Paul Turner’s Catholic Liturgy Blog

Last week on the site

The following was added this week to www.paulturner.org:

 

Wedding Question

Q:  A Catholic bride and Methodist Groom are seeking marriage. The priest has denied allowing them to be married within the Mass and has assigned a Deacon to perform the rite outside of Mass. They have requested a priest and a Mass, as both parties have large numbers of Catholics in their families. Is it permissible for the priest to deny them the celebration of a Mass and ask a Deacon to fill in instead? They feel that since they both aren’t Catholic, that the priest is “ducking out” of his responsibilities to witness a sacramental marriage.   Any help is appreciated.
A:   The revised Rite of Marriage is still not available in English, but when it comes out, it will have an expanded introduction. The introduction is technically “in force” – even though we don’t have it in English yet. The translations I’m giving you below are not official.

  • from Paragraph 29: “with due regard both for the necessities of pastoral care and for the way in which the prospective spouses and those present participate in the life of the Church, the pastor should decide whether it would be preferable to propose that Marriage be celebrated within or without Mass.” It cites canon 1115, which doesn’t shed much light on this particular question.
  • from Paragraph 36: “If a Marriage takes place between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic, the rite for celebrating Marriage without Mass (nos. 79-117) should be used. If, however, the situation warrants it, the rite for celebrating Marriage within Mass (nos. 45-78) may be used, with the consent of the local Ordinary.”
The way I read it, the priest is within his rights. Nonetheless, a wedding without mass by a deacon is just as much a sacrament as a wedding with mass by a priest. The couple give the sacrament to each other. The priest or deacon is the Church’s official witness.
If the couple were in my parish, I’d probably agree that mass would be a good idea. But I don’t know all that this priest is dealing with. He might really be stressed to the max and unable to provide extra services on weekends. Just hard to know.

Last Week on the Site

The following was added this week to www.paulturner.org:

 

 

Women and Feet Washing

Q:  Is it a rule that women are banned from having their feet washed at the Holy Thursday service?  And if so, since when?

A:  The Roman Missal says that males may have their feet washed. It has said the same thing ever since the missal was revised after the Second Vatican Council. Many parishes allow women to have their feet washed at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper out of a spirit of service.  I treated this in more detail in two of my books:  “In These or Similar Words” and “Glory in the Cross”.  

The Emmaus Story

Q:  Do you know the history of the Emmaus story in the lectionary?  Would it have been read during the dies in albis in the early church as it is now?
A:  We don’t have enough information about the use of the Emmaus story early on. It did not play a role in the preconciliar lectionary, from what I can see.  And the early mystagogical catecheses (which predate the earliest “lectionary”) do not imply that the Emmaus story was proclaimed that week. But who knows?
The story appears twice in today’s Easter lectionary – once as an option for the gospel at an evening mass on Easter Sunday, and then again on Wednesday of the Octave. You can see the post-Vatican II lectionary committee at work here. The first instance happens because the Emmaus story took place on the evening of the day of the resurrection. And the second instance is put into place in an attempt to string together a series of gospel passages about the resurrection in somewhat chronological order from Monday through Saturday of the Octave.  But that’s sheer Vatican II thinking.

Covering crosses on Palm Sunday

Q:  The rubrics for the 5th Sunday of Lent provide the option of veiling crosses and statues. The crosses are unveiled on Good Friday and the images unveiled before the Vigil.   If a parish chooses to cover crosses, how does this take into consideration the rubric for Palm Sunday that states the processional cross should be decorated?

A:  There is no clear answer to this from the rubrics, so one has to use one’s judgment. The veiling of crosses and statues is optional, even if the conference of bishops permits it. (The US Conference does.) It would also be acceptable to veil some crosses and statues but not all. There is complete flexibility with this custom.

If a parish wants to cover every possible cross and statue, then it can make a case for covering – and decorating – the processional cross on Palm Sunday.

If the parish views the processional cross as a festive and essential element for the procession that day, it is perfectly fine to leave it uncovered.

Scrutinies explained

Q:  I’m writing to ask you a favor on behalf of a student of mine in the seminary.  He’s trying to write a paper for his Sacraments of Initiation class on exorcisms and the scrutinies and asked me where he might find them explained in a more detail.
Would you have any suggested resources that this student might check out?  Perhaps something of your own writing?  Any thoughts you may have, Paul, would be greatly appreciated.
A:  I’ve treated scrutinies in my book Celebrating Initiation: A Guide for Priests. I have a historical overview of all the rites in The Hallelujah Highway. And a very brief treatment of them in The Catechumenate Answer Book.   All these books are available on this site.
On my web site is this article that I wrote for Liturgical Ministry back in 1999. https://paulturner.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/scrutinies1.htm
Hope he has good success!

 

Can a deacon baptize at the vigil?

Q:  One of our pastors has been very ill, in the hospital, for the past month or so. He is just now recovering, and is planning to celebrate the Easter Vigil for his parish community. He would like to know if it would be allowed for one of his deacons to baptize the elect, and then HE (the pastor) will confirm those folks immediately at the same liturgy. It is an issue of conserving his energy, I believe.

Is this allowed? I confess I’m very unsure, but I am assuming it is NOT.  Your assistance is much appreciated.

A:  The bishop has the authority to delegate the priest to confirm those whom the deacon baptizes.  The priest raising the question has to obtain permission from the bishop to proceed.

Q:  Part of my confusion arises from the fact that a priest who is entrusted to receive into full communion an already-baptized Christian has the faculty of confirming, so that would seem to imply that the tie between baptism and confirmation is not so much “I can’t confirm if I don’t baptize” as it is “I MUST confirm if I DO baptize.” See what I mean? How wrong is that thinking, if you have time to tell me? If not, many blessings in this season!

A:  That’s a good insight. I think it’s spot on.

Another colleague has added an important point that the deacon would also need permission to baptize the adult.  I did not realize this.

 

Go in Peace, Alleluia

Q:  When would we stop saying the Mass is ended go in Peace, Alleluia (3x)? I see other Deacons stop at first two weeks.
A:  You add 2 alleluias to the dismissal on the Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday, and every day during the octave of Easter, as well as on the Second Sunday of Easter.

Then the double alleluia is omitted until Pentecost. You use it again for the Pentecost Vigil and Pentecost Sunday for the last time.