Lay Consecration?

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Tempest

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I was talking with a friend yesterday about declining vocations, and he has come to the conclusion that eventually the Church will run out of priests in certain areas, and will have to allow laypeople to perform the consecration themselves. This sounds very odd to me, and I really can’t envision it happening. If areas do run out of priests though, could this become necessary and licit?
 
Only ordained priests are capable of consecrating the Eucharist.
 
Holy Mother Church is not capable of allowing lay people to confect the Eucharist. It is a matter of spiritual lineage, set into place by Christ Our Lord.

If the time comes that there is a great lack of Priests, then those who are ordained will be very busy. Our Lord can be transported - with great care and respect - by lay people, as in the ministries to the sick. Perhaps that will be further opened in terrible circumstances.

However, please do not forget that Our Lord has promised He will always be with us.

And do not be afraid for the “what ifs” and “maybes” of this world. God is all-powerful and can move mountains without any effort.

And, please consider that it is our duty, as the lay congregation, to pray fervently for vocations. And for parents to discern and encourage their children to seriously consider the priesthood and other vocations. Without our efforts, this presently-speculated possibility could become a reality.

Pray. Discern. Encourage. And trust in the Lord.

Your friend and brother in Christ,
Michael-Mary
 
Tempest said:
I was talking with a friend yesterday about declining vocations, and he has come to the conclusion that eventually the Church will run out of priests in certain areas, and will have to allow laypeople to perform the consecration themselves. This sounds very odd to me, and I really can’t envision it happening. If areas do run out of priests though, could this become necessary and licit?
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A layperson performing the consecration will result in no change to the bread and wine— the elements will Not become the Body and Blood of our Saviour.
 
Tempest said:
I was talking with a friend yesterday about declining vocations, and he has come to the conclusion that eventually the Church will run out of priests in certain areas, and will have to allow laypeople to perform the consecration themselves. This sounds very odd to me, and I really can’t envision it happening. If areas do run out of priests though, could this become necessary and licit?
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If some areas run out of priests, other areas that have priests will do what they have done for millenia: Send out missionaries. You are right, that is an odd idea, and it won’t do any good, as others have already pointed out.
 
Tempest said:
I was talking with a friend yesterday about declining vocations, and he has come to the conclusion that eventually the Church will run out of priests in certain areas, and will have to allow laypeople to perform the consecration themselves. This sounds very odd to me, and I really can’t envision it happening. If areas do run out of priests though, could this become necessary and licit?
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I think some heretical Dominicans just got slapped down in the Netherlands for pushing that idea.
 
Joe_Kelley said:
I think some heretical Dominicans just got slapped down in the Netherlands for pushing that idea.
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There was an article about that in an issue of Chiesa Magazine.
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/170066?eng=y

Here is, in part, some of the more interesting tidbits:
It’s preferred to give creativity free rein. ***No kidding. Talk about inserting a communal idiosyncracy and masking it as something legitmate! :eek: *** The words of consecration are often replaced during the Mass by “expressions easier to understand and more in tune with modern faith experience.” In the substitute rite, it often happens that non-consecrated hosts are added among the consecrated hosts, and all of them are distributed together for communion.
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Within these practices, the Dutch Dominicans distinguish three widespread expectations:
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– that men and women be selected “from below” to preside over the Eucharistic celebration;
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– that, ideally, “this choice would be followed by a confirmation or blessing or ordination by Church authority”; Not under Pope Benedict’s watch!
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– that the words of consecration “could be pronounced both by those who preside in the Eucharist and by the community from which they take their origin.” ***Obviously, the Dutch didn’t get their copy of Redemptionis Sacramentum! :eek: ***
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In the view of the Dutch Dominicans, these ***three expectations are well grounded in Vatican Council II. ***
***Arrgh! Here’s the ugly spectre of the Spirit of Vatican II. :eek: ***
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The decisive action by the Council, in their judgment, was that of placing the chapter on the “people of God” before the one on the “hierarchical organisation built up from top downwards by the pope and the bishops” within the constitution on the Church.
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This implies the replacement of a “pyramidal” Church with an “organic” Church, with the initiative belonging to the laity.
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This is one very, very bad example of how the Spirit of Vatican II does not match what the Council actually said.

Pope John XXIII said that he had hoped that a new springtime would emerge from the Council. As much as I love and admire good Pope John, he obviously was not a Texan. Anyone from Texas can tell you that with spring time comes an onslaught of severe weather, which includes thunderstorms and tornadic activity. If I were a meteorologist (not one, but I took a year of meteorolgy at UT), I would classify what the Domincans were doing in Holland as equivalent to an F-5 tornado (on this scale, F-5 is the one that inflicts the most damage).

This kind of liturgical mess requires the equivalent of an Apostolic FEMA team to fix and soon. I am most curious as to the reaction of Francis Cardinal Arinze. It is very sad that the Order that produced St. Thomas Aquainas and St. Anthony of Padua would sink to that level of complete and absurd banality.
 
Tempest said:
I was talking with a friend yesterday about declining vocations, and he has come to the conclusion that eventually the Church will run out of priests in certain areas, and will have to allow laypeople to perform the consecration themselves. This sounds very odd to me, and I really can’t envision it happening. If areas do run out of priests though, could this become necessary and licit?
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No, not possible.

What may have to happen is someone may have to travel 2 or 3 hours to receive the Eucharist once or twice a year. Or someone from the priestless parish will have to travel 2 or 3 hours to get the Eucharist at a Mass and bring Blessed Sacrament back to be reserved in the local tabernacle. This might need to happen once or twice a month. Or a traveling priest covering 20 or 25 parishes might stop by once a month to say Mass.
 
Tempest said:
I was talking with a friend yesterday about declining vocations, and he has come to the conclusion that eventually the Church will run out of priests in certain areas, and will have to allow laypeople to perform the consecration themselves. This sounds very odd to me, and I really can’t envision it happening. If areas do run out of priests though, could this become necessary and licit?
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Wow, your friend needs to go back to Sacraments 101.

No, a layperson is incapable of consecrating the Eucharist. That **requires **Holy Orders.

If we ‘run out’ of priests we will be without the Eucharist.
 
One of my favorite movies, Lilies of the Field was filmed in 1963. Even back then it was common to have “traveling priests” in the boondocks.
 
Your friend has a very big imagination…That is the only way I can charitably describe the conclusion they have come to. ONLY validly ordained Priest can consecrate…No exceptions…it will never become valid or licit…Not a possibility. Don’t have such little Faith…Christ will provide for his Church…we will weather this storm…just like all others that come our way.
Tempest said:
I was talking with a friend yesterday about declining vocations, and he has come to the conclusion that eventually the Church will run out of priests in certain areas, and will have to allow laypeople to perform the consecration themselves. This sounds very odd to me, and I really can’t envision it happening. If areas do run out of priests though, could this become necessary and licit?
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THurifer2 said:
Yeah…places like Lincoln will send missionaries to places like Saginaw…to introduce the Gospel to the Locals.😉
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What in the world are you trying to say? Your smiley face does not change the insult you make to the many loyal members of that diocese.
 
Note that the simulation of a sacrament is automatic interdict - barring from sacraments.
Can. 1378 §1. A priest who acts against the prescript of ⇒ can. 977 incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
§2. The following incur a latae sententiae penalty of interdict or, if a cleric, a latae sententiae penalty of suspension:
1/ a person who attempts the liturgical action of the Eucharistic sacrifice though not promoted to the sacerdotal order;
2/ apart from the case mentioned in §1, a person who, though unable to give sacramental absolution validly, attempts to impart it or who hears sacramental confession.
§3. In the cases mentioned in §2, other penalties, not excluding excommunication, can be added according to the gravity of the delict.
Can. 1379 In addition to the cases mentioned in ⇒ can. 1378, a person who simulates the administration of a sacrament is to be punished with a just penalty.
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jimmie said:
What in the world are you trying to say? Your smiley face does not change the insult you make to the many loyal members of that diocese.
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So very true. I am sure there are a large number of devout Catholics, both clerical and laity in the Diocese of Saginaw.

I get a little inward grin when I see others here preach the heroic wonderfulness of Bp. Bruskewitz. He certainly seems like a good bishop and a nice guy. With a total of 89,000 Catholics in his entire (and father homogeneous) diocese however, he has never faced the challenges of someone like O’Malley in Boston, George in Chicago or Mahony in Los Angeles. He does get a decent amount of face-time on EWTN though.

While Archbishop of Omaha (432,000) is certainly not the same as Boston, Chicago or LA, it will be interesting to see if. Bp. Bruskewitz is ever given that level of responsibility.
 
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