We didn’t have a lot of Masses when I was overseas, lack of Priests I guess, but we did have a lot of Ecumenical services. They would manage to bring up a Priest before we went on a large scale operations not for a Mass but a kind of communal penance ceremony. Lots of non Catholics at those as well.
In my free time, I decided to look through, CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM.
One thing that everyone should read, before they begin to cut and paste various portions to support their arguments is the
Introduction of this document. Read it all!
The bishop is to be considered as the high priest of his flock, from whom the life in Christ of his faithful is in some way derived and dependent.
Therefore all should hold in great esteem the liturgical life of the diocese centered around the bishop, especially in his cathedral church; they must be convinced that the pre-eminent manifestation of the Church consists in the full active participation of all God’s holy people in these liturgical celebrations, especially in the same eucharist, in a single prayer, at one altar, at which there presides the bishop surrounded by his college of priests and by his ministers (35).
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