Folia Canonica 2. (1999)

PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. - Vladimir Filo: Homily as a Specific Duty of Ordained Persons

Folia Canonica 2 (1999) 287-296.

* VLADIMIR FILO

HOMILY AS A SPECIFIC DUTY OF ORDAINED PERSONS

Introduction; I. Thewotwct/ovoftheeightdicasteriesofthe Roman Curia; II. The problem of dispensation from the prescription of c. 767, § 1 ; III. Homily and Liturgy: 1. The Message of the Council; 2. The Magisterium after the Council; 3. The Recent Situation; Conclusion.

INTRODUCTION

First of all I would like to say thank you for inviting me to this Conference of Canon Law organised by the Postgraduate Institute of Canon Law of Péter Pázmány Catholic University. It is a great privilege to me to appear on this forum.

I would like to speak of the homily as reserved solely for priests and deacons. For preaching a homily they do not need any special delegation. But lay people cannot receive any such delegation since it is attached to holy orders.

As an introduction I shall have to speak of the period before the 2nd Vatican Council, when there was a great lack of lay persons’ joining in the life and mission of the Church. The 2nd Vatican Council fulfilled all our wishes by laying special emphasis on this problem. The Council dealt with this question principally in the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium (33-36), and in Apostolicam Actuositatem (2), as well as in Sacrosanctum Concilium (14), and also the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laid (30 December 1988.) of Pope John Paul II, which was a result of the Episcopal Synod in 1987.

About this question the Council was not properly understood, as it was also misunderstood in a lot of other matters and decisions (e.g. about the problem of the liturgical reform). The lay people began to lay claim to certain duties that had only been entitled to those who had received holy orders or had received a delegation from a priest or a bishop, though being not assigned for this duty.

The Council pointed out some factors that had not been emphasised before, as for example the concept of common priesthood and ministerial priesthood. It explained the mission of the laity in the Church and in the world from the aspect of the sacrament of baptism and confirmation (c. 225, § 1).

The consequences of misunderstanding the Council also appeared in the matter of the secularisation of the cleric and the clericalisation of the laity. 30 years after the Council there are still clerics doing the lector’s or the acolyte’s job in the celebration of the Eucharist. And at the same time there are cases when clerics abandon duties that should primarily be done by them, when for