....at Bishop Baumgartner Memorial School, Guam? Who is responsible?
Lay persons are permitted to assist with the distribution of Holy Communion, however, even this permission is subject to the following:
“Extraordinary ministers may distribute Holy Communion at eucharistic celebrations only when there are no ordained ministers present or when those ordained ministers present at a liturgical celebration are truly unable to distribute Holy Communion.They may also exercise this function at eucharistic celebrations where there are particularly large numbers of the faithful and which would be excessively prolonged because of an insufficient number of ordained ministers to distribute Holy Communion”
ON CERTAIN QUESTIONS REGARDING THE COLLABORATION OF THE NON-ORDAINED FAITHFUL IN THE SACRED MINISTRY OF PRIEST
To emphasize that the Extraordinary minister is truly “extra” and not “ordinary,” the same document goes on to warn against “ the habitual use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Mass thus arbitrarily extending the concept of ‘a great number of the faithful’”.
In the above incident, a lay person is not assisting with the distribution of Holy Communion, but processing with the Holy Eucharist and apparently leading a liturgical function. Moreover, he is dressed in the vestments of a priest when he is not a priest - which is no more allowed than to dress as policeman when you’re not a policeman.
However, the real issue is not the actor in the video but those who permitted this at what appears to be a school function. On a larger scale, the real problem is the abuse of the permit for extraordinary ministers who are employed at seemingly every Mass even when there are not a “great number of the faithful” and ordinary ministers (priests and deacons) are readily available to help. This is wrong.
Liturgical abuse at its finest. Maybe we’ve come to a point where we no longer need clergy to do what they are ordained to do if lay people are permitted to assume their roles and responsibilities.
ReplyDeletepretending to be a priest
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, the "wannabe priest" in the video is Jaden Comon, a middle school religion teacher at BBMCS who used to teach at SACS. I have seen him serve at the Tamuning and Mongmong parishes, and even the TLM at the Friary. It is truly a shame that a layperson would assume what is supposed to be priestly duties without having to undergo the 8 years of discernment and proper formation.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/exposition-of-the-eucharist-by-a-layperson-4344
P.S. It says that a layperson is only allowed to handle the Blessed Sacrament in extreme times of unavailability or emergency, given that authorization is obtained from the priest. Watching the video, however, I would assume that the Exposition and Benediction would usually take place before the school mass. Your thoughts, Tim?
Dear Peter,
DeleteYou are correct in your remarks and observations. As far as the EWTN piece, just a word of caution, it is relying on a Zenit News Q&A. If you have followed this site for a while, it should raise questions in your mind. Should you be a new reader, please note that Zenit News is part of the propaganda arm of the NCW, and therefore should be treated with extreme caution.
A little fly on the wall tells me that the Chancery was made aware of the issue, in a speedy manner.
The problem has several layers.
Apparently the School principal was feeling uncomfortable with said event, and reached out to the Head of Catholic schools for guidance.
The Head of Catholic Schools did not seem to take the issue seriously, which is very worrisome in itself.
Mr Comon has apparently been given a lot of room by the Pastors of the parishes mentioned, which again is alarming, since one of these pastors is the Vicar for the Clergy.
It seems that the departing Vicar General, soon to be Bishop of Chalan Kanoa made his successor aware of the issue. The later gave precise instructions to Fr Jeff (Head of Catholic Schools), to notify all parties involved on how the issue should have been handled.
I hear the questions highlighted above shall be addressed very soon, and appropriate corrections will be taken.
I pray for the sake of this Diocese that either the Archbishop or the incoming Vicar General, or both will issue a public statement on the subject that will be clear and to the point.
Lets watch and observe.
It's why I asked "Who is responsible?" This is apparently during a school assembly. While the actor is in the wrong, it is whoever permitted this who is responsible. So that's immediately on the principal. Ultimately this is on the archbishop. Was it done with his permission? If so, why? If not, then the archbishop must discipline this action publicly since the act was public and a scandal.
ReplyDeleteThe walks as fast as Cardinal Cupich in procession.
ReplyDelete😳
ReplyDeleteHopefully this opens a can of worms if it’s necessary to correct the liturgical abuses going on, and there’s many.
ReplyDeleteThis should be an easy one for the new archbishop. Let's see how or if he responds.
DeleteWow... This is just sad to see. I wonder if there was any resistance from anyone in this being done.
ReplyDeleteIn two days, the post has had 438 views. That's far more than any post in a very long time. Apparently there is a lot of interest. People are paying attention. They want to know what's up.
ReplyDeleteBy now the Archbishop should have been informed of the incident at Bishop Baumgartner School and if so, will anything be coming out of the chancellor’s office? Perhaps it was nothing more than an innocent simulation.
ReplyDeleteApparently the Chancery was made aware of the scandal. It is a multi layer issue.
DeleteThe head of Catholic Schools should have never allowed this. I think Fr Jeff. The School director should have raised alarm bells, and stopped it prior to the event. The center of the issue is in fact Jaden Comon, who has been known for deviations in the past. This happened while there is a gap in the vicar general transmission of responsibilities. Lets see how this will be handled
Fr. Jeff couldn’t care less about liturgical abuses. Ask him how he feels about the Tridentine Mass and you’ll know what I mean. He’s either crying, frowning, or nervous about something. By the way, why does he always seem to have a chip on his shoulder?
Deletewould someone care to explain what problem is here? surely this is only considered wrong if he gave a blessing.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the fact that he was using a humeral veil to carry the Blessed Sacrament, which is a vestment reserved only for priests or deacons. Extraordinary ministers (only in extreme cases) would simply carry it using a corporal and without the use of incense.
DeleteIn essence, we have people who only want "the benefit of the harvest but never toil for it," in this case, him wanting the benefit of the priests while never discerning nor spending time in the seminary to foster this call. And no word on these liturgical abuses from the Chancery only seems to worsen the state of things.
Are we not being a little too harsh on him? What even was the intention of the person who recorded this? Did anyone even care to translate what the person recording is saying in the background?
ReplyDeleteHarsh? Hardly. In fact, to date, there has been no public acknowledgment of any repercussions of this public incident. I'd say it's been pretty easy.
DeleteThe intention of the person who recorded "this" was most likely to document an abuse and rightfully so. The translation of what the person is saying is loosely: "Is this done outside of Church? It should be a priest doing this."
just adding onto what the person said, they were talking about the incense.
DeleteSee, this is an example of why people are leaving the Catholic Church and vocations for the priesthood or religious life are at an all-time low. The silence of Jimenez and the Chancery in terms of correcting these wrongs only solidifies this notion.
ReplyDeleteRight. What is a teacher even doing recording during this event where students are exposed in the background? Don’t we, as parents to children in Catholic schools sign a media release form? If our children aren’t allowed to record themselves or others on school grounds, shouldn’t the teachers be held to
Deletethat same standard?
How do we know it is a teacher? BTW, I invited Jason Comen, after he contacted me, to share his side of the story in these comments.
DeleteI suppose you’re right and it’s merely assumption. I guess the only way we’ll find out is if someone comes forward. Though I am curious what was being said in the background?
DeleteTo the best of my ability, the backtalk is in the Kapampangan dialect and roughly translates to "The teachers from the middle school (section) are all already standing, but wait, the one carrying it is one of them. That person has incense, he's supposed to kneel down. Incense is usually used at church. but I guess he took some from there. I am gonna tell on him. Look, he's kneeling down."
DeleteLooks like Comon nor the ones responsible of letting such an abomination run loose at BBMCS would come forward and share their sides of the story here on JW. That's because the incident in general is just wrong, and thus, their "side of the story" is necessary.
DeleteI've been waiting for over a week to see if an announcement will be made before I shared this junglewatch post... but apparently silence is the current response. We should never be given the silent treatment. It starts with our young. We don't need another set of abuses to continue in the church and swept under the rug. Too easily we are silenced because God is not sleeping: Tell that to the children who were just exposed to this scandal. You cannot say they didn't know. A theology teacher should know. A catholic school should know. People send their children to Catholic School so they're not exposed to the wrong thing and here in the most basic of our faith the Blessed Sacrament is abused.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest enabler of Jaden Comon’s antics is Fr. Andre Eduvala - you should watch their performance of the mass at Agana Heights church. Won’t be at all surprised if Comon received the Holy Eucharist from Eduvala.
ReplyDeleteVery sad indeed. Considering the many whispers I hear from a variety of parishioners that Comon isn't a seminarian nor ordained minister, or the fact that he's getting married soon, the liturgical abuse itself doesn't help things. The Holy Eucharist should ONLY be held by the consecrated hands of our ordained clergy, not the same hands of lay people which are defiled with the stain of sin, presenting another flaw in the "spirit of modernity" of Vatican II. Oh, well. 😒
DeleteThe hands of both priests and layperson are "defiled with the stain of sin," so that's not the reason only the ordained should handle the Holy Eucharist. It is the fact that they are ordained to do so and have consecrated hands. Laypersons do not, and as per the above reference to the permission for Extraordinary Ministers, said EM may only assist in distributing Holy Communion under the said conditions - which are almost never the case.
DeleteAs of Feb. 26, the views of this post are 1,536. Many times more the views of other recent posts. Everyone is interested. When will we hear from the archbishop?
ReplyDeleteFor the person who submitted the following comment (redacted). Since you are calling out a person by name but afraid to use your own, I'm not going to publish your comment with the person's name. When you're ready to identify yourself, let me know.
ReplyDeleteThe one that recorded it was XXXXX. XXX knew what XXX was doing when recording, seeking attention as always. XXXX been known to be toxic at the school, XXX acts all high and mighty as a good Catholic person, yet toxic at the core. Students are not allowed to have phones but yet XXX has one to record students. XXX is and always will be a hypocrite.