Count your Anathema’s

Count Your Anathema’s or Your Blessings

I recently went to a blog post that started like this

“I decided to count the number of anathemas that I am under from the 33 canons on justification. My count is 23 anathemas as I understand the canons. I tried to consider any nuances. Keep in mind that this is only 1 of 25 sessions of Trent.”

Now while counting the number of anathema’s that one presumes to be under  may sound like a fun and somewhat comical way to pass the time, I was surprised to see that there is still so much misunderstanding out there about the Catholic Churches view toward our Protestant brothers and sisters who are under no anathema.  I conject that it is easier for one to persist in a belief system against Rome if that belief system is continually reinforced by data points, ideas and suppositions that presume the counter belief system is erroneous without fact checking.   While it saddens me, it is also obvious to me why a protestant would continue to protest today if he were to truly believe that he were anathematized by Rome for loving Christ in and through his denominational Church.  But nearly 500 years have passed since the reformation and much has changed in how we understand each other and how the Holy Spirit is moving among those who believe.  In many cases we are truly one body, separated by mole hills rather than mountains and the misunderstandings regarding Trents’ Anathema’s are one of those mole hills upon which I now stomp.

Anathema refers to formal type of excommunication used under Church law prior to the revision of Canon law.   Currently, it is no longer in existence as it was removed (or not renewed) in the 1983 revision of the Code of Canon Law.
You can search for the word Anathema in Canon Law here under the concordance
http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_FA2.HTM

Historically ritualized excommunications, Anethama’s, with all the bells and whistles and snuffing out of the candle, were imposed on faithful Catholics who departed from the true faith but today, those rituals are no longer in effect.

Canon law states:

Can. 1313 1 If a law is changed after an offence has been committed, the law more favourable to the offender is to be applied.
  
So today, Catholics who depart from the true faith today are applied with 
latae sententiae, meaning,  Sentence already passed. Can. 1364  It simply means that the individual immediately puts themselves outside of the sacraments of the Church by their actions.

For most of our Protestant brothers and sister who have grown up through generations of protestant denominational boundaries, I do not believe even this is imposed upon them legalistically speaking since the Laws of the Roman Catholic Church apply, well, to Roman Catholics.  You simply can’t excommunicate someone from Church if they are not members of that church.

But one may object that the Canons themselves still say “if anyone says,  ….  Let him be anathema” 
This formulaic way of declaring the canons or tenents of the faith was picked up in the early councils as a way of indicating who should be formally excommunicated and simply cannot be randomly applied to our protestant brothers today who Love Christ and are not yet part of the Roman Catholic Church.  It would be like me shouting out my front Door,  “Katy Perry, you can no longer eat here or sleep here or call anything else in our home your own.  You are no longer a part of the Filla Family!”  (Nothing personal Katy, we do want you to come back home denominationally speaking) But I think you get the analogy.

Additionally, an anathema was not a declaration regarding the state of ones soul or whether or not one was damned.  Its intent was to bring one to repentance and could only be applied to someone over whom the church had jurisdiction. To assert that the Church ex-communicates or anathematizes someone who has never been a member of the Catholic church in today's world is a simple misunderstanding of Church Law.

So to be clear, the Canons cannot change for they are infallible but the ritualized form of excommunication applied to them, called anathema’s can and did change in 1983.  Protestants are under no anathema. In fact, protestants are truly our brothers and sisters in the Faith in as much as we confess the same Lord Jesus Christ and in how we work together to bring the good news of salvation through faith in Christ to the world.  

Lumen Gentium from the Second Vatican Council states in section 8 

“This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him,(13*) although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.”

While many may insist that they stand against Rome, Rome views all christians as subsisting within her.  We believe that every Christian Church who professes Christ, believes in Christ and anything that is part of the deposit of faith is related to an in fact, part of the Catholic Church in some way. 

It goes on to say

“15. The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter.
For there are many who honor Sacred Scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and a pattern of life, and who show a sincere zeal. They lovingly believe in God the Father Almighty and in Christ, the Son of God and Saviour. (15*) They are consecrated by baptism, in which they are united with Christ.
They also share with us in prayer and other spiritual benefits. Likewise we can say that in some real way they are joined with us in the Holy Spirit, for to them too He gives His gifts and graces whereby He is operative among them with His sanctifying power. Some indeed He has strengthened to the extent of the shedding of their blood.
Mother Church never ceases to pray, hope and work that this may come about. She exhorts her children to purification and renewal so that the sign of Christ may shine more brightly over the face of the earth.”

In short, we can see the Holy Spirit at work in our protestant friends, he is operative, alive and at work in their congregations and we long for the day when we shall rejoice together in Christ as one body.  So count your anathema’s my friend and I will count my blessings and maybe one day we can sit together and count the stars and pray in unity, under one Lord and One Christ, “Our Father, who are in heaven”.