2 priests at Mass- one leaves?

  • Thread starter Thread starter suzanneaw
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

suzanneaw

Guest
At my local parish we have 2 priests, the pastor and a parochial vicar. (I’m also not real clear on what a parochial vicar is?) Often they will begin to celebrate Mass together, with one taking the lead and the other more in the background. Frequently the “lead” priest, after the homily will simply leave, (the back way) and never come back! The other priest celebrates the liturgy of the Eucharist and it’s never addressed as to where Fr. so and so went. It is quite distracting, and I’ve never seen it anywhere else. Granted, most other churches I’ve been to have only one priest. Is this common?
 
suzanneaw said:
At my local parish we have 2 priests, the pastor and a parochial vicar. (I’m also not real clear on what a parochial vicar is?) Often they will begin to celebrate Mass together, with one taking the lead and the other more in the background. Frequently the “lead” priest, after the homily will simply leave, (the back way) and never come back! The other priest celebrates the liturgy of the Eucharist and it’s never addressed as to where Fr. so and so went. It is quite distracting, and I’ve never seen it anywhere else. Granted, most other churches I’ve been to have only one priest. Is this common?
Click to expand...
Let me understand you better. Are you saying, one Priest is reading the Gospel and doing the homily, and then leaves. The other Priest then does the consecration.

This is a little odd, but I believe it is licit. Usually the main celebrant gives the homily. But any Priest or Deacon can read the Gospel, and there can be a guest homilist. Usually they stay for the whole Mass. But their departure doesn’t invalidate anything.

Also, a “Parochial Vicar” is just another Priest assigned to the Parish. You’ll also see “Senior Priest” which is a retired priest in residence.

God Bless
 
bilop said:
Let me understand you better. Are you saying, one Priest is reading the Gospel and doing the homily, and then leaves. The other Priest then does the consecration.

This is a little odd, but I believe it is licit. Usually the main celebrant gives the homily. But any Priest or Deacon can read the Gospel, and there can be a guest homilist. Usually they stay for the whole Mass. But their departure doesn’t invalidate anything.

Also, a “Parochial Vicar” is just another Priest assigned to the Parish. You’ll also see “Senior Priest” which is a retired priest in residence.

God Bless
Click to expand...
Yes, one is reading the gospel, then gives the homily, then leaves. The other then steps forward for the Communion rite. I’m glad if it is licit, but I don’t like it. It is really distracting, the first several times it happened I kept wondering/waiting to see if he was coming back.
 
Is it possible that the priest who leaves is on call at a hospital?

My former parish was accross the street from a hospital and the pastor would often be paged for emergencies during Mass.
 
Is it always the same priest who leaves, or it it usually the one that does the gospel and homily. If so they may be alternating weekends at the ambo. Otherwise it sure sounds mysterious.
 
suzanneaw said:
Yes, one is reading the gospel, then gives the homily, then leaves. The other then steps forward for the Communion rite. I’m glad if it is licit, but I don’t like it. It is really distracting, the first several times it happened I kept wondering/waiting to see if he was coming back.
Click to expand...
Is there a language issue with the Priest that stays?
Does the Priest that stay ever read the Gospel, and do the homily?

As rwoemke says, is it possible that they alternate Sundays in preparing/giving the homily so both don’t have to write a homily.?

It is a little strange, but I don’t see anything illicit.

God Bless
 
When I was in Austin, I was a member of a Paulist parish. They had a practice (not sure if it’s still done) of rotating one of them on a pearching schedule. This means that the priest preaching would celebrate the anticipated Sunday Mass and preach. On Sunday, there would be a celebrant and then the same priest who celebrated the night before would be preaching at all of the Masses. The one who celebrated the final Mass on Sunday (late afternoon) would be the next one on rotatoni for the following weekend.

My parish did this for Triduum. My pastor preached on Holy Thursday and the Easter Vigil while my PV (parochial vicar) was the celebrant. My PV then preached on Good Friday.
 
bilop said:
This is a little odd, but I believe it is licit. Usually the main celebrant gives the homily. But any Priest or Deacon can read the Gospel, and there can be a guest homilist. Usually they stay for the whole Mass. But their departure doesn’t invalidate anything.
Click to expand...
This is just a side comment, but I thought that the “second” priest is the one who normally reads the Gospel and says the homily. And the main celebrant will normally lead the celebration of the Eucharist, and the opening and closing prayers.
 
bilop said:
Is there a language issue with the Priest that stays?
Does the Priest that stay ever read the Gospel, and do the homily?

As rwoemke says, is it possible that they alternate Sundays in preparing/giving the homily so both don’t have to write a homily.?

It is a little strange, but I don’t see anything illicit.

God Bless
Click to expand...
Very rarely they will both stay for the whole Mass, sometimes (yesterday) there will only be one priest, so it’s moot. There is no language issue, and they both do it equally (it seems to me). Sometimes it’s one, sometimes the other.

I have no idea if they are alternating so that only one has to prepare a homily, but in that case, why not simply trade off weekends?

One will lead the opening prayers, and read the gospel and give the homily. (then leave) The other then steps forward and leads the Communion rite and closing prayers.

I don’t believe anyone is on call at the hospital, we’re a suburban parish. One thing is that the pastor is quite elderly, I wasn’t sure if that played a part.
 
suzanneaw said:
Very rarely they will both stay for the whole Mass, sometimes (yesterday) there will only be one priest, so it’s moot. There is no language issue, and they both do it equally (it seems to me). Sometimes it’s one, sometimes the other.

I have no idea if they are alternating so that only one has to prepare a homily, but in that case, why not simply trade off weekends?

One will lead the opening prayers, and read the gospel and give the homily. (then leave) The other then steps forward and leads the Communion rite and closing prayers.

I don’t believe anyone is on call at the hospital, we’re a suburban parish. One thing is that the pastor is quite elderly, I wasn’t sure if that played a part.
Click to expand...
It seems likely, if they both do it equally, that they are probably trading off writing the homily for Sundays.

They wouldn’t want to have one Priest say all the masses each Sunday b/c every Priest is supposed (required?) to say Mass on each Sunday, and there are limits on the number of Masses a Priest can say on a given Sunday. Ideally, only one, but up to 3 for pastoral reasons.

So, my conclusion is that it’s a little odd, but nothing to worry about.

God Bless
 
Your elderly Priest may not be able to handle the whole Mass alone. This is my thoughts.

We have two Priests and three deacons… there is a lot of changing about, as for who reads the gospel and prepares a homily…

Does seem odd that the priest leaves completely…huh?

However, I think what is going on is completely ok…
 
DJgang said:
Your elderly Priest may not be able to handle the whole Mass alone. This is my thoughts.

We have two Priests and three deacons… there is a lot of changing about, as for who reads the gospel and prepares a homily…

Does seem odd that the priest leaves completely…huh?

However, I think what is going on is completely ok…
Click to expand...
Well, that did occur to me, he can handle Mass alone, but he seems a bit shaky. The oddness to me also is the priest leaving entirely, I understand sharing responsibilities. Occasionally they will celebrate together and both stay.
I have just been wondering about this, having never seen it at any other parish.
 
suzanneaw said:
At my local parish we have 2 priests, the pastor and a parochial vicar. (I’m also not real clear on what a parochial vicar is?) Often they will begin to celebrate Mass together, with one taking the lead and the other more in the background. Frequently the “lead” priest, after the homily will simply leave, (the back way) and never come back! The other priest celebrates the liturgy of the Eucharist and it’s never addressed as to where Fr. so and so went. It is quite distracting, and I’ve never seen it anywhere else. Granted, most other churches I’ve been to have only one priest. Is this common?
Click to expand...
This happens at my territorial parish quite frequently. What happens is that the two priests trade turns writing the homily for the weekend. When the priest who is doing the homily that weekend has used up the number of Masses that he is allowed to say, he simply acts as a “guest homilist” and then leaves right after the Liturgy of the Word at the subsequent Masses.

(For example, he’ll say the 5:00 pm Mass on Saturday and then the 8:00 and the 10:00 on Sunday morning, and then the other priest will preside at the other two Masses of the Sunday, but the one doing the homily will “guest preach” at those two Masses.)
 
Did it ever occur to the OP, to ask the priest after Mass, why this happens?

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Did it ever occur to the OP, to ask the priest after Mass, why this happens?

Jim
Click to expand...
Yes, that certainly has occurred to me, but I’m not sure how to approach it without sounding critical. The fact is, I feel critical about it, rightly or no, and I don’t want to be at odds with either priest. I really was curious whether it happens in other parishes, and it seems that it does, but not commonly.
 
While it’s not especially odd to have a guest homilist, nor to have someone other than the priest celebrant read the Gospel, I find it very odd that the priest celebrant’s role in the opening prayer is taken by the priest who later leaves.
 
Digitonomy said:
While it’s not especially odd to have a guest homilist, nor to have someone other than the priest celebrant read the Gospel, I find it very odd that the priest celebrant’s role in the opening prayer is taken by the priest who later leaves.
Click to expand...
I’ve never seen that happen. That would seem odd.
 
Digitonomy said:
While it’s not especially odd to have a guest homilist, nor to have someone other than the priest celebrant read the Gospel, I find it very odd that the priest celebrant’s role in the opening prayer is taken by the priest who later leaves.
Click to expand...
I’m just shooting from the hip, but I could almost guarantee you that it’s not kosher for the con- or non-celebrant to pray the opening prayer. Certain jobs done by the priest are ministerial and can thus properly be done by anyone possessing the proper order (and preferably by one in that precise grade of orders), while others are presidential, i.e. reserved to the celebrant presiding at the liturgy. The orations (opening and closing prayers) are presidential prayers, so only the celebrant should be praying them.
 
benedictgal said:
When I was in Austin, I was a member of a Paulist parish. They had a practice (not sure if it’s still done) of rotating one of them on a pearching schedule. This means that the priest preaching would celebrate the anticipated Sunday Mass and preach. On Sunday, there would be a celebrant and then the same priest who celebrated the night before would be preaching at all of the Masses. The one who celebrated the final Mass on Sunday (late afternoon) would be the next one on rotatoni for the following weekend.

My parish did this for Triduum. My pastor preached on Holy Thursday and the Easter Vigil while my PV (parochial vicar) was the celebrant. My PV then preached on Good Friday.
Click to expand...
This is what my chuch does too. One priest will give the same homilies all weekend long. It keeps them from having to write a homily every sunday and everyone gets the same message no matter what mass they are at. I don’t find it odd anymore because i am use to it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top