Wedding Mass

[hcruz402]

For my fellow Latin-Rite Catholics, I have a question.

In a Catholic wedding Mass, if both a priest and a deacon are present, then is a deacon allowed to BOTH give the homily, as well as perform the marriage rite (i.e., witness the vows, etc.)? I know that in a ceremony, where if it was just the priest/deacon present, then clearly, he can do both. However, I am asking about how it works when there is both the priest and the deacon present.

For the record, I am NOT getting married right now, NOR DO I intend to get married, in the future (for personal reasons that I will not to go into, plus, I do not feel as if God is calling me to the Vocation of Marriage). I am just a curious person, concerning liturgical/sacramental matters.

Pax Vobiscum,
Herbert Cruz

 

[frizzgrig]

The practical answer is: it depends on the bishop. Some bishops allows the deacon in such a situation (assisting at a nuptial Mass) to receive the consent, others require the priest celebrant of the Mass to receive the consent.

Allowing the deacon to preach the homily is always at the discretion of the priest celebrant if the deacon has faculties to preach. At a nuptial Mass, the homily is usually tailored to the couple and so is often (normally) given by the priest or deacon who prepared the couple for the sacrament.

 

[1ke]

As noted above, yes it’s possible and there are many variables.

In our case, my DH and I lived in different states prior to marriage. We married in my parish. One of my deacons did the marriage preparation. My DH’s family has a priest-friend who is an elderly, retired priest and we wanted to invite him and include him in the wedding but not have the complexity of him signing the marriage paperwork nor any issues with it getting filed, since he was from out of state.

So we opted for our deacon to receive the exchange of consent, and he also preached the homily. The priest-friend celebrated the Mass.