Liturgy: Liturgical Rights in Liturgical Rites

Let all Christ’s faithful participate in the Most Holy Eucharist as fully, consciously and actively as they can, (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 14; cf. also nn. 11, 41, 48) honouring it lovingly by their devotion and the manner of their life. Let Bishops, Priests and Deacons, in the exercise of the sacred ministry, examine their consciences as regards the authenticity and fidelity of the actions they have performed in the name of Christ and the Church in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. Let each one of the sacred ministers ask himself, even with severity, whether he has respected the rights of the lay members of Christ’s faithful, who confidently entrust themselves and their children to him, relying on him to fulfill for the faithful those sacred functions that the Church intends to carry out in celebrating the sacred Liturgy at Christ’s command. (cf. S. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., III, q. 64, a. 9 ad 1) For each one should always remember that he is a servant of the Sacred Liturgy. (cf. GIRM, n. 24)

Redemptionis Sacramentum, n. 186

This is simply a compendium of the rights of each Catholic regarding the liturgy, as they are found in Redemptionis Sacramentum.

• the right of Christ’s faithful to a liturgical celebration that is an expression of the Church’s life in accordance with her tradition and discipline (RS, n. 11)
• the right of all of Christ’s faithful that the Liturgy, and in particular the celebration of Holy Mass, should truly be as the Church wishes, according to her stipulations as prescribed in the liturgical books and in the other laws and norms (RS, n. 12)
• the right that the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass should be celebrated for them in an integral manner, according to the entire doctrine of the Church’s Magisterium (RS, n. 12)
• the Catholic community’s right that the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist should be carried out for it in such a manner that it truly stands out as a sacrament of unity, to the exclusion of all blemishes and actions that might engender divisions and factions in the Church (RS, n. 12; cf. 1 Cor 11:17-34; Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 52)
• the right that ecclesiastical authority should fully and efficaciously regulate the Sacred Liturgy lest it should ever seem to be “anyone’s private property, whether of the celebrant or of the community in which the mysteries are celebrated” (RS, n. 18; cf. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 52)
• the right of the Christian people themselves that their diocesan Bishop should take care to prevent the occurrence of abuses in ecclesiastical discipline, especially as regards the ministry of the word, the celebration of the sacraments and sacramentals, the worship of God and devotion to the Saints. (RS, n. 24; cf. CIC, can. 392)
• the right of the community of Christ’s faithful that especially in the Sunday celebration there should customarily be true and suitable sacred music, and that there should always be an altar, vestments and sacred linens that are dignified, proper, and clean, in accordance with the norms (RS, n. 57)
• the right to a celebration of the Eucharist that has been so carefully prepared in all its parts that the word of God is properly and efficaciously proclaimed and explained in it; that the faculty for selecting the liturgical texts and rites is carried out with care according to the norms; and that their faith is duly safeguarded and nourished by the words that are sung in the celebration of the Liturgy (RS, n. 58)
• the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, at his choice (RS, n. 92; GIRM, n. 161)
• where the diocesan Bishop has sacred ministers or others whom he can assign to this purpose, the faithful have a right to visit the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist frequently for adoration, and to take part in adoration before the Most Holy Eucharist exposed at least at some time in the course of any given year (RS, n. 139)
• the diocesan Bishop should acknowledge and foster insofar as possible the right of the various groups of Christ’s faithful to form guilds or associations for the carrying out of adoration, even almost continuous adoration. (RS, n. 141)
• the Christian people’s right to have the Eucharist celebrated for them on Sunday, and whenever holydays of obligation or other major feasts occur, and even daily insofar as this is possible (RS, n. 162)
• the lay faithful have the right, barring a case of real impossibility, that no Priest should ever refuse either to celebrate Mass for the people or to have it celebrated by another Priest if the people otherwise would not be able to satisfy the obligation of participating at Mass on Sunday or the other days of precept. (RS, n. 163)
• if participation at the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible on account of the absence of a sacred minister or for some other grave cause,” (cf. CIC, can. 1248 §2; Christi Ecclesia, nn. 1-2)then it is the Christian people’s right that the diocesan Bishop should provide as far as he is able for some celebration to be held on Sundays for that community under his authority and according to the Church’s norms (RS, n. 164)
• any Catholic, whether Priest or Deacon or lay member of Christ’s faithful, has the right to lodge a complaint regarding a liturgical abuse to the diocesan Bishop or the competent Ordinary equivalent to him in law, or to the Apostolic See on account of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff. (RS, n. 184; cf. CIC, can. 1417 §1)