Gospel Read by Laypeople at Mass

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catholic03

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Pax Christi

I gather from multiple sources, that the Church’s liturgical laws dictate that the Gospel may only be read by a cleric at Mass. However, my Ordinary has personally given approval for
  1. The Gospel to be read by laypeople at Mass
  2. The other readings to be omitted.
Nonetheless, it is still a fairly rare occurrence in the Archdiocese but I do come across it, especially at rural parishes. The Cardinal-Archbishop said he was inspired by Pope Francis to ‘get creative’ with the liturgy. He also says he wants the Liturgy of the Word to be more of a lectio divina session and that this is also why he has allowed this.

I am wondering if it would be wise to write to the Cardinal, to ask him if he has been given some permission to allow this; or, should I just assume the best and forget about it?
 
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What harm could come from asking? What benefit could come from asking?

I don’t see why not.
 
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i believe the General Instruction of the Roman Missal sets the form and standard of the sacrifice of the mass. This was set in stone since it is Christ’s sacrifice and not ours. I cannot imagine the ramifications of “getting creative”, as once you leave the sheepfold, you are in the wolves’ territory.

I think you are right to inquire, as this is a danger to the laity, and to the soul of the celebrant.
 
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I think this is something that should be addressed. If you were to do perhaps you can get others on board. It can be very lonely being the sole complainant.

The first option would be to contact the archbishop and ask in a polite way if it is true this approval has been given and why.

If the response was not satisfactory the next port of call would have to be the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The rubrics govern what can and cannot be done. They are found in the General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM). The country where you live will have had to have its GIRM approved by the Holy See. Therefore, an individual (arch)bishop cannot get ‘creative with the liturgy’.

The Mass, and other liturgies, do not take the form they do by pure random chance. There are specific reasons for the parts of the liturgy, their order and the actual words. They originate from Rome and in individual countries any adaptations to the liturgy and vernacular translations require Rome’s approval. There are some choices in the liturgy but they re relatively minor.

This is if correct a serious transgression. You will have to decide if it is something you are willing to challenge.
 
The main problem is that if this is set by the archbishop, it is very unlikely that any person will be able to gain access to him. They have secretaries to handle correspondence and to arrange for face-to-face meetings.

What I personally would suggest would be the following:
Send a letter to the bishop and keep a copy. Make it return receipt requested so you have a record that it was delivered at least to the bishop’s secretary. If the bishop has an email account or a blog page, send your concerns to that and again, maintain a copy. Allow about 6 weeks for any response (it’s the Advent/Christmas season). If there is no response, or if the bishop does respond with “this is what I’m doing, live with it”, send the original letters/email and response to the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments (and copy the bishop that this is what you are doing). If you can find a parish where this practice at Mass is NOT in place, do so. If not, continue at your parish and try not to focus on the wrongdoing. Offer a rosary in reparation, or contribute a fixed sum to your local food bank (or both, or more) and let your priest and the bishop know what you are doing and why. See if you can find like-minded individuals. See if you can convince the usual readers at your parish to ask the priest to read the gospel alone. See if you can establish, with them, a “Lectio Divina’ group who set up a time before or after Sunday Mass so that you can tell the bishop that every Sunday you are already participating in a Lectio Divina group. Make sure at all times that you use the most respectful language, that you make it clear that you are not ‘opposing the bishop’ or making yourself ‘over him’ but that, as with the bishop himself and all Catholics everywhere you are simply trying to carry out God’s will to the best of your ability and to obey the authentic Catholic teachings of the Church.
 
There is a middle layer in between your diocesan bishop and the CDW in Rome. That is the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship, whose current chairman is Archbishop Leonard P. Blair of Hartford, Conn.

https://www.usccb.org/committees/divine-worship/who-we-are

Some CAFers will recall the long standoff between one of Archbishop Blair’s predecessors in the USCCB post, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa., and the then prefect of the CDW, Cardinal Francis Arinze. It dragged on for years. From memory – I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong – for as long as both Trautman and Arinze remained in their respective posts, the CDW never managed to get the USCCB to adopt a form of liturgy that Trautman disliked, and the USCCB never managed to get the CDW’s approval for the liturgy it wanted but failed to meet Arinze’s high standards.
 
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TomH1 said:
The Mass, and other liturgies, do not take the form they do by pure random chance. There are specific reasons for the parts of the liturgy, their order and the actual words. They originate from Rome and in individual countries any adaptations to the liturgy and vernacular translations require Rome’s approval. There are some choices in the liturgy but they re relatively minor.

This is if correct a serious transgression. You will have to decide if it is something you are willing to challenge.
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This was mostly my way of thinking. Part of me wants to assume the best, that somehow he has some sort of approval from the Congregation for Divine Worship; the archbishop is a cardinal so I am disappointed he thinks he can disregard the rubrics.
stpurl said:
What I personally would suggest would be the following:
Send a letter to the bishop and keep a copy. Make it return receipt requested so you have a record that it was delivered at least to the bishop’s secretary. If the bishop has an email account or a blog page, send your concerns to that and again, maintain a copy. Allow about 6 weeks for any response (it’s the Advent/Christmas season). If there is no response, or if the bishop does respond with “this is what I’m doing, live with it”, send the original letters/email and response to the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments (and copy the bishop that this is what you are doing).
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That sounds like a very good plan. What I have decided to do first is this: I shall e-mail the National Liturgy Office, and if I do not receive a satisfactory explanation (i.e. they say something along the lines of: ‘We do not care for the GIRM’), then I will prayerfully discern whether taking it to the cardinal-archbishop is the right thing. Thanks be to God, this practice is rare at my parish (but sometimes they get about 10 different children to read out the Gospel and once, the response to the Prayers of the Faithful was ‘love is all you need’ from a pop song! That only happens about 2-4 times a year, which is better than every Sunday).

Here is an article describing, in better words than mine, what the cardinal has allowed: Next Sunday’s Mass readings will be different - CathNews NZ and Pacific
BartholomewB said:
There is a middle layer in between your diocesan bishop and the CDW in Rome. That is the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship, whose current chairman is Archbishop Leonard P. Blair of Hartford, Conn.
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I am not in the United States, but in New Zealand. Our equivalent is, I believe, the National Liturgy Office, which I have decided I will contact first.
 
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I apologize for my mistake. Here at CAF I tend to assume that everyone is American, unless I clearly remember them saying they’re from some other country!
 
catholic03 said:
That sounds like a very good plan. What I have decided to do first is this: I shall e-mail the National Liturgy Office,
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Not the correct way, I’m afraid. They have no authority over your bishop.

First, you must take it to the bishop in question. He has the right to deal with it first. If you do not get a response in a reasonable period write again. I don’t know what systems you have in New Zealand but here in the UK it’s a letter I’d send Recorded Delivery. You get a tracking number and can see where it is in the postal system. The recipient has to sign for it so you know when it’s delivered. It also sends a message to the recipient that saying you didn’t receive it is not going to be accepted because I will know you did.

Because of the time of year you do need to probably wait until the latter end of January before deciding you are not going to get a reply, if you don’t receive one. An alternative is wait until early in the New Year and write then.

If you do not receive a reply it would be courteous on your part to write a second time. If you have been able to send by a method whereby you know it was received say that in your second letter. You could also point out in your second letter that if you receive no response you’re taking the matter to Rome.

If the bishop simply ignores you and, I’m afraid, that’s a possibility or he says that’s the way it is tough, you will have to, if you want to follow up, write to the Congregation for Divine Worship in Rome. The bishop is accountable to the Holy See. Ultimately, if you like his line manager is the Pope. However, don’t write to the Pope. His Holiness must receive thousands of letters per week and yours could very well get lost. Send it to the Holy See’s dicastery (department) that deals with these issues.

Two things you should be prepared for. The first is you may not get the outcome you would like. The other is if you involve Rome this will take some considerable time to resolve.

Pray about it, think about it, talk it over with people you know and trust. I never make a complaint unless I’m sure I want to and I’m prepared to see it through.
 
The Cardinal is violating Church law by doing this. He does not have the authority to do this, nor is there a valid reason to do so.

The fact that he’s saying that Pope Francis has inspired him to break Church law is upsetting.
 
I have sent a message to the National Liturgy Office, which in the past has responded within a few hours. If I do not receive a satisfactory response I will type up, and print out a letter to be posted to the Cardinal in the New Year.
 
My own parish has been guilty of this too but I wouldn’t want to get him in trouble by asking his superior.
 
Kei said:
What harm could come from asking? What benefit could come from asking?

I don’t see why not.
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It’s kind of an issue of “If the Holy Fathers left us a practice, we’re not to abridge it.” There are many practices where we could say “what’s the harm if we don’t do this?”, like relics under the altar or not fasting on Saturdays, but it’s best to keep the traditions we received, I think.
 
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Oh please don’t misunderstand, I meant that in terms of his question if he should contact the Archbishop.
Ie why not contact and ask the archbishop if he has some sort of permission for such a thing.

I did not mean to excuse such action as letting a layperson read the Gospel at Mass.
 
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catholic03 said:
I gather from multiple sources, that the Church’s liturgical laws dictate that the Gospel may only be read by a cleric at Mass. However, my Ordinary has personally given approval for
  1. The Gospel to be read by laypeople at Mass
  2. The other readings to be omitted.
Nonetheless, it is still a fairly rare occurrence in the Archdiocese but I do come across it, especially at rural parishes. The Cardinal-Archbishop said he was inspired by Pope Francis to ‘get creative’ with the liturgy. He also says he wants the Liturgy of the Word to be more of a lectio divina session and that this is also why he has allowed this.

I am wondering if it would be wise to write to the Cardinal, to ask him if he has been given some permission to allow this; or, should I just assume the best and forget about it?
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I have to say that your post is not written in a manner that is clear to me.

Are you saying that you belong to one of the five dioceses of New Zealand? I could infer that from your first paragraph, where you write “However, my Ordinary has personally given approval for…”

When you write, though, " it is still a fairly rare occurrence in the Archdiocese but I do come across it", that leads me to believe that you are a subject of the Archdiocese of Wellington.

If your Ordinary is, in fact, the Cardinal Archbishop himself, I would counsel that the best approach is precisely in doing what you have done: you have written to the National Liturgy Office who can explain to you what is the Cardinal’s initiative, since they are at the service of the Cardinal Archbishop…who is the President of your Bishops Conference…

Cardinal Dew was named to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis. Cardinal Dew is also himself a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments…by the nomination of Pope Francis. His Eminence is no stranger – at all – to how this dicastery works and the procedures to be followed if he wishes to “get creative”. And the Holy Father can moreover empower that, without question.

I remember the Cardinal was in Rome for the Ad Limina of the New Zealand Bishops in the autumn of 2019…I don’t know whether he has been back since. Obviously he comes to Rome regularly given the dicastery assignments that he holds.

There is provision in the General Instruction for the Lectionary to reduce the number of readings; this is particularly foreseen for Sundays, however…

Lay people can be deputed to read the Gospel. All the times when I have been involved with this, it has involved a situation in which there was no Deacon available and the priest was either blind or severely sight impaired.

If in fact, you are in the archdiocese and this is an initiative of Cardinal Dew, I would suggest that your best and proper approach should be expressing a desire to more fully comprehend His Eminence’s initiative…since I would presume that he does, in fact, have the permission of the Holy Father to do what he is doing.
 
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Don_Ruggero said:
I have to say that your post is not written in a manner that is clear to me.

Are you saying that you belong to one of the five dioceses of New Zealand? I could infer that from your first paragraph, where you write “However, my Ordinary has personally given approval for…”

When you write, though, " it is still a fairly rare occurrence in the Archdiocese but I do come across it", that leads me to believe that you are a subject of the Archdiocese of Wellington.

If your Ordinary is, in fact, the Cardinal Archbishop himself, I would counsel that the best approach is precisely in doing what you have done: you have written to the National Liturgy Office who can explain to you what is the Cardinal’s initiative, since they are at the service of the Cardinal Archbishop…who is the President of your Bishops Conference…

Cardinal Dew was named to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis. Cardinal Dew is also himself a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments…by the nomination of Pope Francis. His Eminence is no stranger – at all – to how this dicastery works and the procedures to be followed if he wishes to “get creative”. And the Holy Father can moreover empower that, without question.

I remember the Cardinal was in Rome for the Ad Limina of the New Zealand Bishops in the autumn of 2019…I don’t know whether he has been back since. Obviously he comes to Rome regularly given the dicastery assignments that he holds.

There is provision in the General Instruction for the Lectionary to reduce the number of readings; this is particularly foreseen for Sundays, however…

Lay people can be deputed to read the Gospel. All the times when I have been involved with this, it has involved a situation in which there was no Deacon available and the priest was either blind or severely sight impaired.

If in fact, you are in the archdiocese and this is an initiative of Cardinal Dew, I would suggest that your best and proper approach should be expressing a desire to more fully comprehend His Eminence’s initiative…since I would presume that he does, in fact, have the permission of the Holy Father to do what he is doing.
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Dear Fr @Don_Ruggero,

You are indeed correct. I live in the Archdiocese of Wellington, and Cardinal John Dew is therefore my Ordinary. I sent a message to the National Liturgy Office; they told me, however, that the Gospel tells us to solve problems with the people involved, and that I should therefore take my desire for clarification to those who have permitted this.

Would you suggest, father, that I should rather just accept that His Eminence has permission, and be at peace? The Cardinal is a very humble man, and, as you say, given his dicastery assignments, it seems unlikely he would be one to flout the Church’s law.
 
I would say to do exactly what they suggested and to speak with the people who are involved so that they can hopefully clarify it.

Personally, I was much more receptive to a person who came asking to “better understand” or to “comprehend” or who were left “feeling confused or in doubt.” This normally resulted in a very calm and useful dialogue.

What was not particularly productive were occasions where the person began with “You can’t do this!” Because I was one who was a Professor of Liturgy and Sacraments and master of ceremonies for my Bishop, I was one who always had my i dotted and t crossed before something was implemented…so, yes, I could do it, If the person was unpleasant, or worse hostile, that was all the explanation they got, too.

From what you have written, I am not really clear on what you have heard from the Cardinal…but it really doesn’t matter. If, after, the conversation, you are not satisfied, you could reach back out to the Liturgy Office or to the office of the Archbishop with a query…“Has His Eminence approved X, Y, Z? I spoke with so and so and while our conversation was helpful, I am not clear and would be glad for a reassurance.”

At that point, the only recourse you would have would be to ask Pope Francis personally since an appeal to the staff of the CDWDS about a Cardinal Member of the CDWDS is not going to be particularly useful or even particularly well received.

That would be my advice.
 
catholic03 said:
The Cardinal is a very humble man
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I remember that.

He seemed very plain spoken and not one to put on airs.

Perhaps you will have a chance to speak to him…to arrange to be at a Mass he celebrates and, afterward. see him outside or go to the sacristy or wherever his car is and could just tell him your concerns and that you sought a reassuring word from him. It is my impression he’d be receptive to that. I remember he was a seminary rector once upon a time…but then, of course, you would have the measure of the man far better than I.

Good wishes!
 
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phil19034 said:
The Cardinal is violating Church law by doing this. He does not have the authority to do this, nor is there a valid reason to do so.

The fact that he’s saying that Pope Francis has inspired him to break Church law is upsetting.
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How can you possibly know this, as a lay person living in the United States? The Cardinal is himself an official of the CDWDS; how can you presume you know that the Pope hasn’t given him the authority to do this?
 
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