Q. Father, you often refer to the need for “context” when you are providing help and direction. What exactly do you mean when you talk about context?
A. I believe context provides the necessary tools we need to more fully understand an experience. It helps us determine how we might choose what our next step might be, what should be avoided, and what should be considered in the decision-making process. Context widens our perspective, admits what is not easily understood, and acknowledges that all of us do not completely understand without real effort and discipline.
Q. Is it permissible for individuals to “dispense themselves” from an obligation? Are dispensations limited to priests and bishops, those with the “power to bind and to lose”?
A. Yes and no, not exactly the kind of answer that a person with scrupulosity likes to hear. All Catholics can dispense themselves, for a good reason, from general obligations. In fact, such dispensational authority is often referenced in the obligation itself, for example the eucharistic fast. On the other hand, there are serious obligations that can only be dispensed by the proper authorities. For example, permission for a Catholic to get married in a location other than a Catholic church is usually decided only by the bishop of the person’s diocese.
—Fr. Thomas M. Santa, CSsR