Eucharistic Problems and Concelebrating Clergy
Press title above for full article, but two money quotes below:
During the faction rite, I went to the tabernacle to remove the ciborium because I was not sure whether there were in fact enough hosts consecrated. I placed some reserved hosts in one of the two patens alongside hosts consecrated at the Mass. The puzzling exchange occurred as I was in the process of ushering clergy to one of the stations. One of the more recently minted priests comes running up the aisle to me from the rear of the church to say with alarming seriousness that by mixing the reserved and the consecrated hosts together I had invalided the Mass and prevented priests directed to that one paten from receiving Eucharist.
I was Bishop Raymond Lessard's MC for six years at our cathedral. When we had the Chrism Mass or ordinations and priestly retreats/conferences, where most of our clergy were concelbrating, I always made sure there were enough Hosts for all the priests to receive Hosts they concelebrated as well as enough wine for the Precious Blood.
While I never miscalculated and always had more than enough, if I had made a mistake, I would simply say I made a mistake and the few priests at the end would have to receive only the Precious Blood and hosts from the tabernacle. It seems more likely that I would miscalculate the amount of wine needed as I have no control over priests who sip or gulp.
But in the article above, the priest MC writes in the most self-serving way a justification for his mistake that the problem was the priest who intervened and challenged his lack of knowledge that priests have to receive Hosts and Precious Blood that they concelebrated, not the reserved Sacrament.
Herein lies the true clericalism. The priest MC feels like everyone thinks he should not be the MC because he retrieved Hosts immediately from the tabernacle and saw no problem with this. So he justifies himself by calling the priest who intervened and concelebration creeping clericalism when in fact he is the one who is into clericalism.
But with that said, I agree that concelebrations are problematic. Prior to Vatican II, I think conclebration was only at the ordination of priests and the new priests concelebrated with the bishop. All other priests would be in choir dress, cassock and surplice, and they would receive Holy Communion just from the Host and kneeling as the laity would do.
I remember celebrating a funeral at the cathedral in which Bishop Lessard attended in choir dress. At the Eucharistic Prayer, he knelt at a kneeler. At Communion, I gave him Holy Communion as he knelt and he received on the tongue.
So in one sense, I think it would be wise to eliminate some concelebrations be it with the bishop or other priests, but the priests should be in choir dress, assume all the liturgical positions of the laity and receive as the laity would in these situations.
My question is directed to priests older than me. Prior to Vatican II and widespread concelebrations, when on a priestly retreat, where private Masses would not be possible given the location of the retreat, did priests forgo their own celebration of Mass and simple dress in choir dress and attend the Mass the bishop celebrated? Inquiring minds want to know.
8 comments:
In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia portable altars were set up throughout the entire seminary/retreat house so that priests on retreat could each offer Mass. If there was a Mass for the entire retreat group (which would have been unusual) then the priests would have attended in Cossack and surplice. During Cardinal Dougherty’s time he also insisted that each priest also wear Biretta at th se Masses.
"So in one sense, I think it would be wise to eliminate some concelebrations be it with the bishop or other priests, but the priests should be in choir dress, assume all the liturgical positions of the laity and receive as the laity would in these situations."
Why is this "wise"?
Fr., interesting post...and a reply from the good Fr. MJK. His question to you is asked in his predictable style, but may need an answer.
Frankly I don’t think the specific problem you pose (concelebration and use of consecrated hosts from the tabernacle) is one of the more pressing problems of our day. The more general problem of “clericalism” does need to be addressed due to the current use of the word promulgated by the Holy Father explain away (divert?) very pressing problems within our Church. The misunderstanding of the word and using it instead of more appropriate clinically diagnostic terms only further muddies already-muddied waters.
Honestly, speaking solely for myself: Over my lifetime (now very long) I have known/met many priests in many geographies, and from many “persuasions”, liberal and more traditional. Of these, VERY few men did not/do not indulge in some form of “clericalism”, defined by me as putting the clerical self first. I now believe that it takes a saintly man to resist this personal temptation. Saint Padre Pio springs to mind. It takes incredible self-emptying to achieve this level of sanctity.
I could be very wrong, but I don’t think the Church magisterium encourages that type of humility in her clerics, nor are good models often provided either historically or currently. For the most part, humanism rules the day. And we are all prideful and willful, clerics included.
A very good local priest kneels before the altar after Mass and offers prayers to BVM then closes with this petition:
—“Lord send us priests...”
—“Lord send us many priests...”
—“Lord send us many holy priests...”
AMEN!
I'm not an elderly priest, obviously, but I can say what happens when we have dozens of priests in town for something like the upcoming Angelus Conference: They all say individual masses throughout the day in rooms that have been set aside for the purpose of accommodating every priest saying his own mass everyday.
We have 5 priests at our parish, so it's not uncommon to have 4 simultaneous masses going on: the main altar, two side chapels, rectory chapel. Then the 5th priest says mass for the Franciscan sisters at their convent.
Although this is (thankfully)changing with the younger generation of priests, I doubt that many of our priests even have a cassock (or surplice) these days.
For those of us like 30327 not old enough to remember the pre Vatican 2 era, please explain what was behind the rise of concelebration? One argument I find against it is that such makes the altar area look cluttered and crowded, hard to see who the "main" celebrant is.
I think it was to show the unity of the diocesan presbyterate with the bishop. From that point of view, I think it is wholly appropriate for cathedral Pontifical Masses where all the priests are present.
Apart from that, I think there was concern about the multiplicity of Masses taking place simultaneously at side altars even as the principle Mass was celebrated at the main altar. This would have happened in larger parishes, thus the reason why there were usually at least three altars even in small parish churches. More than likely though, it was very prevalent in monastic communities and divided the priests according to each one's particular Mass as Marc describes in his comment.
One of the reasons for the low voice throughout a Mass was so as not to compete with the other Masses or distract the other priests celebrating their own Mass too.
A couple things are worth pointing out: first, there are no simultaneous masses at the side chapels on Sundays. Sometimes there will be private masses said there between the two masses at the main altar.
I've served masses at the main and side altars when there were other masses being said in the church, and I was not distracted by it. There are no microphones used at the main altar for the daily masses and the private masses are said in a very low voice.
I found it to be a moving experience to be in the sacristy when all the priests are vesting for their masses. They say Prime together, then have a lengthy period of mental prayer in the chapel before saying their masses for the day. It is a special thing to see 4 priests all vesting and heading out to their altars to say mass.
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