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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I sincerely hope that you are enjoying your summer.
These longer days of Daylight Savings Time really are amazing.
You can get so much done! The trick for me is to keep
remembering that you don’t have three or four hours AFTER the
sun goes down before you should go to bed. It’s made for some
short nights.
You may have noticed in Bishop Higi’s column in
The Catholic Moment
a couple of weeks ago, that he wrote about Mass stipends. The
Mass stipend is the gift that is offered for having a Mass
prayed for a particular person or a particular prayer.
Remember, every time a priest offers the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass, he has a particular thing or person that he is offering
that Mass for. In essence, that Mass is being prayed by that
priest, for that particular cause or person. The priest offers
the Sacrifice for that particular concern. Most times, when I
pray Mass, the Church tells me what I am going to be praying for
and offering the Sacrifice of the Mass for. Every day people
come in, or send in, Mass intentions that are to prayed at a
particular place. St. Maria Goretti has always been blessed
with a great number of these requests. So much so, in order to
have Mass prayed for somebody or something here at our Parish,
it now takes six to nine months. The stipend for having a Mass
prayed for a particular person or cause has been five dollars
for what seems to have been forever. The cost is set by the
local Diocese, and in our case, the entire state of Indiana, the
Province of Indiana, as it is called in the Church, which
includes the four dioceses of Ft. Wayne / South Bend (one
Diocese), Gary, Evansville, and Lafayette-in-Indiana, along with
the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, all try and do the same thing.
Ever since we have been a Diocese, the cost of having a Mass
said or prayed has been five dollars. Well, guess what? The
five Dioceses of the State of Indiana have all agreed that it is
time to raise the stipend to ten dollars per Mass. And so,
effective July 1st,
next weekend, the offering to have a Mass prayed for someone or
something is now $10 per Mass.
In the Catholic Church, we have a long tradition of
having Masses prayed for our dead, especially right after they
die, and on anniversaries, birthdays, and other special
occasions. This is extremely important for the poor souls in
purgatory, and a great way to remember our dead loved ones. One
of the big reasons for the increase now, is that now after many
Catholics die, the funeral homes are bringing us hundreds of
dollars in Masses that are supposed to be said in a timely
fashion. These large requests, which are a good thing, have so
over-whelmed many Parishes that it is next to impossible in some
areas to get a Mass prayed for your intention. The hope is that
by raising the standard offering, these hundreds of Masses from
estates will not be able to overwhelm parish schedules and
everyone will have the opportunity to have Masses prayed for
their loved ones.
I think that it is also important to note that in many
parts of the world, the Mass stipend is the only salary that
some priests get. In the United States, priests are paid a
living-wage salary that is set from diocese to diocese. That is
not true everywhere. In most cases in the United States,
priests donate their Mass stipend income back to the Church or
to other charities. Yes, priests have to give too. In fact,
I’d have to say that of all the priests that I’ve met, they are
some of the most generous people that I know, oftentimes using
their Mass stipends to help others. I think that it is because
if we are going to dare to ask others to be generous, we know
that we ourselves must also be generous with our treasure.
Why do we have to pay or offer anything to have a Mass
prayed for us? Is it really a good idea to “buy” prayers?
We’ve got to remember that when we ask to have the Mass offered
for our intention, we are asking the priest to perform a service
for us. Throughout the Old Testament, when the priests offered
any sacrifice for anybody, some portion or gift was given to the
priest in thanksgiving for his service. In Luke 10: 7 we are
reminded that the “laborer” is “worth, or deserves, his
payment”. Jesus was talking about taking care of the Apostles
in this passage, but much the same could be said of the Mass
stipends today.
I assure you that everybody is more than a little
uneasy about this, including our five Indiana bishops. It hasn’t
been done for a long, long time. And maybe that’s the real
problem. I sure can’t think of too many things that still cost
what they did fifty-two years ago. Hopefully, this can help all
of us appreciate every Mass a little more.
Have a great week! The days are starting to get
shorter already. Enjoy each one!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
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