Thursday, May 22, 2008

Concelebration

H/T to Fr Blake for this from CWNews about a possible restraining of huge concelebrations. It is rather odd to be considered to be a concelebrant of Mass while being so far from the altar it is invisible.


Pope considering limits on concelebration?

Vatican, May. 22, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) plans to curtail the practice of organizing large-scale Eucharistic celebrations with hundreds of priests concelebrating the Mass, according to a report in Italy's Panorama magazine.

Panorama reports that the Holy Father has directed the Congregation for Divine Worship to study the question and prepare appropriate instructions. His objective, the Italian journal says, is to eliminate the concelebration of Mass by hundreds of priests at a time, with many of them standing at a distance from the altar.

The Vatican has not commented on the Panorama report.

If the story is accurate, the new liturgical guidelines could bring significant changes in liturgical celebrations at which the Pope himself presides, such as Masses attended by tens of thousands of people at World Youth Day or during papal trips abroad.

1 comment:

PeterHWright said...

I have often wondered just how far can a concelebrating priest stand from the altar, and still participate in the celebration. There must be a limit.

Perhaps this question will soon need to be asked no longer.