Who may preach the homily at Mass

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We laity do have a right to be concerned with what goes on in the church. Plus, I did not ask anyone to condemn this abbot. I believe this is more than likely to be a straightforward matter. A clergy woman from a non-Catholic Christian ecclesial community is permitted to give the homily at Mass or is not. I could have asked the question without giving any context.
 
Since no one on this thread was there IN PERSON, and you are just relating second (or third) hand information; we do not know what transpired, nor the circumstances under which it transpired, nor the motivation behind what transpired.

If you are not willing to speak to the abbot, then no one on this thread will have any more information than when this discussion first started.

ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL - do you really think that an abbot would do something deliberately disobedient and harmful to the Church? I don’t either.

So, if you can’t let it go - get the information first hand by speaking to the abbot or visiting the monastery. If you don’t want to do that, my advice would be to let it go. Pray for the abbot, for the monastery, and for your own peace.

I am quite sure that you know that only an ordained, Catholic cleric can give the homily at Mass. Even when Protestant ministers are invited to participate, the priest or deacon gives at least a super-short homily first to satisfy the requirement. Visiting ministers would speak after the official homily or at a different time during Mass.

Do you attend services at this monastery? Retreats? Support the monks? Do you know any of the monks you could visit?

Please know that Holy Mother Church doesn’t hand out rings and croziers and miters to any old monk. To be elected abbot is for the holiest of the monks.

Deacon Christopher
 
TomH1 said:
I agree that is a potential source of error. However, this community does, it states exist, to reach out to Protestants. The abbot has also accepted the post of canon at their local Anglican cathedral.
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That’s interesting. It would seem like Dovekin’s post about the norms of 119 might apply then.
If you happen to speak to the Abbot or any of the monks, I’d be interested to hear what they said.
Not in a sense of condemning anyone, I am genuinely curious.
 
Diaconia said:
I am quite sure that you know that only an ordained, Catholic cleric can give the homily at Mass. Even when Protestant ministers are invited to participate, the priest or deacon gives at least a super-short homily first to satisfy the requirement. Visiting ministers would speak after the official homily or at a different time during Mass.
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Yes. I think this happens more often than people think. I have been at several Masses where the priest (it’s generally the pastor) delivers a short homily (perhaps only two or three sentences) and then turns the time over to someone who is not a cleric to speak.

It may be irregular to have someone speak right after the homily rather than at some other time during the Mass, but since the homily already took place, the next speaker would not be giving one.
 
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TomH1 said:
A clergy woman from a non-Catholic Christian ecclesial community is permitted to give the homily at Mass or is not.
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Canon law should not be used this way. It exists only in a trasition of interpretation and administration that affects how it is applied. Below is an excerpt from the Preface to the Latin edition of the Code of Canon Law. The answer to many questions has to be modified by traditions and customs. That is why it is not a question that can be fully answered without some knowledge of circumstances.

The community where this happened sounds like they have a good knowledge of relations with non-Catholic churches. Most of the monks are probably familiar with the principles of ecumenism. Talk to one of them if you want to understand the situation.
To foster the pastoral care of souls as much as possible, the new law, besides the virtue of justice, is to take cognizance of charity, temperance, humaneness and moderation, whereby equity is to be pursued not only in the application of the laws by pastors of souls but also in the legislation itself.

Hence unduly rigid norms are to be set aside and rather recourse is to be taken to exhortations and persuasions where there is no need of a strict observance of the law on account of the public good and general ecclesiastical discipline.
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I have been at a mass where a nun gave a homily. Her message was the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 was actually just that the people shared…,

I was scandalised by the whole episode
 
“Just read an account”

I would not place too much import on this. We hear and read innumerable things. Maybe 0.0001% apply to us. As to who can preach:
  1. Priest (Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Monsignor, Parish or holy order Priest)
  2. Deacon.
 
Diaconia said:
I am quite sure that you know that only an ordained, Catholic cleric can give the homily at Mass.
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No, I did not know. That is why I posed my original question. I most certainly did not post it to generate some kind of argument. However, I shall learn from this. In future, if I shall post a question I will provide no context or example but ask the question straight.
Diaconia said:
Please know that Holy Mother Church doesn’t hand out rings and croziers and miters to any old monk.
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This is something I would not have had to ask about. Communities elect their own abbots; they do not get appointed by some higher authority in the Church.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
If you happen to speak to the Abbot or any of the monks, I’d be interested to hear what they said.
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I do intend to ask. Given the time of year there may be a little delay in this. I hope the thread does not expire (after 14 days) or get closed prior to me obtaining the answer from the abbot.
 
Kind of half right.

If your “absolutely false” is aimed at my quote from the Preface to the Latin edition of the Code, then that is beyond my competence to decide. Why would you dispute it?

If it is aimed at my comments, you could be right. I was applying knowledge gained in another context to this particular issue. It is easy to make mistakes. Scripture and Tradition come to us through the Magisterium, so I figured that Canon Law also is interpreted by the Magisterium.

Other than those issues, I agree with you. Mostly.
 
Greetings in Christ, the Deacon, Priest, or Bishop can preach the Homily. Anyone else wishing to preach the Homily must receive a dispensation from the diocesan Bishop. If a lay person preaches the homily without a dispensation, I believe that would always be considered illicit and therefore a liturgical abuse. I’m not sure if a non-Catholic may preach as Mass.

Here is some information which discuses Cannon Law on this matter. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-te...mplementary-norms/canon-766-lay-preaching.cfm
God love you.
 
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There was a period of time when the message of ‘sharing’ was heard pretty consistently for a few years in the Great Northeast USA. . .

At the same time there was also renaming of John the Baptist to “John the Baptizer”. Any other elders remember this? I was told that it was done because people were getting confused and thinking the original Christians were Baptists (I know. I did a 'wha??? then too). And during Lent the parish priests drained the Holy water fonts and put sand in them “to represent the desert people go through”. Also “Mary did you know” became popular in Christmas Masses. Labyrinths were popular and so were fire pits to celebrate burning the solstice log.

Yep, it was a wild and crazy time. Still pockets existing where these and other wonderful things like for confessions we were told to write down our 'biggest problem --‘sin’ was too ‘harsh’. Struggle was another code word–on a piece of paper and then Father brought them to a bowl and set them all on fire. Then he ‘saged’ the church to help bring out the healing spirits. And remember this was in the Great Northeast not the American Southwest. . .

And heck, anybody could speak at Mass because, "We are all priests, prophets and kings as God’s holy Easter People. . .but don’t tell the bishop! Now let’s hear Nancy and Susan talk about a special series of classes at the Prism Theology Park on channeling our spirit guides. . .
 
Yes, some churches had labyrinths. In Europe. In the Middle Ages. Here in the USA though there weren’t so many, especially not in the average diocese church as opposed to say some churches that belonged to particular orders. . .not until the 1970s when they, along with fire pits and the above practices and others became rather popular. Strangely enough things like processions, which were even more popular in the Middle Ages than labyrinths and which were also extremely popular in the US through the 1950s or so became, um, much LESS from the 1970s through relatively recently.
 
The Church has long held that a labyrinth can be akin to a pilgrimage.
You make not like them, but your post makes it seem like some kind of new-aged thing that crept in. Nothing could be further from the truth, which is why I posted about Chartes.
 
stpurl said:
Labyrinths were popular and so were fire pits to celebrate burning the solstice log.
Yep, it was a wild and crazy time.
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Fire pits! How could such a crazy thing have happened?
In a suitable place outside the Church, a “blazing fire” ( rogus ardens ) is to be prepared so that the people may gather around it and experience the flames dispelling the darkness and lighting up the night. Thus do the beauty of the fire, its warmth and its light, draw the liturgical assembly together. The rubrics, however, acknowledge that when this cannot be done adaptations may be made. (Rubrics for the Easter Vigil 8)
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A lot of things that had not been seen in mainstream US churches became popular in the 1970s on. I merely listed them. Personally I think labyrinths are beautiful. There is no denying that, along with other practices, they were used at the same time period in the same place (the US) by those who were ‘New Age’ but I don’t condemn labyrinths themselves. As I’m sure you realize, the INTENT behind any practice or any tradition etc is what matters. Thankfully in most places the intent behind any and all the above has been ‘refined’ to a more orthodox understanding. I think you said you’re around my age (early 60s) so I think you also might have seen a great many more ambiguous and even syncretal practices 40 years ago than you see today. That’s why I said that in most places the problems are dying out BUT you can still find a few die-hard people (clergy and lay) who make no bones about being still in the Age of Aquarius and are adamant that the Church today is full of rigidity instead of all those happy times when (like too many sisters then and now) the Church had gone ‘beyond Jesus’ to a cosmic oneness.
 
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