[img]7|left|||no_popup[/img] So the Vatican is opening up the doors to a secret organization most people, myself included, never knew existed (which is the point of making it secret, of course): the Apostolic Penitentiary. Contrary to its name, it’s not a prison for Apostles or part of some extraordinary papal rendition program at the Vatican. The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary is the Pope’s means to handle sins far too grave, too serious for minions lower down in the Vatican hierarchy. “’…so serious that a local priest or bishop is not qualified to grant absolution,’ said Cardinal James Francis Stafford, an American who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary.”

And what are those Grave And Serious Sins (GASS, for short)? If you answered genocide or mass murder, buzz yourself out of the game. The GASS in question are: defiling the Eucharist (e.g. chewing and spitting out the wafer, which is apparently happening with greater frequency not only among Satanists, but by the “ordinary faithful”), breaking the seal of the confessional, “a priest who has sex with someone and then offered forgiveness for the act,” or cases like doing something bad – causing an abortion – and applying to become a priest. In other words, GASS that can lead to expulsion from the Church are the kind of things that, apparently, only the Pope and the Apostolic Penitentiary are qualified to handle.

The only thing more amazing than the Vatican’s GASS pecking order is the notion that there are degrees of qualification in granting absolution. A bishop may be qualified to grant absolution for genocide, but it takes the Pope to absolve a sinner for defiling the Eucharist. Strange, but no stranger than the notion that an immanent, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise, all-around everything, deity needs intermediaries to dispense forgiveness. Given how God used to pal around with people in the Old Testament, shouldn’t he be able to forgive directly?  Or maybe not forgive? Whether directly or not, I wonder if God’s answer ever is, “You want forgiveness for that? Hell no! In fact, hell is a good place for you. Pack lots of sunscreen – you’re gonna need it.” Would a confessor priest ever say that? How would he even know whether God forgives or doesn’t forgive?

Catch-22

What we have here is bit of a catch-22. Either God needs intermediaries, in which case he isn’t very Godly, or he doesn’t, in which case the Church either arrogantly assumes to know the will of God (when no one else does) or simply pretends to know in an attempt to control people for their own ends. Of course, the Church would never, ever, be motivated by a base lust for power and would never abuse its authority, right? This whole system of confession and absolution, which involves secret courts high up in the Vatican bureaucracy, couldn’t possibly be a means of acquiring and maintaining wealth and power.

Still, it’s nice that the Vatican is making itself transparent, even if it is part of attempt to get more people to confess. But the existence of the Apostolic Penitentiary should raise more questions than it answers. Far be it for me to be so cynical as to suggest that the reason for making public the Apostolic Penitentiary – “fewer and fewer Catholics are going to confession” – is because the Vatican is keenly feeling its influence wane. Beyond the question of whether anyone still cares what the Pope has to say – after all, this is the Church that still won’t ordain women or support contraception and safe sex practices – is the question to what extent a Church that once held the ability to make or break kings has any relevance in the Modern World.

Frédérik invites you to discuss this week's column, and more, at his blog.