Since the Mass begins with the rites preceding the liturgy of the Word (Cf. GIRM, 46; Pope Francis, General Audience, 20.12.17), the simple answer is NO!
As explicitly stated by GIRM 206: ‘No one is ever to join a concelebration or to be admitted as a concelebrant once the Mass has already begun.’ By this, the ‘late’ priest is voluntarily not to join. If he attempts to join, however, he should be refused.
Understandably, there are instances like ordinations, the first masses of the newly ordained, funerals, weddings, various anniversaries, etc., where priests may like to solidarize with other members of the faithful but arrive late due to various reasons. In such cases, the temptation is always active to claim a non-existent clerical right or to make an emotional appeal to concelebrate.
But aside the necessity to lead by good example, shouldn’t the intention on the part of the priest to protect/foster the ‘material’ sanctity of the Eucharistic celebration, and the effort to facilitate a nondestructive prayer ambience be the overarching principle (cf. GIRM, 42)?
To begin with, it must be acknowledged that concelebration in instances as nominated above is recommended, not prescribed (cf. GIRM, 199; Can. 904). Again, the already cited GIRM 206 still holds, except to add that when necessary, a seat may be provided to the ‘late’ priest at a nondestructive position in the sanctuary. He may vest in a cassock and a surplice, or an alb. Thus, not as a concelebrant who is customarily to put on the alb, stole, and chasuble (cf. GIRM, 209).
Now;
-Do some priests not discourage the laity from communion when they arrive late for Mass? What then of the ordained priest who, together with the common priests, form Christ’s Faithful?
NB: ‘ The Church is the holy faithful People of God of Lumen Gentium, it is neither populism nor elitism. And this cannot be learned theoretically, it is understood by living it ‘ (Pope Francis,18.02.23)
– Contradictory enough, in secular programs, don’t some proponents of the liturgical aberration in question humbly decline to go to the high table at all, remain seated at the back, and get acknowledged because he wouldn’t want to distract the program due to his late arrival? Why not the Mass?
As Henri de Lubac makes us understand, ‘the Church (of which priests are an integral part) makes the Eucharist, and the Eucharist makes the Church’. Therefore, with the highest devotion and adoration (cf. Can. 898), all Christ’s faithful have the duty to protect the Mystery, without which there is no Church nor ministerial Priesthood, in which priests are ‘privileged’.
In humility, therefore, if all ordained ministers are to acknowledge themselves as ‘graced administers’ of the sacred mysteries and not owners, God will be glorified, and His Church will grow.
Source: Fr. Samuel Atta Okyere
