IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests
Is it possible to get some kind of dispensation from the need for priests in the spiritual life of a Roman Catholic ? That you don’t need to ‘avail’ of the sacraments which can only be administered by an ordained priest, when it can be that all they are for you at times are triggers to earlier, more recent and it seems constant recalls of spiritual, emotional, psychological and sexual abuses ?
In the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, a dispensation is the suspension by competent authority of general rules of law in particular cases. Its object is to modify the hardship often arising from the rigorous application of general laws to particular cases, and its essence is to preserve the law by suspending its operation in such cases. When a person so abused seems incapable, though not for want of trying, to find any real peace in heart and soul in that practice of the faith that can often seem endless reminders and revelations of betrayal.
This in no way suggests or is meant to imply any kind of negative feeling towards, perception or judgement of all the really good men and women, priests and religious in the Catholic Church, past and present.
When the true spiritual welfare of the individual is at stake, which impacts everything else, is there anything in Church law that would allow a person to live as Catholic, even having faith to a degree in the sacramental aspects of the Church as being of benefit for others, without the requirement to avail of those sacraments ? Would it suffice to try to obey the commandments of God in seeking God with the all, and in and through that searching, learning to love neighbour as the self. In this being all the law and the prophets – the keys to the Kingdom within and around us.
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