kabarsula Question Corner: Should custom be considered when it comes to the laity’s posture during the Our Father? — Jenna Marie Cooper bandar SLOT INDONESIA

Q: As another follow-up to the question of what laity do during the Our Father at Mass: When the law is silent, would not the Church’s liturgical law envision that custom in a parish governs what the faithful do or not do in order to provide for different cultural expressions of prayer?

For instance, charismatic Catholics may pray with arms lifted up, while Catholic parishes with traditional Latin “high church” practices may just do so with hands devoutly folded. Should custom, and the strength of custom, be carefully considered when evaluating whether a parish is fulfilling the law?

A: The short answer is that, in my own opinion as a canon lawyer, I don’t think that individual parish practices regarding liturgical gestures would rise to the level of canonical custom with the force of law.

For some background, the concept of “custom” as a technical canonical term is more precise than our more colloquial, everyday usage of the word.

Often when we speak informally about “customs” in a parish, we mean the practical ways a parish chooses to do certain things. For example, we might talk about the parish’s custom of coffee and doughnuts after the 11 a.m. Sunday Mass. Similarly, different parishes will naturally have different styles or preferences regarding the various permitted options in the liturgy. For example, some parishes might gravitate towards more traditional Gregorian chant, and others might prefer more contemporary hymns.

But none of these so-called “customs” are understood to be a strict matter of obligation or something unchangeable. Pastors or parish committees don’t need permission to adjust the timing of the coffee hour, and there’s nothing to stop a parish folk choir from learning some Latin Mass parts.

On the other hand, a custom in a canonical sense (meaning one that actually becomes a kind of de facto law) is something more limited and intentional, and there are strict parameters as to what would be considered this kind of custom.

The concept of “custom” is discussed in Canons 23 to 28 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Pertinent to your question here, Canon 25 of the Code tells us that: “No custom acquires the force of law unless it has been observed, with the intention of introducing a law, by a community capable at least of receiving a law.”

Right off the bat, it can be noted that a parish is not able to introduce a binding custom since most canonical commenters would not consider a parish to be “a community capable of receiving a law.”

Parishes are of course entities recognized in canon law, and as such are bound to follow the universal laws of the Church. But parishes themselves don’t have what we call “proper law” for every individual parish — although diocesan bishops do have the power to enact proper diocesan law for the parishes as a whole throughout their local territory.

Additionally, Canon 26 states that: “Unless it has been specifically approved by the competent legislator, a custom which is contrary to the canon law currently in force, or is apart from the canon law” — that is, falls into a gray area where the law is silent — “acquires the force of law only when it has been lawfully observed for a period of thirty continuous and complete years.”

Even if we suppose for the sake of argument that a parish is a community “capable of receiving a law,” in order for hand-holding during the “Our Father” to become a canonical custom, the parish community in question would need to: 1. Have had the deliberate intention of introducing a custom; and 2. Actually practice that custom for 30 straight years with no objections from a competent authority. In real life, I doubt there are many parishes that check all these boxes!

So in light of all these considerations, in cases where the law is silent, I don’t think a parish’s long-standing practice would overrule the directives of the parish priest.

Jenna Marie Cooper, who holds a licentiate in canon law, is a consecrated virgin and a canonist whose column appears weekly at OSV News. Send your questions to [email protected].