"The homily, which is given in the course of the celebration of Holy Mass and is a part of the Liturgy itself, 'should ordinarily be given by the Priest celebrant himself. He may entrust it to a concelebrating Priest or occasionally, according to circumstances, to a Deacon, but never to a layperson.'" -- Redemptionis Sacramentum, 61.
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I thought Ms. Bruney has served the maximum 12 years (three 4 year terms for a P.A.) at St. Vincent DePaul... So why is she still there? Are term limits only for orthodox priests and not for the Pastoral Administrators?
~Dr. K
Is this a Roman Catholic parish or Episcopalian or what? I'm a convert, so there are MANY things I don't know, but the only time I've heard of a non-priest giving a homily is in the case of a deacon or in the case of a parish which didn't have a priest. In the 2nd instance, a nun was the administrator and she would give a brief talk when the parish met for "Mass" on days when no visiting priest came to preside.
Or am I missing something?
NC Sue - Deacons can legitimately preach the homily, so that is not an issue.
If the service you are describing is a Communion service and not a Mass - I believe the presider is allowed to share some reflections - but has to be careful that it not be perceived as a homily. There may be some liturgical gurus who know better about this one.
As for the subject of this post - if she is giving a homily, that is not permitted.
Here's some citations I found on Catholic Answers:
"Homilies in non-eucharistic liturgies may be preached by the non-ordained faithful only when expressly permitted by law and when its prescriptions for doing so are observed."
[From Article 3 §4, From the 1997 Instruction "On certain questions regarding the collaboration of the non-ordained faithful in the sacred ministry of priests" also know as "Ecclesiae de mysterio"]
A communion service is not a eucharistic liturgy, it does not have a Eucharistic Prayer.
The Code of Canon Law has in canon 766: "The laity may be allowed to preach in a church or oratory if in certain circumstances it is necessary, or in particular cases it would be advantageous, according to the provisions of the Bishops' Conference and without prejudice to Can. 767 §1".
Good stuff, Lee.
Is Ms. Bruney guilty of preaching the homily during Mass, or does she just preach in general outside of Mass, say at one of these Communion or LOTW services?
As I've posted at Mike's blog, she has in the past preached the homily. I don't know if she has recently.
~Dr. K
Various interesting passages of Ms. Bruney from her bulletin articles. The original .pdf's can be uploaded and provided upon request:
-"As the only lay member of our diocesan Priest Personnel Board, I am only too well aware of how tight our human resources are these days" (From bulletin 1/11/09)
-"I have tried to make an appearance at each of the six weekend Masses on both campuses, and so far, I have pulled that off without overtaxing myself (though I really miss being at Sunday Mass with you!). When I choose to preach, I will necessarily be absent from one parish or the other for the weekend. The other challenge for me in North Chili is to arrange for presiders (mostly generous retirees) for their weekend and weekday Masses. St. Christopher’s will offer Scripture & Communion services every weekday for which I cannot provide a priest for them, and hopefully, in the process, will discover what other parishes have been doing for quite some time now." (From bulletin 1/18/09)
-"You won’t be seeing much of me at church today because I’ve chosen to share in the preaching at St. Christopher’s this weekend." (From bulletin 1/25/09)
-"Already, 27% of our parishes are led by someone other than a “home grown” diocesan priest. That’s more than one in four! About threefifths of these are pastoral administrators, such as yours truly (who is also the longest tenured female pastoral administrator currently serving in the diocese)." (also from 1/25/09 bulletin)
She's on the priest personnel board? She "chooses" when she feels like preaching? She preaches at Sunday Masses? What is going on out there in Churchville?
~Dr. K
What struck me in the video was that over the three interior "renovations" the church became less and less Catholic. It now looks like a Congregationalist or possibly Presbyterian church and I think that was it’s purpose.
The Old House Journal used to have page in it's monthly magazine called the "Remuddling of the Month". It highlighted photos sent in by readers of grotesque "remodelings" that destroyed the character of a historic building or place. It's strange seeing a parish that that is promoting it's own "Remuddling."
But from what I've read, it's seems par for the course in the DOR.
John Kennedy
What's with these jokers? Report them to the Vatican.
Also, tell her what you think about her lay preaching, and what is the law:
CBruney@dor.org
She temporarily took over my parish, St. Christopher, while our pastor was on vacation. I look forward to her leaving.
Charlotte Bruney- The original Sr. Joan?
The simple answer is to close some parishes. I guess the bishop has to keep all these parishes open if he wants to make sure that the PAs have a job. It is sad when you have to lose good music directors and cantors because you need to add a PA salary where one isn't needed. And of course the PA has to have staff. If she doesn't have staff then she has to be the bookeeper and she is above all that right. :)
Loyal Catholic
Ms. Bruney will be resigning from her position when the clustering of a few parishes in their planning group. The cluseter will be three parishes led by one leader; could be a priest or could be a Pastoral Administrator. In all probability they will still need hired gun priest to help on weekends due to priest shortage. You will probably get your wish of closing over time when there will be one diocese consisting of Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse and mega churches that you will have to drive a distance to. All we can say by then is "good luck."
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