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November 18, 2002
My
Dear Faithful of the Diocese of Charlottetown:
In April 2002, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, issued an
Apostolic Letter entitled Misericordia Dei, on certain aspects of the
celebration of the Sacrament of Penance. One of the
requirements of the Apostolic Letter was the adoption of a decree by
the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to put into practice the
points of Misericordia Dei.
An immediate consequence of the Apostolic Letter and the Canadian
Bishops' decree adopting it, is the fact that I will not be able to
grant permission for the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance with
General Absolution.
No sin is to be taken lightly. Every sin wounds our
relationship with God and others. There are, however, different
categories of sin. The most serious of sins committed after
receiving the Sacrament of Baptism are known as "grave" or
"mortal". The individual confession of grave (mortal)
sins followed by individual absolution remains the only ordinary
means of reconciliation with God and the Church. (This
teaching, though maybe sometimes not clearly understood, was
reiterated at every celebration of the Third Rite, when all present
were reminded of the requirement to confess grave sin as soon as
possible following the celebration.)
A second category of sin – "everyday faults",
they might be called – has traditionally been termed
"venial". While individual confession of venial sins
in the Sacrament of Penance is not strictly necessary, according to
the teaching of the Church, such confession is, nevertheless,
strongly recommended. Regular confession of our venial sins
helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let
ourselves be healed by Christ and grow in the life of the Spirit.
According to the Church, God's forgiveness of our everyday faults is
also shared with us through a variety of means as attested by
Scripture and the Church's teachers from earliest times. All of
these, as in the case of any sacramental encounter of Reconciliation,
assume our sorrow, our firm desire to live the life of the gospel and
our desire to right any wrong we may have done, as far as that is
reasonably possible. Among those means through which we receive
the loving kindness and forgiveness of God, according to the Church's
teaching, are efforts of reconciliation with our neighbour, concern
for the salvation of our neighbour, acts of charity, pursuit of
justice, fasting and intercession of the saints (the prayer of others
on our behalf). Our sincere and worthy participation in
the Eucharist "is a remedy to free us from our daily faults and
to preserve us from mortal sins."
We are approaching the time of Advent, a season that is calling us to
a renewed expectancy as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of the
Lord. May our deepening awareness of our need to be a
reconciled and a reconciling people be penetrated by the light of the
Word made flesh, the Word who fulfills the promise and the desire of
the God who, in the fulness of time, sent his Son, not to condemn the
world, but so that through Him the world might be saved.
Sincerely in our Lord,
Most Reverend Vernon Fougere, D.D.
Bishop of Charlottetown |
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