Priest Vesting as Deacons

[Facite]

From what I’ve seen, it is commonplace for priests to vest as deacons and subdeacons as needed for a High Mass. Is this normal? Can this also be done at a Novus Ordo Mass?

 

[YoungTradCath]

From what I’ve seen, it is commonplace for priests to vest as deacons and subdeacons as needed for a High Mass. Is this normal? Can this also be done at a Novus Ordo Mass?

Yes, it’s normal and can be done but, no, according to the Ceremonial (OF) it should not be done in the OF.

In the EF if you want somebody to do the functions of someone else, you have to dress as that person and be ordained to a higher office. So priests can function as deacons but and wear the dalmatic.

In the OF if you want somebody to do the functions of somebody else, you can do that, but you wear whatever you are supposed to wear for the highest office you hold. So a priest can sing the Gospel at a OF Mass, but he wears the chasuble.

 

[anixx]

From what I’ve seen, it is commonplace for priests to vest as deacons and subdeacons as needed for a High Mass. Is this normal? Can this also be done at a Novus Ordo Mass?

It’s not anymore, at least where novus ordo is in place. For example, a bishop was required to wear the signs of all three orders of the sacrament of priesthood. So, underneath the chasuble he would wear also a tunic (dalmatica), which is proper for deacons. It must have been very hot for a bishop in the hot summer days.
Before the liturgical reform, there was no concelebration, meaning that only one priest celebrated mass, not 50 like now. There we’re exceptions, though. At the episcopal mass, when the bishop celebrated mass with the entire clergy of his diocese, or in convents and seminaries, where the monks or the professors celebrated together. But never in a parish.
In the above cases, if there was no deacon or sub-deacon, then one of the priests would wear a dalmatica, and not a chasuble, and act as a deacon.

 

[Chatter163]

This is a feature of the Extraordinary Form, where it was and is common, especially in pre-V2 days, when there was no permanent diaconate. One simply did not have deacons and subdeacons waiting around to serve at Solemn Mass. Priests nearly always served in these roles. The rationale was that one remains a deacon, even after being ordained a priest. This is also why, at Pontifical Masses, the bishop wears a dalmatic and tunicle under his chasuble–to emphasize that the fullness of his episcopal orders include continued membership in the lower orders. The dalmatic and tunicle worn below are extremely thin (almost flimsy) material, very light weight.

In the post-V2 reforms, emphasis was placed in each order serving in its proper function. Consequently, all vested deacons are actually deacons.

 

[L_Marshall]

Before the liturgical reform, there was no concelebration, meaning that only one priest celebrated mass, not 50 like now. There we’re exceptions, though. At the episcopal mass, when the bishop celebrated mass with the entire clergy of his diocese, or in convents and seminaries, where the monks or the professors celebrated together. But never in a parish.

A brief correction: There is no concelebration in the Extraordinary Form, except in the following two cases:

1. 
   *]A bishop ordains priests, then the bishop celebrates the Canon of the Mass (speaking the words out loud), and the newly ordained priests concelebrate (quietly). The newly ordained priests only receive Holy Communion under one kind: the Precious Blood is reserved to the bishop.
   *]A bishop ordains a new bishop. The newly ordained bishop celebrates the Mass, and the concecrating bishops concelebrate quietly.