Question
Our pastor says that we have to do many things before our parish is allowed to start perpetual adoration. What things and why?
--Bummed in Boston
Answer
Recently the Archdiocese of Boston issued guidelines and a report on this. Rev. James Field provides this answer from this diocesan notice on the Liturgy Network:
Perpetual Adoration is not permitted in parish churches. As noted in Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass: perpetual adoration is permitted only in the case of those religious communities and other pious societies of men and women who, according to the constitutions and regulations of their institute, have the general practice of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration or adoration over extended periods of time (Pastoral Guidelines and Policies, Book 2, 6031E).
There are no religious communities in the Archdiocese with Perpetual Adoration. Several parishes have initiated requests for dispensation from this rule.
These requests are referred to the Office for Worship directly by Cardinal Law. In most cases, when the requirements for Perpetual Adoration are explored, the request is withdrawn by the pastor. In one case, the parish moved ahead with the request.
In order for them to begin on an experimental basis, they had to tend to the primary form of Eucharistic activity. They were required to celebrate Sunday liturgy with attention to ministry, to engagement of the assembly, and to music at every Mass. They had to institute communion from the cup, and have a full corps of [communion] ministers to serve in the hospitals, nursing homes, and in the homes of the sick. They also had to build a secure place for adoration apart from the main body of the church and provide a sufficient number of volunteers to fulfill the requirements of the devotion. After these matters were attended to, the parish returned to the Archdiocese for permission, which Cardinal Law granted.
Occasionally a parish moves ahead with a request for Perpetual Adoration. I usually begin by sending them to St. Patrick's in Natick to see the scope of liturgical change required before a request can be heard. You can imagine what the promoters do when they realize that a request for Perpetual Adoration activates Archdiocesan policies on communion under both species, not to mention singing at Mass.
This answer is courtesy of the Liturgy Network from the Center for Pastoral Liturgy, Notre Dame, Indiana.