{"id":32537,"date":"2016-03-09T05:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=32537"},"modified":"2017-10-21T20:44:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T01:44:26","slug":"viewpoint-women-could-be-authorized-to-give-the-homily-at-mass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/09\/viewpoint-women-could-be-authorized-to-give-the-homily-at-mass\/","title":{"rendered":"Viewpoint<\/i>: Women Could Be Authorized to Give the Homily at Mass"},"content":{"rendered":"

by M. Francis Mannion<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re thinking of publishing something adventurous about the Church, don\u2019t send it to \u201cL\u2019Osservatore Romano,\u201d the official paper of the Vatican. They won\u2019t give you the time of day.<\/p>\n

All the more surprising, then, that the Vatican paper should publish an article recently in which it was proposed that women could be allowed to give the homily at Mass. This article could not be published without the approval of \u201chigher-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enzo Bianchi, author of the article, recognizes that authorizing women to preach \u201cwould constitute a fundamental change in [women\u2019s] participation in church life.\u201d It would respond to Pope Francis\u2019 oft-repeated commitment to giving women a greater role in the life of the Church. Bianchi recognizes the topic of women preaching \u201cis a delicate one,\u201d but, he says, \u201cI believe it is urgent that we address it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a move would not, however, be a complete departure from the tradition of the Church.\u00a0 David Gibson, who commented on the \u201cL\u2019Osservatore Romano\u201d article for Religion News Service<\/em><\/a>, points out that that for the first 800 years, women preached during the liturgy. It was only in the 13th<\/span>\u00a0century, as part of a general reform of the Church, which consolidated power in the hands of the clergy, that Pope Gregory IX barred lay people from preaching.<\/p>\n

The argument for women preachers is not based on a desire to \u201cmodernize\u201d the Church, but rather a reinvigoration of the tradition of the first millennium, in which women preached before priests, bishops, and even popes.<\/p>\n

Lay preaching was allowed on occasion in the following centuries. In the early 1970s, the matter of women (and men) preaching was raised again. Interestingly, in 1973, the Vatican gave the German bishops permission to experiment with lay preaching for a period of eight years. I don\u2019t know what became of the experiment, though I would surmise that lay preaching continues to be practiced in some Western European countries.<\/p>\n

In another column in \u201cL\u2019Osservatore Romano,\u201d Sr. Catherine Aubin, a professor at a pontifical university in Rome, points out that Jesus encouraged women to preach \u00a0the message of salvation. Mary Magdalen is known as the \u201capostle to the apostles\u201d and was the first person to witness to Christ\u2019s resurrection. Dominican Sr. Madeleine Fredell wrote that preaching \u201cis my vocation as a preacher.\u201d (It is ironic that while Dominican women have \u201cO.P, \u201cOrder of Preachers\u201d after their names, they cannot actually preach liturgically.)<\/p>\n

It is also ironic that in periodicals like \u201cAmerica\u201d women often provide sample homilies to inspire clergy in the preparation of their homilies (I suspect that in many cases clergy end up using these homilies verbatim.)<\/p>\n

There are no doctrinal or theological obstacles to letting lay men and women preach during Mass. The 1983 Code of Canon Law states that the homily \u201cis reserved to a priest or deacon\u201d because it is a fundamental part of the Mass. But this is a human rather than a divine law, and there is nothing to stop it being softened or even abolished.<\/p>\n

\u201cConservatives\u201d will argue that women\u2019s preaching would continue the \u201cfeminization\u201d of the Church\u2014one of the most insulting arguments against women\u2019s greater ministerial presence in the liturgy of the Church.<\/p>\n

The bottom line: opening up preaching to lay men and women after rigorous training and official episcopal commissioning as \u201cLay Preachers\u201d could, I think, greatly improve the unsatisfactory state of preaching in the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I support the observance the law as it is. Lay preaching now would flout canonical norms.<\/p>\n

Msgr. Mannion is pastor emeritus of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Salt Lake City. Reprinted by permission of Catholic News Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bottom line: opening up preaching to lay men and women after rigorous training and official episcopal commissioning as \u201cLay Preachers\u201d could, I think, greatly improve the unsatisfactory state of preaching in the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[46,16,3125],"tags":[1199],"class_list":["post-32537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homiletics","category-lay-ministry","category-viewpoint","tag-msgr-m-francis-mannion"],"yoast_head":"\nViewpoint: Women Could Be Authorized to Give the Homily at Mass - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/09\/viewpoint-women-could-be-authorized-to-give-the-homily-at-mass\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Viewpoint: Women Could Be Authorized to Give the Homily at Mass - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The bottom line: opening up preaching to lay men and women after rigorous training and official episcopal commissioning as \u201cLay Preachers\u201d could, I think, greatly improve the unsatisfactory state of preaching in the Catholic Church.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/09\/viewpoint-women-could-be-authorized-to-give-the-homily-at-mass\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-09T11:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-22T01:44:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"90\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Francis Mannion\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Francis Mannion\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/09\\\/viewpoint-women-could-be-authorized-to-give-the-homily-at-mass\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/09\\\/viewpoint-women-could-be-authorized-to-give-the-homily-at-mass\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Francis Mannion\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/00056ecece512f638325309e2ecba809\"},\"headline\":\"Viewpoint: Women Could Be Authorized to Give the Homily at Mass\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-09T11:00:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-22T01:44:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/09\\\/viewpoint-women-could-be-authorized-to-give-the-homily-at-mass\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":632,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Msgr. 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