Bishops prepare to debate, vote on liturgy documents

Published: 2003-11-10

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago Nov. 10 presented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops with two liturgy documents -- one on concelebrated Masses and one on the rites for Sunday worship when no priest is present. The bishops were to debate and vote on the documents later during their four-day meeting in Washington. Cardinal George, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Liturgy, said the revised "Guidelines for the Concelebration of the Eucharist" do not establish any new liturgy law, but simply summarize and put together in one place existing general liturgical laws on the subject. For that reason, he said, it only needed a majority vote by the bishops to be adopted. The cardinal noted that the revised edition of "Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest" was a document with specific liturgical texts and adaptations for the United States, so it needed a two-thirds approval by the bishops and subsequent confirmation by the Holy See. One change in the proposed new text is a shift of the act of thanksgiving in such services to after Communion if the service includes a Communion rite.

Copyright (c) 2003 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .