In a recent issue of The Tablet a well-intentioned article exhorts priests to preside at liturgy with liturgical sensitivity and pastoral care. A sentiment to which we can all mutter a pious “Amen!”But in developing his case the author speaks of the priest acting “in persona Christi capitas.” Surely you presume (as did I) a regrettable lapsus on the part of the venerable weekly’s copy editor.Reading further, however, one comes upon the suggested complementarity of capitas and corpus — and doubt begins to darken the brow.The case is sealed with a rousing flourish of ex opere operanto.Ubinam gentium sumus?

Robert P. Imbelli, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, has contributed to Commonweal for fifty years. A selection of his essays and reviews, some of which first appeared in Commonweal, has been published as Christ Brings All Newness (Word on Fire Academic).

Also by this author