Six Masses in 24 Hours?

There is a great scene in the movie, "A Few Good Men."  The character played by Tom Cruise, an attorney, is trying to get a marine in the witness stand to describe a "code red."  This is when a superior officer orders a marine to rough up another marine, because he was not carrying out his duties in a satisfactory way. 

The prosecuting attorney in the court marshal, played by Kevin Bacon, challenges the marine to point to where in the marine handbook is there a definition of a code red.  The marine can't, because it's not written down.

Cruise jumps up, grabs the marine handbook from Bacon, and asks the marine, can you point to the chapter where it describes the mess hall.  The marine can't.  Cruise, in mock horror, says, you mean the Marines don't feed you?  No, the marine grins, we get three squares a day, good food.  But where is the mess hall, if it's not described in the handbook?  Well, everybody knows where the mess hall is.  Just follow the crowd at lunch.  Point taken.

Lots of things are not written down, just "known."  

For example, from time to time, parishioners ask, "How often does a priest have to say Mass?"  They expect me to say, "every day" or at least "several times a week."  I quote canon 904 for the 1983 Code of Canon Law, "Priests are to celebrate frequently."  The 1917 code obliged priests only to celebrate the Eucharist several times a year.  I quickly add that priests, like all Catholics, are obliged to participate in the celebration of the Eucharist every Sunday and holyday of obligation.  But preside at the celebration?  Only frequently.

In fairness to the canon, it goes on to offer not law but exhortation:  "Indeed, daily celebration is recommended earnestly."  Several other post-Vatican II documents on priestly life and ministry encourage daily celebration of the Mass, as a foundation for engaged priestly spirituality.   But it is not required for a Catholic priest to say Mass every day.

Canon 905 goes on to define limits on how often a priest may celebrate the Eucharist.  

"#1.  A priest is not permitted to celebrate the Eucharist more than once a day except in cases where the law permits him to celebrate or concelebrate more than once on the same day.
"#2. If there is a shortage of priests, the local ordinary can allow priests to celebrate twice a day for a just cause, or if pastoral necessity requires it, even three times on Sundays and holydays of obligation."

The 2000 commentary on the Code of Canon Law by the Canon Law Society of American notes that there have been limitations on how often priests can celebrate the Eucharist dating to the 11th century.  An improper motive could be to say many Masses just so you can receive several stipends (which is against canon 951, which states that a priest can receive only one stipend per day, no matter how many Masses he says).  Another reason for restriction is "is to ensure that the manner of celebrating by priests does not become too hurried or routine due to the pressures of multiple Masses."  Further, the commentary says, "The Apostolic See discourages the multiplication of Masses when a church is large enough to accommodate the faithful at a smaller number of Masses....The pastoral effort is weakened by multiple Masses because the participation of the people in a scattered congregation is diminished and the effectiveness of overworked priests is reduced."

Canon 905 is regularly violated in our neck of the woods.  I know of priests who say six or seven Masses on a weekend, every weekend.  Our diocesan bishop has been known to do the same, in the period from Saturday morning to late on Sunday evening.  I have to believe that in other situations -- a large prison, rural areas with far-flung churches, huge pilgrimage groups -- priests often celebrate more than three Masses in one day.  Certainly "pastoral need" impels them.  But the distinction between convenience and pastoral need is often hard to discern.

This weekend I presided at the celebration of six Masses within 24 hours.  On Saturday, a funeral Mass at 12:30 p.m.  Regularly scheduled 4:00 and 6:30 p.m. anticipated Sunday Masses.  Three on Sunday:  7:30 a.m., 9:30 and 11:30.  Plus I heard confessions, as we have them scheduled, from 3:00 to 3:30 and from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday evening.

This is not to knock my two associates.  They were equally apostolic.  One did five Masses (a funeral Mass here and a wedding in Pittsburgh on Saturday, three regularly scheduled on Sunday) and the other did four Masses and a funeral blessing service.  Plus, both heard confessions for over an hour on Saturday.  

We priests have been talking among ourselves about whether in our four parishes (with three fulltime priests) we have "too many" Masses for Sunday.  We have twelve--four on Saturday evening and eight on Sunday morning, in four church buildings.  About 3,300 souls on average participate in these 12 Masses.  We have come to no conclusion.  We priests are all healthy, and can manage the four each weekend without much trouble, and with the enthusiasm and energy needed for a healthy and holy celebration.  At some not-too-distant point in the future,  I'll have to have a conversation about this topic with our pastoral councils.

But six in 24 hours?  I don't believe that any canon lawyer would believe I broke the law.  But common sense?

I feel that I "gave it my all" at these six Masses.  The faithful parishioners who participated can let you know if that is true.  I am blessed that I have the health to do all six.  

(A few weeks ago I had an attack of sciatica, I think.  A sharp pain in my back made almost any movement excruciating.  In four days it went away.  But during those four days even the simple act of saying one weekday Mass was most painful.)

Six Masses in 24 hours seems to me a neon indication both of "pastoral necessity" and "a shortage of priests."  Where this goes, I have no idea, either in New Castle or the Catholic Church.    What is written down, and what is known, grow farther apart.