Showing posts with label Dismissal from the Eremitical State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dismissal from the Eremitical State. Show all posts

23 January 2022

On Dismissal from the Eremitical State

[[Dear Sister Laurel, I wondered what happens to a consecrated Catholic Hermit who leaves the Catholic Church. Does s/he remain a Catholic Hermit? When I say s/he leaves the Church I mean s/he stops going to Mass, denies the hierarchical nature of the Church, rejects Church law, and refuses to believe in the importance of incarnation in the life of the Church.** I am also wondering about what happens if s/he stops keeping her vow of obedience. Can a diocese just deny they know her?]]

Serious question! If a publicly professed hermit does any of the things you have described, her bishop or diocese will take steps to dismiss her from the eremitical life and in so doing, dispense her of her vows. The process would be analogous to c 694.1. In such a case a perpetually professed hermit can be held ipso facto dismissed from the consecrated eremitical life if he or she has defected notoriously from the Catholic faith. A hermit can be dismissed for other reasons as well. These certainly include habitual neglect of the obligations of her state of life, repeated violations of her vows or other sacred bonds, and stubborn disobedience to the legitimate requirements of her bishop (and/or delegate) in grave matters. Also included are grave scandal which stem from the hermit's culpable behavior, and stubborn adherence to or diffusion of doctrines condemned by the teaching authority of the Church.

There is a procedure involved in such dismissals involving cc1732-1739. To summarize, however, the diocese will gather the facts and evidence regarding the hermit's behavior. If the evidence supports the accusations, the accusations and evidence will then be communicated to the hermit and the hermit will be given an opportunity for self-defense. A first canonical warning is given along with sufficient time for the hermit to repent and amend her life as appropriate. If she fails to do this within the time allotted, a second canonical warning is given. If the hermit remains recalcitrant and is deemed incorrigible the bishop can issue a decree dismissing the hermit from the consecrated eremitical state.

Beyond this specific procedure and, really, implied by it with the two canonical warnings and time for repentance and rehabilitation is all the help a diocese can muster for someone who has made such a serious canonical commitment. Dismissal is a serious process, of course, but it is also meant to be loving, honest, and corrective, and to benefit not only the hermit, but the health of the eremitical vocation more generally, and the Church herself. There is nothing impulsive about such a dismissal any more than the admission to perpetual profession is ever done impulsively or carelessly. Certainly a diocese cannot simply deny knowing such a person. They have a responsibility to her and to her vocation (i.e., solitary eremitical life) more generally, just as her canonical vows obligate her to an ecclesial vocation lived under her bishop's supervision.

** I may be mistaken, but as I understand the question regarding the "Incarnation in the life of the Church" it means denial of the historical church, the Church which exists in time and space as the Body of Christ. Just as Jesus existed as an undeniable spatio-temporal (historical) reality, so does the Church as the Body of Christ. This does not exhaust the reality of the Church any more than it exhausts the reality of the Risen Lord, but it is real and an undeniable part of what we believe when we say in the creed, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church".