Rejection of Instituted Readers
Another Dean of the Melbourne cathedral has told me, an instituted lector, that I cannot read there.
I had a discussion for about 30 minutes with Very Reverend Geoffrey Baron on Thursday 10 July 2003.
I wrote him a letter on 23 June 2003:
"... Recently I phoned you and explained that I was instituted as a lector by Archbishop Pell in 2000. I regularly attend Sunday Mass at the cathedral and believe I should read there. ..."
I provided extracts from the liturgical books, including the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal.
In the interview I put all sorts of arguments. For example this was not just about me, seminarians who were instituted lectors should also read.
But he had read the Tribunal's first judgement. He had discussed the issue with one of the judges. He had reached the conclusion, which I find absurd, that instituted readers should not read. There is a custom that they do not read, which overrides the rules in liturgical books saying they should read.
I wonder what people at the Vatican are doing about such blantant violation of liturgical rules.
John Allen has written about a meeting on 27 June 2003:
"... the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments held an unusual joint plenary session. The topic for the closed-door session was a forthcoming document on liturgical practice and abuses that will be the disciplinary follow-up to John Paul's recent encyclical, Ecclesia De Eucharistia. A 55-page draft was discussed at the meeting and in subsequent follow-up sessions. ..."
CNS have reported that the document was discused on 4 July 2003 in a meeting with John Paul II, Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Worship and Sacraments, and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
I hope this results in good procedures for dealing with the breaking of liturgical laws.
By J.R. Lilburne, 14 July 2003. I give what I have written on this page to the public domain.
Other sites:
John Allen's report on a 55 page draft of a liturgical discpline document at the Vatican