We live in a golden age of lay preaching, as witnessed by so many great podcasts and YouTube channels. By all means listen to these. But preaching at mass is a fundamentally liturgical function, where Jesus explains the scriptures as on the road to Emmaus. This should always be done by the priest standing in place of Christ in the liturgy.
This is such a terrible idea I bet Francis does it.-1-
This strikes me as a terrible idea. A lot of you said about lay preaching is true of clerical preaching - some do it really well, others do it poorly, some become celebrities in a problematic way, some are more orthodox than others... If the Church can't effectively regulate it for priests then how can we expect her to do so for lay people? The main thing I envision here is some orthodox and inspiring lay person in Chicago being disallowed to speak in public about his/her faith, to everyone's detriment. In my experience (and R. R. Reno said something similar, look up his piece "Catholicism after 2018"), the best quality stuff is orthodox but not part of the institutional Church. (eg, the pillar. And FOCUS and Catholic Answers and a million other thriving apostolates.)
This is basically equivalent to the licensing regimes by states. This exclusively would be used to stop lay preaching, not encourage it.
The end result of these suggestions is a denial of the call of all Christians to evangelize. We have a group of lay preachers: all confirmed Catholics. We don't really need them to preach more in churches but in their families and workplaces. And they don't need special permission from anyone to talk about Jesus.
***A robust “office of preacher” might also rein in some problematic excesses already experienced in the Church. ***
I tend to agree with this sentiment. There's already the rise of the lay preacher happening in the Church and while some are refreshing and edifying, some voices need official suppressing. My daughter put me on to the ministry of Chris Stefanick a few years ago and he strikes me as having a definite charism of lay preacher.
“The quality of the lay preaching can be decidedly …mixed .” Isn’t that true of clerical preaching as well?
I doubt more Vatican control over summer conferences is what the Holy Spirit is urging.
These conferences bear great fruit and do not need over sight like the JP II Institue received.
Please judge by the fruit. This ia season of the laity. Look at Ascension Press, Halo. Focus,SOP Hard as nails, and The Pillar All full of fruit. Where is the fruit from Vatican initiatives?
I certainly hope Francis does not establish a role for lay preachers. Right enough, he is drawn to bad ideas like a moth to a flame.
Lay preachers already exist, they are called 'Protestants'.
Such a move would be another blow against the necessity of the Priest who, since the 2nd Vatican Council, has seen almost every aspect of his crucial role and identity farmed out to lay people.
Few really know what Priests are for anymore. I certainly didn't, until I took an interest in the traditional faith. A Priest has many roles,. but primarily he is concerned with offering sacrifice.
In the modern mainstream Church, recognition of the Priest's role is greatly diminished. Lay people can do nearly everything he can - and often do, while the elderly Priest dozes in his seat.
The necessity and centrality of the Priest is not widely known in the modern Church. One reason, I am sure, why vocations are lacklusture in so very many places.
In the traditional Mass, when the Priest hands the Server his Biretta, just prior to the start of Mass, the Server actually kisses the Priest's hand when receiving the item. A way of marking out that the Priest's hands have been specially anointed specifically to offer Sacrifice and appropriately handle the Eucharist.
All this meaning, symbology and - most significantly - coherence is lost in the modern Mass, where every Tom, Dick and Harry handles the Eucharist.
This is an interesting idea.. however the quickest way to kill a good thing is to subject it to bureaucratic oversight and credentialing. Dioceses are no exception.
This is the thing I have never understood about people arguing that lay preaching in Mass is a good idea. (Note: JD is NOT arguing for that) for goodness sake, no one is stopping you going to your local piazza/shopping centre/community garden/whatever and preaching whatever you want. A YouTube channel is not that hard for a boomer to manage. But you don’t have a right to a captive audience trying to fulfil their Sunday obligation to spout your theory about Jesus the nice fuzzy rabbi you learned in that one theology summer course you did in the 70s. Its bad enough when Fr used to let random spokespeople from various charities get up in the homily time and ask us for money. I see less of that at my current parish thank goodness.
We live in a golden age of lay preaching, as witnessed by so many great podcasts and YouTube channels. By all means listen to these. But preaching at mass is a fundamentally liturgical function, where Jesus explains the scriptures as on the road to Emmaus. This should always be done by the priest standing in place of Christ in the liturgy.
This is such a terrible idea I bet Francis does it.-1-
This strikes me as a terrible idea. A lot of you said about lay preaching is true of clerical preaching - some do it really well, others do it poorly, some become celebrities in a problematic way, some are more orthodox than others... If the Church can't effectively regulate it for priests then how can we expect her to do so for lay people? The main thing I envision here is some orthodox and inspiring lay person in Chicago being disallowed to speak in public about his/her faith, to everyone's detriment. In my experience (and R. R. Reno said something similar, look up his piece "Catholicism after 2018"), the best quality stuff is orthodox but not part of the institutional Church. (eg, the pillar. And FOCUS and Catholic Answers and a million other thriving apostolates.)
This is basically equivalent to the licensing regimes by states. This exclusively would be used to stop lay preaching, not encourage it.
The end result of these suggestions is a denial of the call of all Christians to evangelize. We have a group of lay preachers: all confirmed Catholics. We don't really need them to preach more in churches but in their families and workplaces. And they don't need special permission from anyone to talk about Jesus.
***A robust “office of preacher” might also rein in some problematic excesses already experienced in the Church. ***
I tend to agree with this sentiment. There's already the rise of the lay preacher happening in the Church and while some are refreshing and edifying, some voices need official suppressing. My daughter put me on to the ministry of Chris Stefanick a few years ago and he strikes me as having a definite charism of lay preacher.
“The quality of the lay preaching can be decidedly …mixed .” Isn’t that true of clerical preaching as well?
I doubt more Vatican control over summer conferences is what the Holy Spirit is urging.
These conferences bear great fruit and do not need over sight like the JP II Institue received.
Please judge by the fruit. This ia season of the laity. Look at Ascension Press, Halo. Focus,SOP Hard as nails, and The Pillar All full of fruit. Where is the fruit from Vatican initiatives?
I certainly hope Francis does not establish a role for lay preachers. Right enough, he is drawn to bad ideas like a moth to a flame.
Lay preachers already exist, they are called 'Protestants'.
Such a move would be another blow against the necessity of the Priest who, since the 2nd Vatican Council, has seen almost every aspect of his crucial role and identity farmed out to lay people.
Few really know what Priests are for anymore. I certainly didn't, until I took an interest in the traditional faith. A Priest has many roles,. but primarily he is concerned with offering sacrifice.
In the modern mainstream Church, recognition of the Priest's role is greatly diminished. Lay people can do nearly everything he can - and often do, while the elderly Priest dozes in his seat.
The necessity and centrality of the Priest is not widely known in the modern Church. One reason, I am sure, why vocations are lacklusture in so very many places.
In the traditional Mass, when the Priest hands the Server his Biretta, just prior to the start of Mass, the Server actually kisses the Priest's hand when receiving the item. A way of marking out that the Priest's hands have been specially anointed specifically to offer Sacrifice and appropriately handle the Eucharist.
All this meaning, symbology and - most significantly - coherence is lost in the modern Mass, where every Tom, Dick and Harry handles the Eucharist.
This is an interesting idea.. however the quickest way to kill a good thing is to subject it to bureaucratic oversight and credentialing. Dioceses are no exception.
This is the thing I have never understood about people arguing that lay preaching in Mass is a good idea. (Note: JD is NOT arguing for that) for goodness sake, no one is stopping you going to your local piazza/shopping centre/community garden/whatever and preaching whatever you want. A YouTube channel is not that hard for a boomer to manage. But you don’t have a right to a captive audience trying to fulfil their Sunday obligation to spout your theory about Jesus the nice fuzzy rabbi you learned in that one theology summer course you did in the 70s. Its bad enough when Fr used to let random spokespeople from various charities get up in the homily time and ask us for money. I see less of that at my current parish thank goodness.