Wednesday Liturgy: Lector in an Irregular Relationship
ROME, DEC. 20, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University.
Q: It is liturgically permissible for a person who has married outside the Church to be appointed as a reader at Sunday Mass? The person concerned had been granted an annulment of a previous marriage and desired to be married in the Church. Unfortunately her husband who was not a Catholic refused to seek an annulment of his previous marriage. This is a sensitive pastoral issue; it is understood that readers should be in good standing. Does the parish priest have some discretion in such a matter? -- K.O., Christchurch, New Zealand
A: We must take several things into account. A person who has married outside the Church with a proper dispensation is not impeded from acting as a reader or any similar ministry.
Acting as a minister, however, is also a sign of communion and fidelity. And so, the person who carries out this ministry should be in good standing with the Church.
Therefore a general rule of thumb could be that a person whose personal state impedes his or her habitual reception of Communion should not act in any public role in the liturgical assembly.
Given the public nature of the ministry, however, there may be cases when it is not prudent for a person to act in a ministry even if not impeded from receiving Communion.
Thus we may apply to readers and servers what the 1973 instruction "Immensae Caritatis" says regarding the choice of an extraordinary minister: The choice "should never fall upon a person whose designation could cause astonishment to the faithful."
The priest does have certain discretion, not regarding the accession to a ministry of a person who is impeded from receiving Communion, but with respect to the prudent admission of a non-impeded person whose designation may cause perplexity for publicly known reasons.
I do not have sufficient elements to form a judgment regarding the specific case at hand. An experienced canonist could gauge the possibilities of regularizing the marriage without the husband having to recur to an annulment process.
If this can be done, and the wife is once more free to receive Communion, then, before admitting her to a public ministry, it falls upon the priest to weigh such questions as to the notoriety and gravity of the case and the likely reaction of the faithful.
Q: It is liturgically permissible for a person who has married outside the Church to be appointed as a reader at Sunday Mass? The person concerned had been granted an annulment of a previous marriage and desired to be married in the Church. Unfortunately her husband who was not a Catholic refused to seek an annulment of his previous marriage. This is a sensitive pastoral issue; it is understood that readers should be in good standing. Does the parish priest have some discretion in such a matter? -- K.O., Christchurch, New Zealand
A: We must take several things into account. A person who has married outside the Church with a proper dispensation is not impeded from acting as a reader or any similar ministry.
Acting as a minister, however, is also a sign of communion and fidelity. And so, the person who carries out this ministry should be in good standing with the Church.
Therefore a general rule of thumb could be that a person whose personal state impedes his or her habitual reception of Communion should not act in any public role in the liturgical assembly.
Given the public nature of the ministry, however, there may be cases when it is not prudent for a person to act in a ministry even if not impeded from receiving Communion.
Thus we may apply to readers and servers what the 1973 instruction "Immensae Caritatis" says regarding the choice of an extraordinary minister: The choice "should never fall upon a person whose designation could cause astonishment to the faithful."
The priest does have certain discretion, not regarding the accession to a ministry of a person who is impeded from receiving Communion, but with respect to the prudent admission of a non-impeded person whose designation may cause perplexity for publicly known reasons.
I do not have sufficient elements to form a judgment regarding the specific case at hand. An experienced canonist could gauge the possibilities of regularizing the marriage without the husband having to recur to an annulment process.
If this can be done, and the wife is once more free to receive Communion, then, before admitting her to a public ministry, it falls upon the priest to weigh such questions as to the notoriety and gravity of the case and the likely reaction of the faithful.
posted by Chipi Buenafe at
9:11 AM
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