Bozek's Position on the Sacrament of Penance

Last year I had contacted Marek Bozek with an important question about information on St Stanislaus' "Communal Penances Services" being held prior to Easter.

Dear Fr Bozek:

Your March bulletin mentions that Communal Penance Services will be available March 31 and that several priests will be available to hear confession. Will these be Roman Catholic priests from the Archdiocese with the requisite faculties to hear confession and grant absolution?

Thank you for your help!

I really expected no response and was quite surprised to receive a rather timely answer:

As you know I do not posses any faculties from the Archbishop of Saint Louis. Typically that would mean I should [not] hear confessions. However, you must know very well, that the sacrament of holy orders is not based on the faculties but on the sacramental character of the ordination. I do not posses any regular faculties to celebrate Eucharist, but I do it every day.

Similarly, some of the priest present for the Penance Service will be men who were validly ordained in the Roman Catholic Church but do not posses any longer regular faculties granted by the Archbishop. In the past however, we have had priest/s in good standing, with the faculties, assist us with the Penance Service and I do hope it will be the case again.

Please, do keep me in your prayers as I pray for you,

Fr. Marek

Rev. Marek B. Bozek M.Div.
Pastor

I mentioned this last year as I recall, and I decided to respond to the self-styled 'theologian' to see he even recognized the Council of Trent since he appears to be ignore of current disciplinary laws and well as irreformable doctrines.

Fr Bozek:

Indeed, I do know the teaching of Christ and the Church with respect to sacramental theology. And, what you have have stated regarding the Sacrament of Penance is incorrect, to say the least - merely being ordained is not sufficient. Since some seem to regard the current Code of Canon Law as irrelevant in this matter, I will go back to the 16th century and refer to the Council of Trent which, in fact, confirms that without faculties, no priest or bishop (except in danger of death) can be a valid minister of the Sacrament - hence, if there is no valid minister, there is no absolution. From the Roman Catechism (the Catechism of the Council of Trent), we read:

The Minister of the Sacrament of Penance
The Usual Minister

We now come to treat of the minister of this Sacrament. That the minister of the Sacrament of Penance must be a priest possessing ordinary or delegated jurisdiction the laws of the Church sufficiently declare. Whoever discharges this sacred function must be invested not only with the power of orders, but also with that of jurisdiction. Of this ministry we have an illustrious proof in these words of our Lord, recorded by St. John: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained, words addressed not to all, but to the Apostles only, to whom, in this function of the ministry, priests succeed. (my emphasis)

This is also most fitting, for as all the grace imparted by this Sacrament is communicated from Christ the Head to His members, they who alone have power to consecrate His true body should alone have power to administer this Sacrament to His mystical body, the faithful, particularly as these are qualified and disposed by means of the Sacrament of Penance to receive the Holy Eucharist.

The scrupulous care which in the primitive ages of the Church guarded the right of the ordinary priest is easily seen from the ancient decrees of the Fathers, which provided that no Bishop or priest, except in case of great necessity, presume to exercise any function in the parish of another without the authority of him who governed there. This law derives its sanction from the Apostle when he commanded Titus to ordain priests in every city, to administer to the faithful the heavenly food of doctrine and of the Sacraments.

To this, there was no response - after a few weeks, I knew none would be forthcoming. I can only assume that he sees all of the laws of Church as "unjust and intrusive" and in dire need of being "broken to bring about reform within the institution." (Source)

Archbishop Burke is right in expressing his concern for the spiritual welfare of those who have been deceived and led in to spiritual darkness and possible eternal damnation.