It’s “Reform Jew,” not “Reformed Jew.” Cf. “Reform Judaism.”
Yes, I know what Borough Park is.
I have an otherwise pretty good recording of Peer Gynt whose liner notes translate “bruderovet” as “the bridenapping.” It’s like appending “-gate” to the end of political scandal.
Apparently you can still get kicked out for desecrating the Host. There was a big story about that, but my google-fu is weak. Hell, maybe Cecil mentioned it (I’m far too lazy to look).
Well, it’s still not “kicked out”, it’s automatic excommunication which as others have said is not being kicked out of the church. Host desecration - Wikipedia
Yes, your google-fu is VERY weak. Try “desecrated host”.
I don’t think the word “nun-napping” is in my ggg-father’s excommunication letter. But that’s what the family calls it. The “victim” was actually willing, and had requested liberation, so it was nun-napping from the church’s point of view only.
Probably, if they’d taken her letter to the bishop, they could have gotten her out without getting in trouble, but my ggg-father was already done with the church, and so was his friend the moment he found out what was happening to his daughter. I guess she’d chosen one of those cloistered orders, and not one of the ones that does some kind of charity work. I’m not sure. Maybe postulants weren’t placed outside the order for work, or something. I’m pretty sure that by the church’s own rules, she should have been allowed to leave, but my ggg-father and his friend took (canon) law into their own hands, violated the convent building, and stole the boat in the process, so they committed a civil crime as well. I guess the church thought it had to put its foot down.
FWIW, “kidnap” actually is a compound word of “kid” for “child,” and “nap,” a regional variant of “nab,” for steal. So “nunnapping” would be a real word. I stuck in the hyphen, because the double nn looked odd. It’s not quite the same as sticking “-gate” from The Watergate Hotel onto any political scandal.
Thus mothers and priests did make Slaves of us all.
If you’re serious about being excommunicated then it seems that being a woman and conducting a mass gets the job done.
This is the heart of the issue. Excommunication doesn’t do any good for people asking to be excommunicated or who are lapsed Catholics. It is a punishment only for those who recognize the Catholic Church as The Church and would respond to an excommunication with repentance.
Otherwise, it would be like punishing a small child by refusing to make them brussels sprouts for dinner.
I thought you had to be a priest (or bishop) to conduct a mass? If so, wasn’t the delict the fact that she wasn’t a priest? Obviously, according to current canon law she can’t become a priest because she is a woman, but I think even a non-ordained man would be subject to excommunication for doing the same.
Or, more accurately paralleling the situation, punishing a small child that wants to leave the dinner table to go play in their bedroom by sending them to their bedroom (without any other conditions, like “timeout in the corner”.)
Kind of “Br’er Rabbit and the Briar Patch”.
Hand-washing at its finest:
“The Church didn’t have a thing to do with excommunicating them, nosiree! They broke into our office in the middle of the night, stole the proper documents and forged a few of our signatures. It wasn’t our idea at all for them to be excommunicated…Really!”
From the church’s perspective, excommunication is simply the codification of the state that the parishioner has already attained via her actions.
Powers &8^]
The Church still decides who is and is not excommunicated-there is no computer that automatically spits out “We Are Sorry, But You Have Been Excommunicated. If You Have Any Questions, Please Call 1-800-IMDAMND Between The Hours Of 8AM and 4:30pm Monday Thru Thursday.” notices.
Some church offenses carry a penalty of automatic excommunication. There may not be a robocaller, but educated individuals who attempt to illicitly celebrate the Eucharist should not be “shocked” when the church all but kicks them out (and yes, they were not kicked out, but only barred from the sacraments, they still had to pay the German church tax). The tribunal merely reviews the facts of the case an issues a statement that the grounds for automatic excommunication were met.
You are exactly correct! I could not imagine a bishop debasing his office by going through stupid websites, looking up all the sacramental records for each of the hundred of people listed at hundreds of local parishes, and mailing them excommunication notices.
Some bishops, sadly, have done plenty to debase their offices, but this excommunication thing would require way too much effort!