I would bet that this will be the first of these "instructions" to be changed. Carrying individual chalices up to the altar carries a much greater risk of spillage than one large pitcher of wine.
Arinze’s appearance at the Vatican news conference was in conjunction with the publication of a long-awaited document on liturgical abuses. The document was rumored to bring a Roman hammer down on a number of practices that have become common in various parts of the world: inter-communion with Protestants, for example, or liturgical dance, or altar girls.
In the end, the hammer was something of a rubber mallet.
Titled Redemptionis sacramentum, the document’s tone is juridical and frequently critical of abuses “which obviously cannot be allowed and must cease.” At the same time, many liturgists around Rome breathed a sigh of relief April 23 because the document creates no new restrictions and/or bans, and even where it is obviously lukewarm about a given practice – altar girls, for example, or communion in the hand – the document tolerates it.
Redemptionis sacramentum, according to the experts, adds nothing to existing liturgical law.
“It’s a predictable document,” said Jesuit Fr. Keith Pecklers, who teaches liturgy at Rome’s Gregorian University. “It’s obviously a further attempt at tightening the reins, but it’s much less offensive or restrictive than had been rumored.”
Arinze denied that the document amounts to a Roman crackdown.
“We didn’t crackdown on anybody,” he told NCR. “Look, it’s like soccer – you have to have some rules. If you could just score from anywhere, fighting and tossing bottles would be the result. This is much more serious, because it’s not just a game, it’s our faith.”
At the same time, Arinze did not deny the disciplinary thrust.
“There’s a sense in which, if we didn’t crackdown, somebody should crackdown on us for not doing our duty,” he said.
Other key points in the document include:
• A ban on the use of unapproved texts and rites
• The absolute necessity of an ordained priest for the celebration of the liturgy
• Use of appropriate vessels and vestments
• A ban on using non-Biblical texts for the readings and responsorial psalms
• A ban on lay people giving homilies
• An insistence on using lay ministers of the Eucharist only when there is an insufficient number of priests to distribute communion
• Laity may not hand one another consecrated hosts or the chalice
• The Mass may not be divided, with different parts celebrated at different times
• Priests always have the right to celebrate the Mass in Latin, but according to the post-Vatican II rite
• The obligation of Sunday Mass cannot be satisfied with ecumenical services
• Insistence that communion must not be given to non-Catholics and non-Christians in violation of church rules.
Despite the clear emphasis on distinguishing priests and lay persons, Arinze insisted that the spirit of the document was upholding a correct understanding of the nature of the Mass. It is not, he said, a matter of “prejudices against the laity.”
Cardinal Julian Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, told reporters that the document originated in complaints about abuses that had arrived at the Vatican over the years from various parts of the world.
“At the origin of this document, as with the encyclical, was an action of the people of God in relation with the Holy See, who requested clarifications and made protests. There is a sensibility and a love of God, and people often suffer from the way in which the Lord is sometimes treated.”
Pecklers told NCR there are some clarifications that liturgists will welcome. He cited the clarification that the Eucharistic bread should not be broken in the moment of consecration, for example, or that priests should not improvise the Eucharistic prayers.
This has been going on at our parish periodically. The host is baked with leavening and honey. I've gone over this with our priest and the woman who bakes them. They may have eliminated the honey, but they still add leavening. This will come in handy. They will be getting copies.
Mass can never be celebrated "in a temple or sacred place of any non-Christian religion."
I can't think of any better way to consecrate a place. Or are they saying the building has to be blessed somehow first?
Where the cantor interrupts the priest's recitation of the Eucharistic Prayer with outbursts such as "Glory! Glory! Glory to God in the Highest!" or "Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!" with fake sponaneity.