Holy See Has Spoken, Again - Lay Persons and 'Blessings'

Lay persons may not offer blessings during Holy Mass. Lay persons may not offer blessings during the Holy Mass. Lay persons may not offer blessings during Holy Mass. Unless you feel pressed to 'bless' someone who sneezes in the pew nest to you. Got it?

• Lay people, within the context of Holy Mass, are unable to confer blessings. These blessings, rather, are the competence of the priest (cf. Ecclesia de Mysterio, Notitiae 34 (15 Aug. 1997), art. 6, § 2; can. 1169, § 2; and Roman Ritual De Benedictionibus (1985), n. 18).

• Furthermore, the laying on of a hand or hands—which has its own sacramental significance, inappropriate here—by those distributing Holy Communion, in substitution for its reception, is to be explicitly discouraged.

Can people not in full communion approach the priest for a blessing?

• In a similar way, for others who are not to be admitted to Holy Communion in accord with the norm of law, the Church’s discipline has already made clear that they should not approach Holy Communion nor receive a blessing. This would include non-Catholics and those envisaged in can. 915 (i.e., those under the penalty of excommunication or interdict, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin).

Want to see the information for yourself or to pass on to another? See here.



(Special Thanks to Rich Leonardi)