What is the thinking which allows concelebrated Masses?

[Lepanto]

They used to be forbidden (so I understand).

Why were they forbidden in the first place?

How is it now that they are acceptable?

 

[Aramis]

They used to be forbidden (so I understand).

Why were they forbidden in the first place?

How is it now that they are acceptable?

Don’t know why they were forbidden, but the original liturgies were celebrated by the Bishops, with priests as lesser concelebrants, much liker the hierarchical liturgies.

Even when priestly concelebration was outlawed in the Roman Church, the Hierarchical liturgy STILL was concelebrated. So properly, concelebration was never outlawed, merely restricted.

Even then, the priests were allowed to celebrate as their lesser ordinations: as deacon and subdeacon and thus fulfill their daily mass obligation.

In the Eastern Churches in Union, concelebration was and still is normative.

 

[AJV]

Don’t know why they were forbidden, but the original liturgies were celebrated by the Bishops, with priests as lesser concelebrants, much liker the hierarchical liturgies.

Even when priestly concelebration was outlawed in the Roman Church, the Hierarchical liturgy STILL was concelebrated. So properly, concelebration was never outlawed, merely restricted.

Even then, the priests were allowed to celebrate as their lesser ordinations: as deacon and subdeacon and thus fulfill their daily mass obligation.

I’m not sure whether you were talking about the Roman church here, but on Munday Thursday (which I presume is what you were referring to) there was no sacramental concelebration as such. The only sacramental concelebration for many years in the Roman liturgy was that at ordinations.

There was no daily Mass obligation unless by local legislation - and for all obligations to say Mass, the priest was required to celebrate a Mass, instead of merely assisting.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Concelebration existed in Eastern liturgies all the time.

 

[palmas85]

I hear repeatedly in these forums about these parishes that have thousands of people at each Mass thus necesitating extraordinary ministers by the gaggle. Why not dump the concelebrations, have each Priest say his own Mass, cut down on the size of the congregations and get things moving in the right direction once again?.

If we are as desperately short of priests as is often claimed then concelebration seems something that is ill timed at best and totally unnecessary and possibly even abusive at worst.

 

[SMHW]

If we are as desperately short of priests as is often claimed then concelebration seems something that is ill timed at best and totally unnecessary and possibly even abusive at worst.

I have never been to a parish that had concelebrated Masses for normal Sunday Masses. They are usually for special occasions such as solemnities and feasts, when some parishioner has a priest relative visiting, for confirmations, and the like.

 

[Formosus]

I hear repeatedly in these forums about these parishes that have thousands of people at each Mass thus necesitating extraordinary ministers by the gaggle. Why not dump the concelebrations, have each Priest say his own Mass, cut down on the size of the congregations and get things moving in the right direction once again?.

If we are as desperately short of priests as is often claimed then concelebration seems something that is ill timed at best and totally unnecessary and possibly even abusive at worst.

Not every latin parish has more then one priest.

 

[lak611]

I hear repeatedly in these forums about these parishes that have thousands of people at each Mass thus necesitating extraordinary ministers by the gaggle. Why not dump the concelebrations, have each Priest say his own Mass, cut down on the size of the congregations and get things moving in the right direction once again?.

If we are as desperately short of priests as is often claimed then concelebration seems something that is ill timed at best and totally unnecessary and possibly even abusive at worst.

Wouldn’t concelebrated Masses cut down on the use of EMHCs if there were more Ordinary Ministers present at the Masses?

 

[Sarabande]

I have never been to a parish that had concelebrated Masses for normal Sunday Masses. They are usually for special occasions such as solemnities and feasts, when some parishioner has a priest relative visiting, for confirmations, and the like.

That’s when I’ve seen concelebrated masses. I’ve also seen it for weddings and funerals if the couple or the deceased had family or close friends who are priests. One wedding mass I cantored had, I think, 4 priests concelebrating. (It might have been more, but it was at least four. It has been a while since this wedding mass was done.)

I’ve never attended a regular Sunday Mass which was concelebrated.

 

[japhy]

My wedding Mass was concelebrated by my brother (principal celebrant), the pastor of the church we got married at, and another priest from that church with whom I had a personal connection.

Holy Thursday Mass is customarily concelebrated… although the concelebrants sit down after receiving Communion and don’t distribute.

Concelebration “appropriately expresses the unity of the priesthood, of the Sacrifice, and also of the whole People of God” (GIRM 199).

Documents on the Liturgy 222-226 are the primary documents concerning concelebration. These are, in particular:
222. SC RITES (Consilium), Decree Ecclesiae semper, promulgating the editio typica of the rites of concelebration and of communion under both kinds, 7 March 1965: AAS 57 (1965) 410-412.

1. SC RITES (Consilium), Rite of Concelebration, Introduction, 7 March 1965: Vatican Polyglot Press, 1965, 13-18.
2. SC RITES, Reply (Zamora, Mexico), on concelebration at the ordination of priets, 26 November 1965: Not 2 (1966) 184.
3. SC COUNCIL, Reply to the SC Rites, on a query regarding the stipend for a concelebrated Mass, 18 April 1966: Not 2 (1966) 330.
4. SC DIVINE WORSHIP, Declaration In celebratione Missae, on concelebration, 7 August 1972: AAS 64 (1972) 561-563; Not 8 (1972) 327-329.
   But the documents don’t deeply explain the “thinking” for broadening the permission and devising a new rite for it.

 

[Sarabande]

My wedding Mass was concelebrated by my brother (principal celebrant), the pastor of the church we got married at, and another priest from that church with whom I had a personal connection.

Was this the same wedding that I was cantoring? LOL
That was a beautiful mass, actually. But yours sounded like it was also beautiful and spiritually meaningful - especially having your brother there.

Holy Thursday Mass is customarily concelebrated… although the concelebrants sit down after receiving Communion and don’t distribute.

Yeah, I don’t understand that when I see it happen.

 

[japhy]

Was this the same wedding that I was cantoring? That was a beautiful mass, actually. But yours sounded like it was also beautiful and spiritually meaningful - especially having your brother there.

Actually, my sister was the cantor at that Mass. And yes, it was a beautiful and meaningful Mass on more than one level.

Yeah, I don’t understand that when I see it happen.

I would have thought it as merely odd, if I hadn’t recently read Redemptionis Sacramentum before that time, from which I remembered this nugget: “The practice of those Priests is reprobated who, even though present at the celebration, abstain from distributing Communion and hand this function over to laypersons.” (n. 157)

 

[benedictgal]

In my diocese, the Chrism Mass is always concelebrated by the bishop and his presbyters, as is the case all over the world. This is the time when the bishop unites with his priests, since the Chrism Mass, along with containing the ceremony for the blessing of the oils, is also the time when the priests renew their promises in the presence of their bishop.

At the Cathedral, the rector would always concelebrate the big feasts with the bishop, including Palm Sunday, Triduum and Christmas. Other liturgies which feature concelebration include the Red Mass for lawyers, the White Mass for Healthcare Professionals and the presbyterial and diaconate ordinations.

In my parish, my pastor and parochial vicar concelebrate during Triduum. Neither of them abdicates his responsibilities when it comes to distributing Holy Communion. In fact, our deacon is present for the entire Triduum.

I have been to the local Priory of St. John and all of the priests concelebrate during Triduum (there are about four or five of them). Because the number of faithful is small, only two of them distribute Holy Communion.

 

[palmas85]

Wouldn’t concelebrated Masses cut down on the use of EMHCs if there were more Ordinary Ministers present at the Masses?

Why would it? They normally don’t distribute anyway. At least at all I’ve been to except Charism Masses.

 

[lak611]

Why would it? They normally don’t distribute anyway. At least at all I’ve been to except Charism Masses.

At every concelebrated Mass I have been to, each priest did distribute the Eucharist.

 

[Tsuwano]

Personally I find concelebrated masses confusing and unnecessary. Only one celebrant is needed to perform the sacrifice of the mass, so it seems to me that having more than one at the altar is a distraction. Sometimes I wonder if it is merely an ego trip on the part of some priests who somehow disdain sitting in the pews with the regular crowd. Of course, I recognize there may be a need for more than one priest to help distribute communion or a special occasion that calls for concelebration, but I have been to some masses where the number of concelebrants outnumbers the number of people in the pews. In this age of declining vocations, I sometimes want to ask those priests if there isn’t a chapel in a hospital or a mission church in the countryside that could use his presence instead.

 

[otjm]

The only time I see a concelebrated Mass on Sunday is when I go to the local Trappist abbey; all of the monk priests concelebrate that Mass. And there are no EMHCs; two of the priests present the Cup, and the main celebrant distirubtes the Host.

Other than that, and the Chrism Mass, the concelebrated Masses are primarlily funerals, and occasionally a wedding.

I take that back: we had a visiting priest concelebrate one Sunday; he was up from California visiting his daughter, who lives in our parish, and was leaving to return to California right after Mass.

 

[Sarabande]

One of the most interesting masses I ever attended was one where they make monsigneurs, etc. It’s too late for me to think of the actual name of the mass and the proper description of this. (My mind is a bit mushy at 2:00 am, and I really should get to bed, but my husband is away this weekend with my Dad and I have a hard time sleeping when he’s not here. Silly me!) Almost the entire Cathedral was filled with priests from every parish. When they were at the consecration, every priest in the entire cathedral joined in. It was a massive concelebration. It actually was pretty amazing and very powerful. And obviously, there were no Extraordinary Ministers at that mass. If there were, that would have been very strange indeed.

 

[benedictgal]

Sarabande, you should have caught the papal Mass this morning (live at 2:30AM CDT). It was beautiful and the music was magnificent.

Not having seen a Mass broadcast from St. Paul’s outside the Walls, I must say that the basilica is beautiful.

And yes, it was a concelebrated Mass that included all of the Fathers of the Synod on the Word of God. The two concelebrants who were at the altar with the Holy Father were George Cardinal Pell and William Cardinal Levada and each recited his portion of the Memorial in Latin. I also caught a glimpse of Archbishop Raymond Burke. Concelebration of this kind is impressive because the Holy Father has gathered a huge section of the Episcopal College to himself.

 

[Claire_from_DE]

I just got home from my diocesan charismatic conference. Friday night the bishop was the main celebrant and the other priests attending concelebrated with him.There were also two deacons. What a demonstration of unity!

Priests attending the conference are invited to concelebrate. Usually there aren’t many because of weekend obligations in the parishes. On Sunday, a priest from Kenya presently stationed in Houston, TX was visiting in the area and joined us.

All the priests and the deacons gave communion.