Is a Protestant Minister Allowed to Say a Homily

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catholic03

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Hello

About a week and a half ago, I went to Mass when on holiday. The priest said a very good Mass. However, as part of an “Ecumenical Exchange” a Protestant Minister gave the homily and said blessings. The priest did not speak but he also did give blessings.

Is this permitted in the rubrics?

God Bless!
 
I have a feeling the Bishop did not give permission. The city I attended Mass at has about 50,000 people and so the Cathedral of the Diocese is about 3 hours away in another city.
 
We can never be too sure and should give the pastor the benefit of the doubt. Usually the bishop delegates his authority in cases like this to his Vicar in charge of the Liturgy office for these sort of requests. All it would require would be the pastor to send an email to the Liturgy office before the event asking for permission and stating why. My parish was about five and a half hours from the cathedral and we still got special dispensations and rulings on liturgy turned around within a week or two.

Ecumenical services which include masses are usually closely overseen by the diocese, no matter where they are held. It is a safe bet that yes, the diocese knew about the guest homilist.
 
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Yikes. I don’t know specifically whether it is licit, but it is certainly imprudent and unorthodox. Also, how could a Protestant minister give blessings in the first place??

Very poorly advised. The ideal ecumenism is Catholics speaking “you-come-in-ism” to everyone else!
 
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Then I can assure you that there was diocesan involvement. Preaching in a non-Catholic house of worship is normally a big no-no for priests and is only allowed with special permission from the bishop. If both of these happened, then it couldn’t have been a simple mistaken usage of pastoral licence. At least one of the priests would have realized the canon law requirements which were drummed into their heads during seminary.
 
catholic03 said:
Is this permitted in the rubrics?
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No. This was made clear in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the 1993 Ecumencial Directory and, just for good measure, was repeated by the the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in their document “Some Questions Regarding Collaboration of Nonordained Faithful in Priests’ Sacred Ministry.”

The homily is a function reserved to priests or deacons in virtue of having received the Sacrament of Holy Orders - in other words, an exercise of their munus docendi or teaching office. Confusion often arises however from the fact that others are allowed (with permission) to preach in a church or oratory - in other words, a liturgical and other functions outside of mass but this is different from the homily.

Sadly, I’ve likewise known priests to allow a non-Catholic minister to give the homily as part of an ecumenical exchange or pulpit swap. In such cases, the priests who do this are coming too close for comfort to concelebration with the other ministers - something which is treated extremely seriously. Just to be clear, I’m not saying that allowing a non-Catholic minister to preach the homily (or even participate in giving the final blessing) crosses this line, just that it comes too close for comfort to something which should be steered well clear of.
 
Not as far as I know. Pretty sure only presbyters (priests), deacons, and bishops are supposed to preach.
 
Didn’t we already have a thread on this? And the times when a person not a Priest or Deacon could give a homily? I am trying to find it to link to this thread
 
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Thank you Father. I was really worried about this. Looks like the parish shouldn’t have done that. Here in New Zealand the Church is very lay person run and so many decisions are probably made without permission of people who know about these things.
 
catholic03 said:
I have a feeling the Bishop did not give permission. The city I attended Mass at has about 50,000 people and so the Cathedral of the Diocese is about 3 hours away in another city.
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That has little to do with it. The pastor could always just call or email the bishop.
 
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