Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the diocese of Palm Beach has now issued his "reopening" protocols. Since they are quite detailed, I started a separate thread for them.
1. As of Monday, May 18, the churches in the Diocese of Palm Beach will be open for private prayer and visits by the faithful. Chapels, because of their limited capacity, will remain closed. Each parish will determine what hours during the day the church will be open. Personal appointments for the Sacrament of Reconciliation will still be available, but each parish may also set up an appointed time for the hearing of confessions within the church. Special rooms will be set up for this and, as in all visits to the church, social distancing, both in the celebration of the sacrament and while waiting, will need to be observed. It is highly recommended that facemasks be worn for private visits and for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.2. As of Monday, May 25, the normal weekday Mass schedule will resume in each parish for attendance by the faithful. The parish church, not its chapel, will be the place for these celebrations. The protocols that will be utilized for Sunday Mass will also be observed for the celebration of daily Mass. These protocols are listed below under number 3.3. As of Sunday, May 31, Pentecost Sunday, the normal Sunday Mass schedule will resume in each parish for attendance by the faithful. The following protocols will be carefully observed for the common good:a. Appropriate social distancing will be observed. Except for families and couples, this means a spacing of 6 feet and the use of every other pew.b. It is highly recommended that facemasks be utilized while in church except for the reception of Holy Communion. Appropriate hand sanitizers and safety wipes should be used. One must be careful to sanitize hands after arriving in church, before reception of Holy Communion, and after leaving church. Care must also be taken not to touch one's face during the Mass.c. Holy water fonts will remain empty.d. Only a cantor and an instrumentalist will be utilized for limited liturgical singing at the present time. Choirs and instrumental ensembles will not be present.e. Only one reader is necessary, if at all.f. There will be no altar servers for the present time.g. Hymnals and other liturgical aids will not be available.h. The priest or deacon will give a brief homily from the ambo or sanctuary but not in the midst of the congregation.i. There will be no offertory procession for the presentation of the gifts.j. The line for the reception of Holy Communion will also follow appropriate distancing. It is highly recommended, for the safety of others as well as the recipient, that the option of receiving the Eucharist in the hand be employed at this time.k. Except for the celebrant, there will be no reception of the Precious Blood during this time even by the deacon. Concelebrants at Mass will receive the Precious Blood by intinction from a different chalice than that of the main celebrant.l. The priest, deacon or extraordinary minister will wear a face mask for the distribution of Holy Communion. No gloves are to be worn by the minister or recipient.m. There will be no sign of peace, greeting of peace before Mass or the holding of hands during the Our Father.n. There will be no collections taken during the Mass. However, there will be collection boxes at the entrance of the church or by the sanctuary for the faithful to place their offerings. It is also recommended that online contributions be utilized. While the economic limitation imposed by this situation may be limiting to some, the continued support of parishes for the service of the faithful is needed and appreciated.o. Churches will be appropriately sanitized.p. There will be ushers and parish assistants available in the churches to help accommodate these protocols.q. There will be as few people as possible in the sacristy before and after Mass. There can be no public gatherings before or after Mass.r. The celebrant and ministers will generally process to and from the sacristy.s. When in doubt, always err in the side of caution.t. The live streaming of Masses in our parishes will continue.
Comment: In his preliminary notes, the bishop said, "Simply stated, as we begin and continue the process of 'reopening,' no one is obliged or should feel obligated to come to church. This is an individual and free decision and one may have an overriding serious obligation not to come." I will continue to exercise that right. And I repeat what I have been saying: Since most ushers are in the at-risk group sub-paragraph "p" is not going to be possible most places.
As I also have been saying, to no avail, rule 3a is impossible as it applies to groups: "Appropriate
social distancing will be observed. Except for families and couples,
this means a spacing of 6 feet and the use of every other pew." As soon as a family of five arrives, late of course, and plops down, the spacing of all the folks left and right, fore and aft, will be affected; they will no longer be 6 feet away from the Catholic Family of the Year. If you are going to make a rule, you have to figure out how to make it work.
About rule 3a, in our church (which won't be open until at least May 30) they have taped off every other pew with yellow caution tape (my husband calls it "crime scene tape"). It actually does measure 6 feet between, by my guestimate. The only way to keep latecomers from coming in and plopping themselves down in other's critical space, is to make it so they can't. Some places are having online sign up for Masses. Who knew it would ever come to that. It could cause people to value the opportunity to go to Mass more. Or it could do just the opposite; remains to be seen.
ReplyDeleteIf they're bringing back weekday Masses, they could probably distribute weekly attendance of parish members among all the Masses. Thanks to Jack Rakosky for putting all of this in historical perspective.
DeleteTom, thanks. I am sorry to say, they read a bit too much like guidelines written by lawyers and safety consultants for my taste. But maybe that is where we need to be at this time.
ReplyDeleteOur diocese hasn't issued anything this detailed yet, although we expect it any day now.
I regret that so many lay ministries are completely eliminated in these guidelines. I'd rather see them accommodated via appropriate social distancing. In my view, performing these ministries is a genuine form of full, conscious and active participation for many folks. For them, sitting in the pews is a step in the right direction, but still not fully "there" yet.
Thus, instrumentalists can be accommodated if they are physically spaced appropriately. The same is true for some choir members, although many/most amateur singers need to be able to be pretty close physically to one another for purposes of blending their voices. A single altar server could do certain things (bear the cross in a procession; bring forward gifts; clear the altar).
I take it that you notice the "if at all" in "e. Only one reader is necessary, if at all." Gee, thanks, lectors, for showing up every week, but we really never needed you.
DeleteYep, the "if at all" frosted me a little.
DeleteI've been a deacon for 16 years (as a matter of fact, the anniversary of my ordination is Saturday). I can remember two times during that stretch when no readers have shown up for a Sunday mass. Both times, the priest (not the same one each time) told me, "Ok, because we have no readers, you read the first two readings, and I'll read the Gospel."
Let us ponder that suggested solution for a minute. I think I understand its logic. It runs as follows:
* Priests outrank deacons, who in turn outrank lay readers (this isn't my own outlook; I'm describing what I take to be the logic behind the solution)
* The Gospel outranks the other readings
* Therefore, the lowest ranking guy (me) reads the lowest-ranked readings. And the highest ranking guy (him) reads the highest ranked reading.
As the Angelic Doctor might say at this point, "On the contrary ...":
Proclaiming the Gospel is *proper* to the deacon. By "proper" I mean: if he's there and serving in his ministry, it is not too strong to say the deacon *must* proclaim the Gospel. (cf GIRM 59 for you legally-minded liturgical aficionados). This is true even when higher-ranked ministers (a priest or a bishop, even of Rome) also are present. So the priest's off-the-cuff plan requires taking the job away from the one guy from whom it never should be taken away.
So, if the deacon reads the Gospel, who reads the other readings? Well, in Roman Catholicism, the "official" answer is, an instituted lector should read it (cf GIRM 99). But in the US, for the most part we don't formally institute our lay lectors (although we could!) So instead the rite allows that "other lay people may be deputed", and as a practical matter, this is what happens at virtually every mass in virtually every parish. In the US, lay lectors (with a few exceptions) are not formally and permanently instituted into the ministry. Our readers are (non-instituted) laypersons to whom the proclamation of the readings has been deputed.
So in my view, the best answer to the question "Who reads the first and second readings?" is: go find a layperson to whom to depute the task. Almost always, there is a lector (not instituted, but still ...) sitting in the pews who could be drafted and who would be happy to help.
Otherwise, any mass with a priest and a deacon does actually have two instituted lectors, namely the priest and deacon (we both were formally instituted into ministry of lector during our formation for ministry; it's part of the residue of the old minor orders that existed pre-Vatican II). Between the priest and deacon, the deacon is the more "suitable" because "the function of proclaiming the readings is by tradition not presidential". In other words, not only is it positively *proper* that the deacon proclaim the Gospel; it is positively *proper* that the presider *not proclaim* the readings.
So if you skipped all the explanatory paragraphs above, the short answer is: the deacon should read all the readings.
That priests (or at least the two I happened to be with that day) don't intuitively glom onto that approach, is as fine an illustration of practical clericalism as I can think of.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. I know I'm the only one in the world who cares about this stuff. But I think it was Catherine of Siena (or maybe Teresa of Avila) who proclaimed that she would be willing to die in defense of a rubric. If she would go that far, I can at least speak up.
In this archdiocese the lectors actually are formally instituted. However others do sometimes read; I have read at a wedding and a funeral though I am not formally instituted. What you said about the order of who reads what is also how I understood it. I agree with you that when the priests glom onto the Gospel when a deacon is present it is an example of clericalism. My personal clericalism gripe is when the "priest's Communion" is considered to make the Mass complete.
DeleteBTW, congratulations on your anniversary of ordination!
DeleteKatherine, thanks. I showed up that day, and they haven't kicked me out yet. Beyond that, it's just one day at a time.
DeleteJim, Yes, let me add mine to Katherine's congratulations.
DeleteI never volunteered to be a lector, but I've ended up doing it multidozens of times when no one else was available. It can be done. But there is no reason the priest can't do the "lesser" readings if the deacon is there to do the Gospel. Our priests have been doing he Masses by the twos or threes. When there are three, one does the first reading and psalm, another leads the prayer of the faithful, and the celebrant du jour reads the Gospel. The one acting as lector also acts as acolyte at the washing of the hands. I suppose thee are all sorts of things wrong with them doing "laypeople" jobs, but it doesn't seem to bother them.
Jim, I hope you celebrate your ordination by proclaiming the Gospel! Congratulations!
DeleteWell! I think I am going to stay home, and like Stephen Colbert, sit down for Mass with my cup of coffee in hand. I will say out loud the parts assigned to the proles, give a kiss of peace to the other half, and if there are any hymns, hum along.
ReplyDelete