Folia Canonica 2. (1999)
PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. - Vladimir Filo: Homily as a Specific Duty of Ordained Persons
HOMILY AS A SPECIFIC DUTY OF ORDAINED PERSONS 289 The specific duties that can only be completed by ordained persons (personae ordinatae) may be diverse. Within this discourse, I would exclusively like to study the homily. This subject raises the question whether it is also a lay person or only an ordained one that can preach a homily. According to c. 763 it is solely the right of the bishop to preach. The other ordained persons, priests and deacons have no right to do so, but under c. 764 they possess a faculty to preach. Lay persons according to c. 766 can also be admitted to preach. Phrases like some “have a right”, others “possess a delegation”, and again others “can be admitted” to preach mean that the preachers of the word of God are not equal regarding preaching or delivering a homily. “In no instance is this a right such as that which is specific and proper to the bishop or a faculty such as is enjoyed by priests and deacons.”6 According to c. 767 the homily is a part of the liturgy itself and it is reserved for the priest or the deacon (sacerdoti aut diacono). Since by the word “sacerdos” we mean the priest and the bishop, the homily is reserved for all three in accord with their own grade of orders. This canon should be unambiguous, but it seems not to have been,7 for it was questionable whether the diocesan bishop is allowed to give dispensation from this norm. The problem of dispensation from the prescription of c. 767, § l8 The response of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of the Legislative Texts specified the interpretation of this canon on 26 May 1987 by giving a negative answer to the question whether the diocesan bishop is allowed to give dispensation from the prescription of c. 767, § l.9 What does it mean? Does it mean that the homily can only be preached by ordained persons? Or does it mean that the diocesan bishop’s right of giving dispensation is restricted. Let us take canons providing dispensation as a starting-point. These contain three essential elements in connection with dispensations (cc. 85-93.): • Who is allowed to grant dispensations • Is there a prerequisite of a just and reasonable cause (causa iusta et rationabilis) for dispensation • Which are the laws govern the application of dispensations 6 Instruction (cf. nt. 3.), Practical Provisions, art. 2, § 3, 18. 7 This problem is narrowly studied by J. E. Fox, L’omelia e I’interpretazione autentica del canone 767 § 1, in Ephemerides Liturgicae 106 (1992) 1, 3-37. 8 Cf. Fox, L’omelia (cf. n. 7.), 4—7. 9 Cf. Enchidrion Vaticanum 10, 1841.
