some who, for a variety of reasons, find that experience a great burden...

...In certain locations the penitents are "enrolled" as penitents on Ash Wednesday in a public ritual and "reconciled" on Holy Thursday...

...The judge's office would include bookcases full of volumes containing civil laws and interpretations...

...The common law judge, or lawyer, studies the past for precedents that may apply to the case at hand...

...Here are several specific illustrations: • When the new rite of reconciliation first appeared in the early seventies, I was deeply involved in the development and promotion of rooms or chapels offering the penitent an option for anonymous or face-to-face reception of this sacrament...

...His most recent book is The Marginal Catholic (Ave Maria...

...A pastor or pastoral administrator (like a Roman judge) is expected to study the sweeping, universal, and timeless law, then apply, adapt, and interpret it to particular circumstances...

...In this tradition, laws can be made by judges deciding disputes on a case-by-case basis...

...The rite of infant baptism suggests celebrating this sacrament at Mass to manifest baptism's special relationship to the Paschal Mystery, the Eucharist, and the Christian community...

...Consider that the majority of the church's universal rules or norms are contained in the Code of Canon Law, which follows the European civil or Roman system of law...

...Instead, it conveys the image of a "rigorous institution tirelessly imposing the full demands of Christian law upon its members...

...Anxious to follow Vatican II declarations which remind us that the sacraments are acts of faith and presuppose belief, clergy and parish staffs have sought to challenge the spiritual apathy of these petitioners by providing instructions to help them understand what the church expects of each sacrament...

...laws tend to lag behind life...

...We spent many hours developing suitable educational process for its introduction throughout the U.S...

...As surprising as it may seem, the church's worldwide legal regulations are often much more liberal than most American Catholics appreciate...

...However, it adds a caution, without explanation, that "this should not be done too often...

...I am not referring to doctrinal matters...

...Pope John Paul II, by his own example on Good Friday in a confessional at St...

...Will the pastor or administrator insist on an either at-Mass or no-baptism-at-all response to those people...

...As a result, an ever-expanding body of statutory legislation, administrative procedure, and case law covers almost every conceivable situation...

...No person should be above the law...

...Nevertheless, my concern is with the subtle pressure such a practice places upon all who seek reconciliation...

...Many, perhaps most, families may desire this type of ritual and rejoice over such a public celebration...

...But the absence of advertised periods for REV...

...Probably a majority of Catholics in the U.S...

...Some current policies violate that freedom...

...Those touched in a special way through the events of Holy Week will, he said, thereby have easier opportunities to become reconciled with Christ...

...laws never can adequately cover every individual case or circumstance...

...today opt for Communion in the hand, while only a minority select reception of the Eucharist from the chalice...

...Proponents testify that participants have experienced a significant healing of hurts and guilt through the open process of prayer and faith-sharing over a period of time...

...Should they be forced to wait...

...The Anglo-American approach has an enormous, complex corpus of laws to cover fine details...

...Still, the bishops' decrees contained a caution that the freedom of the penitent should always be respected...

...In part, because of the way Americans think about law...

...Has baptism at Mass become an inflexible law instead of a desirable experience...

...Should they be compelled to call the rectory for an appointment...

...is that Americans often interpret church laws in the same manner that they regard secular laws...

...Rather, I am thinking of a new and widespread liturgical legalism-practiced by pastors, litur-gists, and parish planning committees-which needs to be moderated by flexiblility and a deeper understanding of the nature of church law...

...a painfully rigid norm rather than a highly encouraged option...

...As a staff person at the Liturgy Secretariat for the NCCB from 1968-71,1 had firsthand experience of the difficulty of obtaining official approbation for Communion in the hand...

...The only difficulty with this ideal procedure is that persons who have been absent from church for a lengthy period of time or who have been touched by the unique graces of Holy Week are not aware of these theological developments...

...Those traits seemed to be corrected somewhat by the aggiornamento of the council, and since then by the new Code of Canon Law, issued in 1983...

...the Roman approach contains general laws which rarely and with great reluctance are changed, requiring the local administrator to apply these norms in a flexible way to particular cases...

...The difficulty for the Catholic church in the U.S...

...These strict, letter-of-the-law attitudes and interpretations, when carried over to canon law, and to liturgical guidelines, cause needless hardship and make the church seem harsh, rigid, and insensitive...

...Joseph's Church, Camillus, N.Y., is a lecturer and author of thirty-five books...

...There ought to be few exceptions...

...The relatively smooth implementation of this procedure, and of Communion with bread and cup, resulted, I believe, from a fairly good prior catechesis and from the optional nature of both practices...

...The development of "remembering" rituals modeled on the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) has been strongly promoted and introduced with some success in the United States...

...many of these are not statutes, but exhortative or theological statements...

...Moreover, current practices in the U.S.-as we have seen in the examples given in this article-are sometimes more restrictive than the universal or national directives they seek to implement...

...So what is at issue here...

...The Reverend John Catoir, director of the Christophers, has commented that for many Catholics and non-Catholics in our country, the church is not viewed as compassionate and forgiving, but as harsh and cruel...

...the pastor's would contain at most only a shelf of texts on church law, including a copy of the current Code of Canon Law and perhaps one or two commentaries...

...The director of the research, when querried about that point, quickly countered that the priests are always available for anyone who seeks reconciliation...

...Parishioners are encouraged to approach the sacrament beforehand, and pastors usually schedule communal penance services prior to Holy Thursday to care for the spiritual needs of penitents...

...The differences between these two types of legal systems would be immediately apparent to someone visiting both a judge's office and a pastor's study...

...No one was forced to receive in the hand or from the cup...

...The persons reconciled through the "remembering" rituals I know about are few in number, although the experience appears to be very rich for them...

...Those leaders with whom I have discussed the rite clearly envision this as merely an optional opportunity, not a mandatory requirement for persons seeking to be reconciled with the church...

...Both legal systems, the European/Roman civil law and the Anglo-American/common law, recognize that all human laws, including church rules (in contrast to divine commands) are necessarily imperfect...

...Except for the Notre Dame research, I do not have statistics about the frequency of such practices, only confirmation of their existence...

...they are prepared inadequately for adult choices and are subjected to unsound instruction...

...The Roman legal philosophy presupposes a comprehensive body of laws centered around major principles rather than detailed rules...

...JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN, recently appointed pastor of St...

...confession, practically speaking, tends to force penitents into face-to-face encounters...

...The impression could be spread that to "go back to church," "to go to confession after a long period of time" requires a public acknowledgement of sin and a lengthy series of sessions before reconciliation...

...At some communal penance services, the liturgy planners arrange or expect penitents to make their confessions in this "open" manner, without the possibility of the anonymous method...

...But in seeking to fulfill that function it has, in his judgment, too often failed to communicate God's unchanging mercy and love...

...Some, however, in pursuing those noble goals, have erected overly burdensome barriers to the sacraments and established external requisites that go beyond what the universal church calls for in its official documents on baptism and marriage...

...According to the Notre Dame Study of Parish Life, about 10 percent of the parishes sampled offer only general absolution, with no scheduled hours for the sacrament of penance...

...According to Catoir, the church has performed its necessary and valid role of trying to be faithful to Jesus' teaching by asserting a right or correct position on issues such as sex, war and peace, capital punishment, and abortion...

...By contrast, the secular legal system in the U.S...

...Without wishing to dampen the enthusiasm of "remembering" advocates, or to disparage creative efforts in liturgical renewal, I offer a word of caution about the potentially harmful effects of promoting this optional ritual and the certainly disastrous impact of imposing it upon all...

...Should they be deprived of the sacrament...

...Training first communicants to receive only in the hand, teaching that this is the preferred mode, or failing to offer Communion under both kinds at Mass militates against officially endorsed directives...

...In The Marginal Catholic (Ave Maria Press, 1989), I have discussed at length what is probably the most pressing and difficult issue facing pastoral leaders in the church today: How do we best respond to inactive Catholic parents who seek baptism for their child or to engaged couples who wish marriage in the church, but who rarely participate in Sunday Eucharist...

...One need not look far to find the new legalism at work...

...Laws should cover almost every case...

...However, both legal systems provide for such limitations in different ways...

...On the other hand, the number of penitents reconciled during the Advent and Lenten seasons through anonymous, but powerful sacramental reconciliation encounters in parishes throughout the country are many...

...with the exception of the state of Louisiana) has evolved from English common law...

...But every individual enjoys the freedom to make those choices...

...The best manner of receiving the sacrament is that method, face-to-face or anonymous, with which a penitent feels most comfortable and most effectively can meet the risen, forgiving Christ...

...This phenomenon makes it all the more imperative that church law be read and applied in the U.S...

...In order to emphasize the total reconciliatory action of the Holy Thursday/Good Friday/Easter Vigil and Sunday events and to promote better celebration of those solemn liturgies, some official documents on the national and diocesan level- as well as the articulated teachings of certain pastoral litur-gists-have recommended that there be no scheduled opportunities for reconciliation during Holy Week's Sacred Triduum...