Do you know about the US Introduction to the Order of Mass: A Pastoral Resource of the Bishop’ Committee on the Liturgy? Did you know that it says, for example, that the celebrant may sprinkle the people during the entance procession if the greeting and blessing take place at the door? This official document is still in effect as far as we know – but sort of by a loophole. Recently its status was taken up by Alan Hommerding and Sr. Georgette Zalewska on the online liturgy network of Notre Dame’s Center for Liturgy. Here we give each of them a paragraph:
The “Introduction to the Order of Mass” document was intended for the 1998 ICEL translation/revision of the Sacramentary. It was sent to Rome and actually received recognitio/approval by the Congregation. As a separate document, it still has approval, so whatever is contained therein, I believe, has the weight of liturgical law. But I’m not sure if, as the introduction to the Sacramentary that never was, what its official status might be. – AH
The Introduction to this document states that it was approved in 1997 by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and was revised in 2000 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the light of changes introduced to the Order of Mass in the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani. – GZ
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