What Makes for a Liturgical Custom?

October is my favorite months of the year, not only because most of my favorite saints have their feast days during this month, or because it ends with Halloween, but also because October is when the Canon La

". In it, I propose seven criteria -- four canonical and three pastoral -- for evaluating whether something is potentially a legitimate liturgical custom or simply a tacky liturgical gimmick.

The four canonical criteria I propose are:
1) Are the majority of the faithful within the community favorable, or at least not opposed, to the proposed custom? (cf can. 23)
2) Is the practice contrary to the Divine Law? (cf. can 24, par. 1)
3) Is the practice reasonable? (cf. can 24, par. 2)
4) Has the practice been expressly forbidden by the competent legislator? (cf. can. 26)

Additionally, the three pastoral criteria I propose are:
1) In the common estimation of most people, would such a practice be a gimmick to entertain them, or a custom from which they could draw spiritual significance?
2) Is the proposed custom fitting for the community in question?
3) Does the proposed custom facilitate and/or enhance the liturgy, drawing people deeper into the liturgy? Or does it simply draw attention to itself, limiting its appeal to a select few within the community, while leaving the majority of the faithful cold as to its meaning?

What? Who?

On life and living in communion with the Catholic Church.

Richard Chonak

John Schultz


You write, we post
unless you state otherwise.

Archives

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Pete Vere published on October 26, 2002 1:16 PM.

Science finds new uses for wine was the previous entry in this blog.

"I did it my way" is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.