Retention of Mass Offerings by Priests for Combined Mass Intentions: Canons 948 and 951
In many parishes throughout the United States, pastors routinely collect hundreds of combined Mass intentions for the celebrations of Mothers Day, Fathers Day and especially All Souls' Day. While the decree Mos iugiter (AAS 83 [1991]436-446) permitted the combining of collective Mass intentions...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2015
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| In: |
Roman Replies and CLSA Advisory Opinions 2015
Year: 2015, Pages: 88-91 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Holy See (motif), Verfasserschaft1, Codex iuris canonici (1983). 948
/ Holy See (motif), Verfasserschaft1, Codex iuris canonici (1983). 951
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| IxTheo Classification: | SA Church law; state-church law SB Catholic Church law |
| Summary: | In many parishes throughout the United States, pastors routinely collect hundreds of combined Mass intentions for the celebrations of Mothers Day, Fathers Day and especially All Souls' Day. While the decree Mos iugiter (AAS 83 [1991]436-446) permitted the combining of collective Mass intentions, the same decree clearly reiterated the intention of canon 951 with regard to what could be retained personally by a priest. In many parishes, the excess money from these offerings, frequently in the thousands of dollars, is retained by the priest or distributed by the pastor to himself and other priests of the parish. Some pastors justify this by saying that these are not actually Mass offerings and suggest that they are something else. Some apply these "special collections" to general parish funds and then pay them out to the priests of the parish, including themselves as "bonuses," under their local spending authority. If these combined offerings are not Mass offerings, what then are they? Under what authority may a pastor dispense parish general funds for his personal enrichment? How does this distribution of funds offered by the faithful not directly contradict the letter and spirit of canon law, Church tradition and the intention of the donors with the resultant risk of scandal? |
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| ISBN: | 9781932208412 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Roman Replies and CLSA Advisory Opinions 2015
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