Can a sister be the sacristan in a parish church?

[Susan]

The following article is very interesting.  For those of us who are members of sodalities, altar societies and other groups which help in taking care of the church, chapel, parish grounds, etc.,:   be of good cheer.  You are in good company!  I only put the beginning of the article here, so please follow the link to finish reading it.

 So, if you are concerned about what has been posted on other forums/blogs/sites about who can or can not be sacristans, this well researched, documented and articulate article should clear the muddled waters for you. 

Can a sister be the sacristan in a parish church?

Louis J. Tofari From time to time, misinformed assertions on liturgical matters are bantered about. A recent example is that a female religious should not be a sacristan in a parish church. This erroneous assertion is actually not a new one, for a few years ago I had been asked to produce a study to demonstrate the Church's authentic attitude through her history, practice and laws on this matter. As this topic has arisen again, I believe this study should finally be published in order that Catholics everywhere may better appreciate and properly understand this important issue. What is sacristan? The word sacristan comes from the word sacristy itself derived from the Latin word sacer, meaning that which is sacred, or set apart. The sacristy is where the objects reserved for divine worship are generally kept. Thus the sacristan has the duty to maintain the sacred vessels and furnishings used in the liturgy—not just in the sacristy, but also in the sanctuary, and in the church in general. These tasks can include the preparation of the ceremonial items before a function, as well as their care and maintenance outside divine services, such as keeping the sacred vessels polished, laundering the sacred linens, ensuring the vestments are in good repair, and ordering sanctuary items as required like candles, hosts, and wine.

source

[Alley]

NO

[Dawn Marie]

Previously on the SSPX, the answer to these questions were given by Fr. Peter Scott (below)

Who has the right to touch the chalice and sacred linens, namely the corporal, pall and purificator?

According to the traditional law of the Church it is normally only clerics who have received the tonsure who can touch the chalice, and the sacred linens before they are purified. This is explained in canon 1306, para. 1. However, an exception is given. As well as clerics, these items can also be handled by those who are assigned care of them, that is by the sacristan.

According to the interpretation given in Woywood and Smith, A Practical Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, Volume II, pp.93-94, the authorized sacristan who can touch these objects can be a religious brother or sister or a lay person.

Writing before the promulgation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, Wernz says that in the course of time the ancient rigor in the matter of touching the sacred vessels was relaxed, so that lay brothers and religious, sisters and laymen acting as sacristans were permitted to touch the sacred vessels.

However, it is not because a person is authorized to touch these items that he should necessarily do so. This is what Matters Liturgical no. 96 (p.152) has to say:

If the custodian is a lay person (i.e., not a tonsured cleric) it is at least becoming that, when possible and convenient, a veil should be used in handling it (i.e., the chalice and associated linens).

In practice it is much easier to use gloves, and that is what I recommend for my sacristans and altar boys.

Quite different is the practice of the post-Conciliar Church, which has abandoned all sense of the sacred. Note that in the 1983 Code of Canon Law there are no canons at all which correspond to the canons 1296-1306 in the 1917 Code concerning the sacred objects in the Church. This silent omission of all the Church's provisions concerning the blessing and consecration of sacred objects and the care to be taken in their use, is one further sign of the desacralization of the post-Conciliar Church.

[Answered by Fr. Peter R. Scott]

PART I. Can women be permitted to sing in the choir in church?

The principles are given by Pope St. Pius X in his motu proprio on the restoration of Sacred Music, and in particular of the ancient Gregorian Chant. This document of November 22, 1903, is entitled Tra le sollecitudine and is published in its entirety in the March 1995 issue of The Angelus (pp.36-40).

The pope states repeatedly that the Sacred Chant is an integral part of the liturgy, directed to the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful. (§1) It is consequently not a performance, but a part of the act of divine worship. His conclusion follows:

Except the chant of the celebrant and the sacred ministers at the altar, which must always be sung in plainchant without any accompaniment, the rest of the liturgical singing belongs properly to the choir of clerics ...It follows from the same principle that the singers in church have a real liturgical office, and that women therefore, being incapable of such an office, cannot be admitted to the choir (§§12, 13).

[Answered by Fr. Peter R. Scott]



PART II. Does this mean that women should not sing in church at all?

The fact that women cannot perform the liturgical office of singing does not mean that they should not sing in church at all. To the contrary, they should participate in the congregational singing. That such congregational singing is indeed the mind of the Church is indicated by Pope Pius XI in his Apostolic Constitution of Dec. 20, 1928, on the Liturgy, Gregorian Chant and Sacred Music:

In order that the faithful may more actively participate in divine worship, let them be made once more to sing the Gregorian Chant, so far as it belongs to them to take part in it. It is most important that when the faithful assist at the sacred ceremonies... they should not be merely detached and silent spectators, but, filled with a deep sense of the beauty of the liturgy, they should sing alternately with the clergy or the choir, as it is prescribed (§IX).

There are some exceptions to the rule forbidding women from singing in choirs. One such exception is religious women in their own community. Canon Law permits them to sing the chants of Mass, if permitted by their constitutions, but providing that they are in a place where they cannot be seen by the faithful (1917 Code of Canon Law, canon 1264), since they are not a choir in the liturgical sense.

Another exceptional case (and it is important that it remains exceptional) is when there is a dearth of male singers, and when it is necessary for the solemnity of the service that men and women join in the singing. (Predmore, Rev. George, Sacred Music and the Catholic Church, 1936, p.117). However,

...we are to make every possible and fair effort to introduce either congregational singing of the liturgy, or to have male choirs. But the service is not to be made unbecoming, distracting, or ridiculous by literal adherence to the law, where the conditions really hinder its decorous observance (ibid. p.118).

[Answered by Fr. Peter R. Scott]

[Dawn Marie]

Yes they can be Sacristans, that is obvious.  What they should not be doing is written below by a member of the parish in Oregon who states:  ( and which btw I can not verify one way or the other since I do not go there.  I'm simply reposting their qualms)

"The Sisters also sing the Propers for High Mass (a function which has historically only been given to men because it is part of the Mass). The Sisters are also training the High School girls to sing the Propers of the Mass "in case they have a vocation to the Convent".

Fr Burfitt has encouraged the Men's Schola to alternate Sundays with the Sisters, but the Sisters wind up singing more Masses because "the Sisters are better singers". (The men are forbidden to sing the Propers Recto-Tonally.).

Fr Burfitt is at least allowing the Men's Schola to sing the Propers once in a while.  Fr Cooper did not allow the Men's Schola to sing at all once the Sisters arrived.  "The Sisters are much better singers," was Fr Cooper's justification."

And to my knowledge it is not written by the gentleman who was just kicked out for upsetting the novus ordo people down the way (?) with his letter and asking members of the SSPX in Oregon to look into the resistance and see if there was any truth or validity to their claims.