Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: June 05, 2016
If you read this Bulletin article in time – and you should be doing so if you’ve told us your email address, since we email it out 4 or 5 days before the weekend! – you may wish to give some thought to attending the 12 noon Mass on Friday, June 3. As all of us in Louisiana know, the Atlantic hurricane season begins this week, and at its beginning each year every bishop in the Gulf South coastal region offers special prayers for safety from these terrible storms. Bishop Muench will be with us to beg God’s assistance upon us in preparing for – and if needed dealing with – destructive weather in the coming months. Everyone is invited to attend.
I certainly am looking forward to a little bit lighter schedule in the coming summer months. It’s been a busy year for me. Oh, I’m not just talking about the usual schedule of services and priority activities here, although I continue to rejoice in the opportunity we have had here to assist the entire diocesan community with magnificent celebrations such as our Rite of Election in early Lent, the Sacred Easter Triduum, our unique Pentecost celebration of Confirmation, and of course last week’s Ordinations of a new priest and a new deacon! (Oh, and please continue to pray for Father Eddie Martin and Deacon Ryan Hallford as they begin their new ministries among us!)
No, as you might recall, last August Pope Francis issued a major revision to the Code of Canon Law which changed substantially the way in which our Church’s Tribunals handle cases of marriage annulment. As most of you know, my “other” full-time job is to serve as Judicial Vicar of the diocese, and in that capacity the job of implementing these new procedures fell into my lap! So I have been spending a great deal more time at the Catholic Life Center tending to Tribunal work during the past school year: perhaps you haven’t noticed it, but I’m very sure the staff here at the Cathedral did! (And they have been so very polite in reminding me … often! … how much they miss me when I’m not here!)
In any event, the number of petitions for declarations of nuptial invalidity have just about tripled in the past year. While in some ways the Holy Father’s revisions to canon law have made the Tribunal’s job easier, the adjustment to a new way of doing things was not always easy, and in most respects the job of judging marriage cases still is a very complex and challenging one. I can’t say that during the next couple of summer months the Tribunal staff and I will “catch up,” but I do hope that we will be able to meet the demands of this ministry in a gradually less frantic way! Pray for us!
This being said, I do wish to encourage everyone who has experienced the tragedy of marital breakdown to consider the wisdom and prudence of obtaining the Tribunal’s evaluation of the matter sooner rather than later. Before people begin to forget details, and certainly long before the natural desire for companionship begins to blossom into plans for a new relationship, anyone who’s suffered through divorce should seek the reassurance of the church about their marital situation. Remember, church annulments do not affect the legitimacy of children, have no effect on custody or property rights or inheritances, and now are completely without cost. Both parties to the failed marriage are helped in the process. When invalidating reasons are clear and the credibility of everyone’s story is certain, the process can now take significantly less time as formerly was the case.
In other words – to make a long story short – I urge those who need to do so to avail themselves of the services of the Tribunal. It has long been possible for the most part for our evaluative work to also be something of a “healing ministry” in helping people to work through past mistakes to a much more positive and satisfying future.
One last word: over the summer months you may see a young, smiling face on Cathedral Square: Father Matt Dupré, our diocesan Director of Vocations, has asked us to host one of our collegiate seminarians, Andrew Hotstream, here in the Parish rectory for 8 to 10 weeks. We are certainly happy to help, since we have the room. While Andrew will be spending most of his time during the week assisting the Missionaries of Charity over at St. Agnes’ Parish campus, he’ll be helping out with Masses on Sundays as well. Andrew’s home parish is St. John the Evangelist in Prairieville, and he has just finished his first year of studies at St. Joseph Seminary College in St. Benedict, Louisiana. Thank you for welcoming him here at St. Joseph’s!
Yours in Christ,
