Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Basilica Bewilderment




Okay. I just perused the General Instruction of the  Liturgy of the  Hours. I even got out my book just in case I knew something back when I wrote it that I'd since forgotten. I haven't found a thing.

So I'm willing to be vulnerable here! :) To show you that  I'm not quite the expert on the Liturgy of the Hours that people think I am. Here goes:

By what logic or church regulation does the feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica (November 9th) take precedence over the 32nd Sunday in ordinary time???

It's a feast, not a solemnity.

The General Instruction does say that feasts of Our Lord (e.g. Transfiguration, Exaltation  of the Cross) falling on Sunday do take precedence over ordinary Sundays. But by what stretch can you say that the dedication of the Lateran basilica is a feast of Our Lord?

The Lateran is the Pope's diocesan cathedral,and just about the oldest church in  western  Christendom. Maybe that rates it a feast that usurps an ordinary Sunday. I just want to see where that is officially stated.

Maybe the writers of the General Instruction just plain forgot to say that the  Lateran feast also rated precedence over Sunday?

Lots of the readers here are very well informed about all things liturgical and historical. So if any of you have some light to shed on this, shed away!