Gerard

Nov 20 2007, 09:29 AM

Timothy,

Yes, I also am very very uncomfortable with this custom.

Gerry

Timothy

Nov 20 2007, 02:24 AM

Most Catholics (myself included) have asked a Priest to offer the sacrifice of Holy Mass for your own personal intentions. Be that, that someone you know has died, someone is ill, someone faces an uncertain period etc.

Receiving a Mass card is a wonderful experience for many people when in a difficult situation, it often says more than words ever can, and the gesture is so meaningful and powerful, that it is not just a gesture.

Yet conventional wisdom has it that the sender of a Mass card gives the Priest a donation (I will stop short of calling it payment.) "for the Mass." The amount that is paid is completely beside the point, be it £5, £20 or £1000; however it is the fact that the sacrifice of Mass being said for the intentions of an individual usually takes place after some form or donation has been made, thus creating a clear correlation between money and the sacrifice of Mass.

Is this a morally correct? I know no body has to have Mass said for them, however as Masses are often said for the deceased, the ill, the needy etc. Is it not a wrong message to give that the more money one has, the greater ability one has to have prayers said for one self.

Although the Universal Church doesn't ask for money, or does not state that money should be paid to a Priest to say a Mass, but as the practice is that a Priest is usually "paid," and in a Parish I was in, it was actually stated in a newsletter, and I have seen pre-signed Mass Cards sold for a specified amount. So while the Church does not approve directly of this practise, it does happen.

Quote:

 

Filthy Lucre
The other evening at the 200 club meal, someone asked me about mass intentions - you may have noticed that there have been notices in the bulletin over the last few weeks - and also about mass stipends. She suggested that it might be an idea to write about it.

It is something that few priests will talk about... not for any bad reasons, but because it has to do with money. We priests will talk about money all day long, if it is for the Church, or for a charity... but when it comes to ourselves, then we are a little more quiet. Priests are paid a minimal wage. Indeed in some parishes our income will fall below the “poverty” level and we then have the right to take money from parish funds to lift us to £5,000 or so. A priest’s wage is made up of a salary of £147 per month, the Easter and Christmas offering and any stipends he may receive. Believe me, it is more than enough to live on.

A Mass stipend is an offering given to the priest for saying a Mass. It is not paying for a Mass or buying a Mass, but is an offering. It can be anything or nothing. The system is designed so that that money would be the “wage” of the priest for one day. In previous times, it would physically be the money that the priest would then use to buy food for the day. That is different now, a priest’s food is provided by the parish, but the system remains.

I may receive only one stipend per day (to stop me saying hundreds of Masses and becoming terribly rich!). On days when there is more than one stipend, then the priest must say the Mass again (on a day when there is no stipend) or give it away to be said again by another priest.

Some years ago the Bishops of England and Wales suggested a typical “offering” to be £5, but there is no fixed amount for a Mass stipend. You do not need to give anything, or can give tuppence ha’apenny or a hundred pounds (all of which I have received at one time or another), but it is not a subject that we should be embarrassed about. As Our Lord says “a workman deserves his wages”.

If you want a mass said - come to me (or put it through the door) and we’ll fix a date, or I will say it when I can - take a Mass card and I will sign it, you can send it to someone if you want - and give me a Mass offering of anything or nothing. But do have masses offered, it is the greatest prayer the Church has.

CARLO

Nov 20 2007, 10:18 PM

I have no problem whatsoever with this Catholic tradition and have never met a Catholic who has.

In one Diocese I know well the 'guideline contribution' is £5.

If you haven't got £5 or you are not happy to pay £5 then you don't pay it. The Mass still gets said. I am sure similar arrangements apply elsewhere.

We Catholics are so guilt ridden about things like this.

Time to get over it!

Veritas
Truth


CARLO