Q: Is the priest who “says” Mass properly called the CELEBRANT or PRESIDER? A view is being pressed here that the Priest presides and the whole community celebrates so that it is wrong to call him the “celebrant”.
Grateful your advice.
==
A: The liturgical books call him a celebrant. They call other assisting priests concelebrants. The people’s participation is integral to the liturgy, but in the books they are called “the people.” Still, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in 1140: “It is the whole community, the Body of Christ united with its Head, that celebrates.” The terms are meant to be descriptive, not restrictive.