M
Mintaka
Guest
First of all, the Church has always acknowledged that St. Mary Magdalene had the honor of being able to proclaim Christ’s Resurrection. In the East, she is in the category of missionary saints who are called “Equal to the Apostles” (ie, they did apostolic evangelical work but they weren’t apostles or bishops). In the West, it’s put different ways, but we have the same idea.
Second, people are not distinguishing clearly between “preach,” “teach,” “evangelize,” and “preaching a homily or sermon at Mass.” Historically, the Church has made clear distinctions about these things. Anybody can evangelize at need, even if only in their own families, although usually the Church calls those who will do it extensively. Anybody can teach the basics, and of course St. Paul commended St. Lois and St. Eunice for teaching Christianity to St. Timothy (as was their duty as his grandma and mom).
Preaching by anybody Catholic has generally been something you had to be taught and authorized to do. Not all priests were authorized to preach or have all the other faculties of a priest, although they could say Mass; this used to be called a priest “simplex”. Venerable Solanus Casey was such a man. On the other hand, Dominican friars who were not priests were authorized to preach publicly; it was part of their Order’s whole reason for being. Ordinary laypeople have also been authorized to preach publicly in the past, although this is reserved to preaching outside of Mass.
In the Middle Ages and up until recently, it was pretty common to have public preaching outside in the town square on market days. Often there was a sort of “revivalist circuit” where friars or priests of various orders (like the Precious Blood priests of de Bufalo, or St. Bernardine of Siena) would go around from town to town, preaching whatever was not being learned by people who didn’t go to Mass, didn’t get much catechetical training as kids, or who just didn’t pay much attention as adults. Famous preachers were often invited to town from other cities. People were always interested to have a little diversion, and many of these “revivals” were very successful in encouraging people to renew their faith.
(So if you ever wondered how St. Francis and St. Anthony were outside church and preaching to the birds, that’s why.)
But sometimes the lay preachers were just ordinary men and women who somehow got a grace of preaching, and were authorized by the local bishop to go out to the usual place in the square and do it. There’s a whole group of various young Italian girls in the Middle Ages who became saints as mystics and lay preachers in their towns or local area, and quite a few pious laymen who became saints for the same reason.
That said, there were also some notorious scandals caused by charismatic laypeople preachers who claimed authorization (often falsely), and who then proceeded to preach heresy. One of the most notorious cases was an alleged mystic who ended up preaching that she was the Holy Spirit, that she was therefore better than any priest, and that people should come to her “Masses” and then follow her and do her bidding. She amassed a pretty large following in one Italian town in the Middle Ages, and it took the Church a long time to deal with the problem. There was also the big controversy caused by Savonarola, which still is being argued out in the Church. This sort of thing cooled the bishops on normal laypeople as preachers, and the whole popular preacher thing in general.
However, it is the vocation of every Dominican friar, nun, and Third Order member to preach the Gospel, albeit not generally by formal public preaching. And there are other examples of this.
Second, people are not distinguishing clearly between “preach,” “teach,” “evangelize,” and “preaching a homily or sermon at Mass.” Historically, the Church has made clear distinctions about these things. Anybody can evangelize at need, even if only in their own families, although usually the Church calls those who will do it extensively. Anybody can teach the basics, and of course St. Paul commended St. Lois and St. Eunice for teaching Christianity to St. Timothy (as was their duty as his grandma and mom).
Preaching by anybody Catholic has generally been something you had to be taught and authorized to do. Not all priests were authorized to preach or have all the other faculties of a priest, although they could say Mass; this used to be called a priest “simplex”. Venerable Solanus Casey was such a man. On the other hand, Dominican friars who were not priests were authorized to preach publicly; it was part of their Order’s whole reason for being. Ordinary laypeople have also been authorized to preach publicly in the past, although this is reserved to preaching outside of Mass.
In the Middle Ages and up until recently, it was pretty common to have public preaching outside in the town square on market days. Often there was a sort of “revivalist circuit” where friars or priests of various orders (like the Precious Blood priests of de Bufalo, or St. Bernardine of Siena) would go around from town to town, preaching whatever was not being learned by people who didn’t go to Mass, didn’t get much catechetical training as kids, or who just didn’t pay much attention as adults. Famous preachers were often invited to town from other cities. People were always interested to have a little diversion, and many of these “revivals” were very successful in encouraging people to renew their faith.
(So if you ever wondered how St. Francis and St. Anthony were outside church and preaching to the birds, that’s why.)
But sometimes the lay preachers were just ordinary men and women who somehow got a grace of preaching, and were authorized by the local bishop to go out to the usual place in the square and do it. There’s a whole group of various young Italian girls in the Middle Ages who became saints as mystics and lay preachers in their towns or local area, and quite a few pious laymen who became saints for the same reason.
That said, there were also some notorious scandals caused by charismatic laypeople preachers who claimed authorization (often falsely), and who then proceeded to preach heresy. One of the most notorious cases was an alleged mystic who ended up preaching that she was the Holy Spirit, that she was therefore better than any priest, and that people should come to her “Masses” and then follow her and do her bidding. She amassed a pretty large following in one Italian town in the Middle Ages, and it took the Church a long time to deal with the problem. There was also the big controversy caused by Savonarola, which still is being argued out in the Church. This sort of thing cooled the bishops on normal laypeople as preachers, and the whole popular preacher thing in general.
However, it is the vocation of every Dominican friar, nun, and Third Order member to preach the Gospel, albeit not generally by formal public preaching. And there are other examples of this.