Canon 87: What can and cannot Bishops do?

[XXI_4]

completely unbiased source

Hahahahaha indeed

 

[CRM_Brother]

Yes, allowing this to happen would fall under a bishop’s power of legislation, but only when done in a certain sense. The blessings must be understood in a specific way to be licit. The blessing of an extraordinary minister is completely different from that of a priest. There is no priestly blessing invoked. If a priest were to bless you, it would be: “I bless you…” usually with the sign of the cross. A layman, while he or she can still trace the sign of the cross on your forehead, cannot directly invoke the blessing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A extraordinary minister’s blessing would “May the Lord bless you…” It is with the same power of the universal priesthood that the extraordinary minister bless you that you yourself use when you say grace before meals: “Bless us, O Lord,…”

So, in essence, both sides of the argument could be considered correct. If you view the blessing of the extraordinary minister as a priestly blessing then no, the bishop does not have the power to allow them to invoke that power of the ordained priesthood. If you view the blessing as simply the extraordinary minister praying to God that He might bless you, then it is a valid exercise of the legislative power of the bishop to allow it.

 

[angell1]

usually the argument is in reference to the specific quotation in the girm that no one is permitted to add anything to the liturgy, not even a priest

 

[CRM_Brother]

This quote is quite often used out of context. This is in reference to the celebrant of a mass going against the liturgical direction of his bishop. The GIRM specifically makes allowances for cultural actions and blessings like I described above. It is in Chapter 9, Paragraph 395 and is too long to put into block quotes, but it outlines the procedure for submitting cultural practices to the Vatican for approval.

From what my professors have taught me, both this and the occasional practice of priests coming out of the sanctuary to give the sign of peace to people in the congregation was submitted to the Congregation for Divine Worship for approval. The Congregation approved the sign of peace with a few rules but said that no approval for the blessings at communion was needed. The priests already possessed the ability to bless while in possession of the Eucharist due to the already-approved blessing at Eucharistic Benediction and the lay blessing was private and not an actual part of the mass since all liturgy is inherently public. The Congregation left that issue up to the discretion of the local bishops.

Above, I was addressing bishops allowing extraordinary ministers to use the same formula in these blessings as priests do.