Cardinal Burke's comments reinforce a point made by Cardinal Cañizares, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship back in March when he said that daily "private" concelebrations are not part of the Roman tradition.
Both Cardinals seem to be referring to the practice in many houses of study where priests routinely concelebrate, perhaps with a rota for principal celebrant so that your turn comes up every couple of weeks or so. Newly ordained priests in a house which has this custom might well be helped by the comments of the Cardinals if individual celebration is frowned upon.
Another question is that of assisting in choro (i.e. being on the sanctuary in a cassock and cotta but not concelebrating.) I very much like to do this at major celebrations; normally I have said a parish Mass earlier in the day and there is no "pastoral need" for me to binate. Assisting in choro gives a priest a different way to participate at Mass - as a priest.
Practically there are some things that need to be put in place if individual celebration of Mass is to be facilitated. There is more work for the sacristans - though houses in Rome that offer chapels for individual celebrations usually have a sensible system in place with the requisites for Mass available for priests to make use of. Then there is the question of servers. It is (at the least) not optimal for the priest to celebrate Mass on his own and without a server, though this has, since the advent of concelebration, become commonplace. Both theologically and liturgically there should be at least one other person making the responses and representing the populus Dei.
Before concelebration it would have been common at shrines and houses of studies for priests, for there to be students or devout men who were ready to serve Mass for a priest. This provided an opportunity for them to participate at the Mass more closely. Priests who are on holiday together might also think about serving each others' Mass. The Mass that you serve is an excellent preparation or thanksgiving for the Mass that you celebrate.
Having said all that, by way of exception, I am going to concelebrate this evening at Mass for the fiftieth anniversary of a priest who taught me many years ago. Please remember him in your prayers and give thanks for his priestly service.
11 comments:
Hopefully we will see some legislation on this, and legislation actually enforced.
As a lay person, I am 100% behind Cardinal Burke's statement and have never understood all those priests at the altar at the same time as a positive thing.
If there is a Chrism Mass, a conclave or a chapter meeting, or an ordination, or a Papal visit, fine. But concelebration should be rare. I find it absolutely distracting from the Mass and not adding to the solemnity of a Mass.
Thanks for this post.
Problem is that no one is listening to him. Or cares to listen to him. I agree 100% with Cardinal Burke. To bad I am a minority!.
I am more impressed to se priests fulfilling their roles as deacons at masses where there is more than one priest. It is good to be reminded that priests are also ordained as deacons as well.
Thanks for your post Father. Do you know whether the Carthusians have servers for their private Masses or is it part of their solitude to say Mass entirely alone?
I also agree. Long before I ever became aware of the serious issues with concelebration as outlined by Cdl. Burke (for which thanks to blogs like yours and Fr. Z's, Father) I disliked it on the basis of the too-frequent sloppiness and disorganisation of it all, with priests shuffling in and out and/or the missal (assuming they were even using one, and not missalettes) sometimes being physically pulled nearer to the one due to read his piece.
And all too often they seem totally unprepared to read the small bit assigned, so there's a bit of clearing of throat, hesitation etc. I mean, since they seem to use EPII on each and every occasion, how could it be that they couldn't recite it by heart without all the shuffling and huffing about? It just looks too much like make-it-up-as-you-go-along, and not at all fitting to the dignity of Mass.
Then again, I'm talking about Ireland, where the attitude of "ah, it'll do" has been commonplace for a long time especially in matters liturgical.
Oh, wait... and economically too :(
"Assisting in choro gives a priest a different way to participate at Mass - as a priest."
Why can't he sit in the pews, with the rest of us active participants?
The priest does not become a layman just because he is not concelebrating. Assisting in choir he participates liturgically as a priest. (cf Redemptionis Sacramentum 128)
I dare say that this is just another symptom of the illness that has become Mass facing the people. Just an extension of what has become an act of theater in which not only everyone must seen but everyone must be seen. Turn the priest around to his proper role and these problems will disappear.
Father,
what do you think of concelebration at weddings? It seems that amongst us under-30s, there's something of a competition to see how many priests we can fit round the altar at our nuptial Masses!
I'd be all for asking some to sit in choir if/when the time comes, but I suspect it would be interpreted as an insult by most of those I'd like to invite, which would probably be a good half dozen. What's the best way to go about, do you think?
Chatto - thank you for that question which has provided me with a good "Catholic Dilemma" for my column this week :-)
Essentially, I think that you have to talk to the priests individually about it.
Also - do give the guys a way out of attending. It can be very difficult for some priests in parishes to arrange supply cover to get away on a Saturday. Let them know that you won't be offended if they can't come.
Post a Comment