New Marian feast must be
celebrated beginning this year
 |
| The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. |
The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of
the Sacraments has clarified that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of the Church, must be celebrated by everyone, beginning this year.
A “Notification” from the Church’s Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has clarified that the new
Obligatory Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, must be
celebrated in the Ordinary form of the Roman Rite beginning this year.
The new feast is to be observed on the Monday following
Pentecost.
New feast to be preferred
The notification, signed by Cardinal Robert Sarah, the
Prefect of the Congregation, notes that an exception still exists, in
accordance with the rubrics in the Roman Missal: “Where the Monday or Tuesday
after Pentecost are days on which the faithful are obliged or accustomed to
attend Mass, the Mass of Pentecost Sunday may be repeated, or a Mass of the Holy
Spirit may be said.”
Nevertheless, the document insists, “all else being equal,
the Obligatory Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church is to
be preferred.”
Because Pentecost is a movable feast, tied to the
celebration of Easter, it is possible that the new Memorial could coincide with
another Memorial of a Saint or Blessed; and when this happens, the feast of
Mary, Mother of the Church, will take precedence.
History of the feast
The new feast was inserted into the Universal Calendar for
the Latin Church earlier this year by Pope Francis, in a decree dated 11
February 2018 – the 160th anniversary of the apparition of Mary
at Lourdes. Previously, permission to celebrate a feast of Mary had been
extended to Poland and Argentina, as well as St Peter’s Basilica, and several
Religious Orders and Congregations.
The title of “Mother of the Church” was famously bestowed on
the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican
Council. The understanding of Mary’s motherhood has developed in the decades
following Vatican II, especially as the Church has reflected on the Council’s
teaching about Mary in chapter 8 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen
gentium).
Below, please find the full text of the Notification from
the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
NOTIFICATION
on the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
on the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
Following the inscription of the Obligatory Memorial of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of the Church into the Roman Calendar, which must already be
celebrated by everyone this year on the Monday after Pentecost, it seemed
opportune to offer the following directions.
The rubric found in the Roman Missal after the formularies for the Mass of
Pentecost, “Where the Monday or Tuesday after Pentecost are days on which the
faithful are obliged or accustomed to attend Mass, the Mass of Pentecost Sunday
may be repeated, or a Mass of the Holy Spirit, may be said” (Missale Romanum,
p. 448), is still valid because it does not derogate precedence between
liturgical days whose celebration are solely regulated by the Table of
Liturgical Days (cf. Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year
and the Calendar, n. 59). Likewise, precedence is regulated by the
norms on Votive Masses: “Votive Masses are in principle forbidden on the days
on which there occurs an Obligatory Memorial, on a weekday of Advent up to and
including 16 December, on a weekday of Christmas Time from 2 January, or on a
weekday of Easter Time after the Octave of Easter. However, for pastoral
reasons, as determined by the rector of the church or the Priest Celebrant
himself, an appropriately corresponding Votive Mass may be used in a
celebration of Mass with the people” (Missale Romanum, p.1156; cf. General
Instruction of the Roman Missal, n. 376).
Nevertheless, all else being equal, the Obligatory Memorial of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church is to be preferred. The texts of the
Memorial were attached to the Decree along with indications for the readings,
which are to be held as proper because they illuminate the mystery of Spiritual
Motherhood. In a future edition of the Ordo lectionum Missæ the
rubric at n. 572 bis will expressly indicate that the readings are proper and,
even though it is a Memorial, are to be adopted in place of the readings of the
day, (cf. Lectionary, General Introduction, n. 83).
In the case where this Memorial coincides with another Memorial the principles
of the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and Calendar are to be followed
(cf. Table of Liturgical Days, n. 60). Given that the
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church is linked to
Pentecost, as the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
is similarly linked to the celebration of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, then,
in the case where it coincides with another Memorial of a Saint or Blessed, and
following the liturgical tradition of pre-eminence amongst persons, the
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to prevail.
From the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,
24 March 2018.
Robert Card. Sarah
Prefect
Prefect
Arthur Roche
Archbishop Secretary
Archbishop Secretary
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