Jennifer M. Haselberger, bishop's delegate for canonical affairs of the Diocese of Fargo, N.D., will join the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as chancellor for canonical affairs on Aug. 18. She succeeds Sister Dominica Brennan, who is leaving the archdiocese after 16 years to assume a new position with the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Ill.But wait! I've buried the lead.
Haselberger, a College of St. Catherine graduate who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of London and a licentiate in canon law from Catholic University Leuven in Belgium, has served the Fargo diocese since 2006. Before that, she was chancellor and director of the tribunal for the Diocese of Crookston, Minn.
Archbishop John Nienstedt praised Sister Brennan for her "fidelity to church law and her important service to three different archbishops" and welcomed Haselberger, calling her "studious, thoughtful and extremely well prepared."
A reader thoughtfully sent this item my way, from four years ago:
Canon Lawyer Jennifer Haselberger recently chose CITI Ministries and Rent A Priest for her doctoral thesis at Leuven University in Belgium. She concluded that "the faithful have the right to approach ‘suspended’ priests for the sacraments." And, "Since an obligation to do this is expressed in the Code of Canon Law, it would seem that in ministering of these people the ‘Rent-A-Priests’ are acting in a canonically valid way." Haselberger also indicated that certain Canons oblige the bishops to "take care of all within the diocese" (i.e., 383.1, 2, 3; 528, 729).Hmmmm. This could make things interesting in the Twin Cities.
Would any canon lawyers out there like to weigh in??
UPDATE: Curt Jester has posted this reponse from Heselberger, which is well worth reading. Among other things, it says:
In my thesis I was very critical of organizations like the Rent A Priests, who take that principle of law (which is meant to protect the right of the faithful to have access to the sacraments, especially in danger of death situations), and use it in an attempt to justify their ministry. I argued that their stated position that a priest-shortage, or the possibility of a closed parish, makes their return to ministry (outside of the Catholic Church) legitimate (a closed parish equaling an emergency situation), is a willful misinterpretation of the letter and spirit of the law. I went on to say that only some of the sacraments that they offer are valid, as others (like marriage) are only valid when they are offered by someone with the faculties and permission of the local ordinary.
The Rent A Priests have had that quotation on their website for years, and I have never attempted to have it removed largely because the wisdom of many dioceses has been that we only look bad when trying to take them on. It has never been a problem for me, and I am certain that there would be no issue if the people who are so upset would read the thesis rather then the Rent a Priest website. They should consider their source!
Posts
11 comments:
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess your thoughtful reader is Peter Canisius. Do I win anything? ;-)
I am sure you win kelly.
This is something that doesn't need a Canon Lawyer to join in to shoot it down for it's stupidity.
If a priest without jurisdiction (no faculties from the local bishop) the wedding is invalid, not only illicit. This is why weddings done by SSPX preists are invalid.
Baptisms done by such priests would be valid, but illicit. Rent-a-priests primarily do weddings because they are willing to perform marriages in cases where the Church would say no, such as not having an annulment. There is a reason people go to rent-a-priests and not their local diocese, because something doesn't pass muster so you also have impediments to the marriage in the first place in many cases.
If you wanted an outdoor wedding and thus hired a priest, then not having canonical form for such an act would also make a marriage invalid.
The only time rent-a-priests can validly and licitly perform a sacrament is the case of last rites or another emergency situation.
What Haselberger has said is such nonsense it is hard to fathom it.
One of the priests in my diocese joined rent-a-priest and my bishop excommunicated him for it.
Call me crazy, but given that this women received this advanced degree from a well considered Catholic university, my guess is she's pretty bright and I wouldn't automatically dismiss her academic work.
Matthew Fox had a an "advanced degree from a well considered Catholic university," too.
Error is error is error.
You all--she was also hired by an archbishop with, let's say, loads of conservative ecclesial cred (Neinstadt).
You can pull anything out of context in a dissertation...maybe she was critiquing the new code for a loophole? I wouldn't make a mountain out of a snippet.
Mr. Stokell:
Who is Matthew Fox?
- Andrew
a former member of the domicans whose theology came into question by rome and his own order
...ooops...make that dominicans, aka order of preachers
Here are the facts, not the distortions about the Jennifer Hasselberger rumors. Please share this with anyone who gave you this false information and damaged her totally unfairly. You can assure she was well vetted by Archbishop Nienstedt.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is nothing to be concerned about. Ms. Haselberger has been the victim of distorted editing by the "Rent-A-Priest" folks who edited statements in her thesis to suit their purpose and deceitfully look as if she had endorsed their cause when nothing could be further from the truth. She and I discussed this and I asked her to present the facts which you'll see are entirely opposite from what the "Rent-A-Priests" and their ilk maintain. Thank you for your kind comments about Archbishop Nienstedt and please do me a favor and Ms. Haselberger justice in sharing this information with your friend Linda O'Brien. And ask her to correct these erroneous and unfair rumors with anyone else she's sent this to.
What follows is Ms. Hasselberger's explanation:
The topic of my JCL thesis (licentiate in canon law) was movements of validly ordained Roman Catholic priests who had left ministry with the Catholic Church and were attempting to offer sacramental ministry outside of the structures of the church. I wrote the thesis at a time when penal law was an increasingly important process, and the argument was that formal canonical action needed to be taken against these men, many of whom simply walked away from active ministry without ever having been formally suspended, etc.
In the process of researching this topic, I sought information from the organization 'Rent A Priest'. They later requested (I think from my university) a copy of my thesis and have used selective quotations as a justification for their cause.
However, my thesis was not in any way an endorsement of married or suspended clergy exercising ministry. The statement that is generating so much interest is one that is simply a canonical truth- once validly ordained, a priest never loses the grace of ordination. Therefore, in emergency situations, even a laicized priest retains the right to administer the sacraments.
In my thesis I was very critical of organizations like the Rent A Priests, who take that principle of law (which is meant to protect the right of the faithful to have access to the sacraments, especially in danger of death situations), and use it in an attempt to justify their ministry. I argued that their stated position that a priest-shortage, or the possibility of a closed parish, makes their return to ministry (outside of the Catholic Church) legitimate (a closed parish equaling an emergency situation), is a willful misinterpretation of the letter and spirit of the law. I went on to say that only some of the sacraments that they offer are valid, as others (like marriage) are only valid when they are offered by someone with the faculties and permission of the local ordinary.
The Rent A Priests have had that quotation on their website for years, and I have never attempted to have it removed largely because the wisdom of many dioceses has been that we only look bad when trying to take them on. It has never been a problem for me, and I am certain that there would be no issue if the people who are so upset would read the thesis rather then the Rent a Priest website. They should consider their source!
Justice being what it is, and having read Ray's post, I stand corrected.
Lesson: try to take anything from "Peter Canisius" with a grain o' salt. That sorta was my point in the first post.
Post a Comment