Concelebration

[Revs96]

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass without any concelebrants. While there were many clerics there, all were in choir except for the Pope and 4 Deacons (two of those were Cardinals). Traditionalism favors less concelebrants. Why exactly? Now, doing it the way B16 did today looks better than having dozens of priests in chasubles, but I can’t quite understand why that is. Is it because you only need one priest and the others have little to do so they might as well sit in choir?

BTW, great to see B16 in a dalmatic and fiddleback, hopefully he’ll add maniple and gauntlets in one of his OF Masses.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Actually, the Tridentine Mass did not allow for concelebration at all, though it’s always been traditional in Eastern Churches, both Catholic and non-.

FWIW, the Byzantine Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is not properly concelebrated, either: one Priest, one Deaon, period.

Other Priests in the altar do not vest fully, but simply wear a stole, though they receive Communion at the altar.

 

[Revs96]

That doesn’t answer my question as to why concelebration is not allowed in the EF and discouraged when the OF is celebrated in a traditional fashion (i.e. with dignity & reverence). I can reason that concelebration is defended by the logic that all the priests present are in fact priests thus can concelebrate, but those that say that they shouldn’t: why exactly? Is it for the reason I said earlier?