From a reader comes a messy question, which a Guest Priest will answer…
QUAERITUR:
Our “Quasi-parish”, due to rotation of clergy, has a new priest. His first outward change was to get the candles off the floor in front of the altar.
Still no scheduled time for confessions, and he doesn’t wear a stole with his alb and chasuble either. Before full vestments were purchased with a hefty donation by a local man working in the US, our assigned priests wore only a stole over the alb–probably a lot more comfortable when midday temperatures were nudging the 100° mark. This holy man serves from a church established more than a century ago, celebrating Mass two or three times a day, seven days a week, among some 20 chapels in villages scattered across a mountainous territory of at least 250 square miles.5
With the end of the school year, it can be hoped that the bishop will again send one of the priests from the seminary to help during the summer, because babies keep being born, people still want to marry, and people still reach the end of their earthly sojourn, and a second priest can lighten the load.
Is the priest assigned to a “quasi-parish”, formerly a vicar forane of a vicariate, a “quasi-pastor”?
GUEST PRIEST RESPONSE: Fr. Tim Ferguson
No, unless the particular law provides otherwise (canon 516, 1), he is the proper parish priest (parochus – in American, pastor) of the quasi-parish.
Are you certain he’s not wearing the stole underneath his chasuble (as he should)? It would seem very odd for a “holy man” to neglect this important aspect of his sacred vesture for Mass. If there is an issue with heat, very lightweight fiddleback vestments are a better solution than foregoing the appropriate dress for Mass.
UPDATE
A reader writes:
CIC can. 516, 1 does NOT describe the priest entrusted with the care of a “quasi-parish” as a “parochus,” but rather as a “pastor.” Only a parish is entrusted to a “parochus” (see can. 515)
GUEST PRIEST CORRECTION: Fr. Tim Ferguson
I was erroneously reading back into the Latin. It is “pastori proprio” rather than parochus. I’m not sure quite how that changes things. He is certainly not a “quasi-pastor” although I see in the commentary that he was thusly named in the 1917 Code and our friend Coccopalmerio suggests that he be so-called. I suppose then, he is technically not obliged to the Missa pro populo.
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