Aerial Theology

People are constantly getting married in balloons or airplanes nowadays. May a good Roman Catholic do so? asked readers of the Naples Mattino last week. No! came answer, from Monsignor Enrico Pucci, occasional Vatican spokesman to the Press, and Father Arturo Vermeersch. Jesuit professor of theology in the Pontifical Gregorian University. Canon law, they explained, requires that a Catholic be married by a parish priest in his own parish. Elsewhere the priest has no authority. A moving airplane is not likely to remain over one small parish during the ceremony.* Also, they felt, the canon law referred to earth, not air.

Roman Catholics were informed three weeks ago that for the present they may not fulfill their obligations by listening to radio-broadcast masses. The Congregation of Sacred Rites so opined. On Sundays and other required days the participant must be present in person. It was also recalled that "solo mass" (where there is only one celebrant and no congregation) is permissible only for missionaries when a second Christian is not available. Similarly, confession by telephone is forbidden under ordinary circumstances, should any one ever attempt it.

Medieval theologians might have argued profoundly over Radio. When the celebrant of a mass whispers "This is my body; this is my blood," he consecrates the Host in the person of Jesus Christ. According to the church dogma of transubstantiation, it is the body & blood of Jesus Christ. Could there not, as some people once thought, be something aerial and unreal about this which could be transmitted through the ether? Such questions did not interest the Congregation of Sacred Rites. But, suggested Father Giuseppe Gianfranceschi, director of Station HVJ and president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: "In special cases, such as for the sick, who now are dispensed from hearing mass, [the Pope] might now require them to hear mass by radio when there are facilities for it."

Last week U. S. Catholics and Protestants learned, from questions answered during the weekly Catholic Hour on the radio:

P: That use of the ouija board "is sinful if it is regarded as 'being able to predict the future, or in other ways possessing powers of divination coming under the head of superstitious practice. There is abundant evidence from medical sources of mental disorders produced by the frequent use of the ouija board."

P: That "gambling or the staking of money on a game of chance is not in itself sinful if these conditions be present: The gambler must own what he stakes. No man. for example, is allowed to gamble with what is necessary for the support of his family. He must act freely, without being forced or unduly persuaded. There must be no fraud involved. There must be reasonable equality in the venture, or to phrase it in popular language, the odds must not be all on one side. . . . Habitual gambling may lead to excesses of a sinful nature."

* But an autogiro, or a helicopter such as Pope Pius XI ordered last year, could do so.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.