Ask Father - err, the Other Guy - Anything

The Youth Group had a meeting today that was supposed to be "Ask Father Anything!" Day. Shortly before noon, I discovered that there were two scheduled baptisms and no certificates made up for them. Then I discovered they weren't on the presider schedule either, and I thought, "Oh oh..." I asked the associate if he could do them and he said no, he had a Rite of Election commitment. I realized then we had lost the other Father to baptisms, and fortunately the seminarian assistant stepped up and took over to help me out.

He did a great job and we tag-teamed a few of the answers (on women priests, since I didn't like his explanation from a female point of view, and on faith-based funded schools, which I know more about because I am from the area and have teaching certification). "Father" in the "Ask Father" equation showed up with less than half an hour to go in our two-hour meeting, and he fielded about four or five questions before the session wrapped up. His final question, which threw him right off, was a math equation one of the kids cooked up when they learned he was a math teacher. He spent a good five minutes in front of the chalkboard figuring out what "x" equaled, much to the kids' amusement.

I treated the seminarian to Thai afterwards in gratitude for his excellent answers and for taking over where he was supposed to just be a secondary assistant. (Both Fathers were invited to come along but they declined). We shared many laughs about parish life and work in general. He told me about his recent discovery that, according to Canon Law, you belong to the Rite to which you should have been baptized, so because his mother should have been baptized Eastern Rite since her father was Eastern, he should have been too. Thus, he isn't "really" a Roman Catholic despite his baptism in the Roman Catholic Church. After consulting with two Canon lawyers, he also discovered that his having taken first vows with a Western religious order was valid but not licit, and he must seek permission from the Eastern Rite to be ordained and to take final vows in the Western Rite.

After some incredulity on my part, I told him he should have dropped it long ago. Finally, I suggested that if and when he gets his ordination allowed, he should take up the study of Canon Law since it seems to fascinate him so much and has definitely thrown some wrenches into his own ordination and vocation, not to mention his parents' marriage since they are not considered to be licitly married in the Church either.

I have thought since doing all of these sacramental meetings and intakes as a vocation/career that the Church has too many rules. This definitely proved it.