Re-Reading Sacrosanctum Concilium: Article 57

(cf. Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom Blog, Sept 9, 2013. https://praytellblog.com/index.php/2013/09/15/re-reading-sacrosanctum-concilium-article-57/)

Vatican website translation:

57. §1. Concelebration, whereby the unity of the priesthood is appropriately manifested, has remained in use to this day in the Church both in the east and in the west. For this reason it has seemed good to the Council to extend permission for concelebration to the following cases:
1. a) on the Thursday of the Lord’s Supper, not only at the Mass of the Chrism, but also at the evening Mass.
b) at Masses during councils, bishops’ conferences, and synods;
c) at the Mass for the blessing of an abbot.
2. Also, with permission of the ordinary, to whom it belongs to decide whether concelebration is opportune:
a) at conventual Mass, and at the principle Mass in churches when the needs of the faithful do not require that all priests available should celebrate individually;
b) at Masses celebrated at any kind of priests’ meetings, whether the priests be secular clergy or religious.
§2.
1. The regulation, however, of the discipline of concelebration in the diocese pertains to the bishop.
2. Nevertheless, each priest shall always retain his right to celebrate Mass individually, though not at the same time in the same church as a concelebrated Mass, nor on Thursday of the Lord’s Supper.

Latin text:

57. §1. Concelebratio, qua unitas sacerdotii opportune manifestatur, in Ecclesia usque adhuc in usu remansit tam in Oriente quam in Occidente. Quare facultatem concelebrandi ad sequentes casus Concilio extendere placuit:
1. a) feria V in Cena Domini, tum ad Missam chrismatis, tum ad Missam vespertinam;
b) ad Missas in Conciliis, Conventibus Episcopalibus et Synodis;
c) ad Missam in Benedictione Abbatis.
2. Praeterea, accedente licentia Ordinarii, cuius est de opportunitate concelebrationis iudicare:
a) ad Missam conventualem et ad Missam principalem in ecclesiis, cum utilitas christifidelium singularem celebrationem omnium sacerdotum praesentium non postulat;
b) ad Missas in conventibus cuiusvis generis sacerdotum tum saecularium tum religiosorum.
§2
1.Ad Episcopum vero pertinet concelebrationis disciplinam in dioecesi moderari.

2. Salva tamen semper sit cuique sacerdoti facultas Missam singularem celebrandi, non vero eodem tempore in eadem ecclesia, nec feria V in Cena Domini.

Slavishly literal translation (kindness of Jonathan Day):

57. §1. Concelebration, in which the unity of priesthood is appropriately made manifest, has remained in use in the Church to this day, both in the East and in the West. For this reason it has pleased the Council to extend permission for concelebrating to the following cases:
1. a) on the Thursday of the Lord’s Supper, both at the Chrism Mass and at the evening Mass.
b) at Masses during councils, bishops’ conferences, and synods;
c) at the Mass for the blessing of an abbot.
2. In addition, with permission of the Ordinary, whose role it is to judge whether concelebration is opportune, [the Council gives permission for concelebration]
a) at the conventual Mass, and at the principal Mass in churches when welfare of the faithful does not require that all priests available should celebrate individually;
b) at Masses celebrated at any kind of priests’ meetings, whether the priests be secular clergy or religious.
§2.
1. The regulation of the discipline of concelebration in the diocese truly pertains to the bishop.
2. Nevertheless, each priest shall always retain his right to celebrate Mass individually, [though] certainly not at the same time in the same church, nor on Thursday of the Lord’s Supper.

Much as the Council Fathers extended the use of the vernacular in Roman Rite liturgical worship, so they extended permission for sacerdotal concelebration of the Mass (understood as the ritual coordination of multiple bishops and/or priests offering the Eucharistic sacrifice under the guidance of a principal celebrant) from the two occasions at which it occurred in the Roman Rite on the eve of the Council: 1) at presbyteral ordinations, when newly ordained presbyters concelebrated with the ordaining bishop; and 2) at episcopal consecrations, when the newly consecrated bishop concelebrated with the consecrating bishop.

Interestingly, the theological rationale for extending this permission, found in the first sentence, is that the “unity of the priesthood” might be “appropriately made manifest.” We have already seen how SC 2 had taught that the liturgy “is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others…the real nature of the true Church.” If the sign-systems of liturgical celebration manifest in some way the real nature of the true Church, the Council Fathers felt that changes in the discipline surrounding sacerdotal concelebration at Mass would make the unity of bishops’ and priests’ ministries more clear.

The listing of situations in which sacerdotal concelebration might take place should be seen as a minimum agreed upon by the Council Fathers, not as a maximum limit. This should be especially clear since regulation of sacerdotal concelebration is left to the judgment of the Ordinary.

The clause in SC 57.§2.2., recognizing the facultas of priests to celebrate individually (thus guaranteeing that they will not be forced somehow to concelebrate against their will), might have been more felicitously expressed if it, too, had offered a rationale grounded in the nature of the Church (i.e., because of the needs of the faithful) rather than seeming to suggest that this is a matter of “rights.”

In the years since the Council, sacerdotal concelebration has become a rather frequent practice, but thinking through how it “manifests the real nature of the true Church” is still in process. It should be clear that that form of concelebration when a diocesan bishop presides over Mass surrounded by the faithful, the body of deacons, and a concelebrating body of presbyters, is very different from a monastic setting in which a priest-monk presides over Mass surrounded by his co-priest-monks and brother-monks or when two priests assigned to a parish concelebrate at a daily Mass surrounded by a group of parishioners. Pray Tell readers may wish to share reflections on the issues surrounding sacerdotal concelebration that have arisen over the last fifty years and make suggestions for our future practice.

Michael Joncas

Ordained in 1980 as a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN, Fr. (Jan) Michael Joncas holds degrees in English from the (then) College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, and in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN and the Pontificio Istituto Liturgico of the Ateneo S. Anselmo in Rome. He has served as a parochial vicar, a campus minister, and a parochial administrator (pastor). He is the author of six books and more than two hundred fifty articles and reviews in journals such as Worship, Ecclesia Orans, and Questions Liturgiques. He has composed and arranged more than 300 pieces of liturgical music. He has recently retired as a faculty member in the Theology and Catholic Studies departments and as Artist in Residence and Research Fellow in Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.