Should a priest take more than one stipend for each Mass celebrated? Most Rev Joseph Osei-Bonsu answers the question
:
“Nana, please kindly enlighten me on this issue. I know that Catholic priests are permitted to take stipends for the Masses they celebrate. I would like to know if it is permitted for them to take more than one stipend for each Mass celebrated. I am asking this because I have noticed that in most places on Sundays, many intentions for which the Mass is going to be celebrated are read out in church and each intention goes with some monetary offering”. Question by Sr. Hellena, HDR
Answer:
Let us begin by looking at what Mass stipends are. A Mass stipend is a monetary offering made by members of the church to a priest for celebrating a Mass for their intention or intentions. In Canon Law, a Mass stipend is currently referred to as an “offering” (stips) freely given, rather than a “stipend” (stipendium), or payment as such.
Originally, Mass offerings were generally the means by which priests financially supported themselves. At the same time, giving an offering for a Mass constitutes a financial sacrifice on the part of the person requesting the Mass. In other words, offering/receiving a Mass offering or stipend has traditionally benefitted both parties in different ways. It is for this reason that Canon 946 notes that those who make offerings for the celebration of Masses share in the support of the Church’s ministers, and in general this practice contributes to the good of the Church.
As with anything involving money, the Catholic Church has learned over the centuries to be extremely careful about the wrong impression that can be created by priests accepting financial remuneration in exchange for the celebration of a sacrament. It is for this reason that when the lay faithful ask their parish priest to confer a sacrament, such as baptizing a baby or celebrating a wedding, there is ordinarily a set monetary offering which they are asked to make (cf. canon 1264 n. 2); but if the faithful are truly unable to make that offering by reason of poverty, they are not to be deprived of the sacraments (canon 848).
When it comes to the celebration of Mass, the Church is even more careful to avoid any semblance of money-making. Canon 947 notes that even the semblance of trafficking or trading in Mass offerings is to be entirely avoided; and someone who traffics in Mass offerings (stipends) for profit may actually be punished with a censure (canon 1385).
One may ask: what amount of money constitutes a Mass offering (stipend)? According to Canon 952 §1, “The provincial council or the provincial Bishops’ meeting is to determine by decree, for the whole of the province, what offering is to be made for the celebration and application of Mass. Nonetheless, it is permitted to accept, for the application of a Mass, an offering voluntarily made, which is greater, or even less, than that which has been determined”. Thus, the Provincial Council of an imaginary Ecclesiastical Province called “Neopolis Ecclesiastical Province” may decree that a Mass offering in that Province is to be GHC5. In this case, people asking for Mass in that Province will offer GHC5. Canon 952 §2 says, “Where there is no such decree, the custom existing in the diocese is to be observed”. For the sake of uniformity and the avoidance of confusion, it will be good for every ecclesiastical province to come out with what constitutes a stipend or Mass offering in that province.
Any priest who celebrates Mass is entitled to accept a monetary offering for that Mass: “In accordance with the approved custom of the Church, any priest who celebrates or concelebrates a Mass may accept an offering to apply the Mass for a specific intention” (Canon 945 §1). However, the priest is not required to obtain either an offering or an intention from anyone in order to celebrate Mass (canon 945 §2). Thus, many priests routinely celebrate Masses without having been asked to do so for a particular intention, and without receiving a monetary offering for doing so. Canon 948 says: “Separate Masses must be applied for the intentions of those for whom an individual offering, even if small, has been made and accepted”.
It should be noted that it is quite possible for a priest to celebrate Mass for the intention for which a monetary offering has been given, and simultaneously for other intentions as well. In fact, he may have as many intentions as he likes while offering a Mass, so long as he has accepted a monetary offering for not more than one of them. What this means is that if in Parish A in a diocese in the Neopolis Ecclesiastical Province, fifteen people ask for Mass to be celebrated for their intentions and they all give monetary offering (for example, GHC5 each) for those intentions, the priest will celebrate Mass for all the intentions but he is entitled to take only one offering stipulated for the Province; this means that he will take only GHC5.
As a rule, a priest may only offer one Mass per day, although there are occasions when he is permitted to celebrate more than one Mass in a single day (canon 905.1). On Sundays and holy-days, for example, a priest may celebrate as many as three Masses in one day (which should be done sparingly); and in areas where there is a shortage of priests, a bishop may permit his priests to celebrate two Masses on an ordinary weekday if pastoral necessity requires it (canon 905.2). When this happens, however, a priest is not allowed to receive an offering (stipend) for more than one Mass per day (canon 951.1). [The only exception to this rule concerns Christmas Day when, according to Canon 951 §1, a priest is not bound by this rule. If he celebrates two or three Masses on Christmas Day, he can take stipends for them all.] The diocesan bishop determines what is to be done with the other offerings or stipends (Canon 951 §1). While the ultimate use to which this money is put may vary from diocese to diocese, it must not be given to the celebrating priest. The bishop may decide to use the money, for example, for charity, or the education of seminarians, or to look after priests in their retirement, etc. Thus, there can never be any financial incentive for a priest to say more than one Mass per day, and this rule greatly helps the Church to avoid any possible misconceptions that Masses are for sale, and/or that priests offer Masses primarily for monetary gain.
If it happens that the monetary donation that was accepted along with the Mass intention is lost, canon 949 specifies that the priest is still obliged to offer a Mass for that intention. Of cardinal importance here is the request that a Mass be said for a particular intention, and not the money that accompanied that request.
“Collective Intentions”
According to Canon 948, “Separate Masses must be applied for the intentions of those for whom an individual offering, even if small, has been made and accepted”. In this connection, we should discuss the issue of what has been termed “collective intentions”. In recent times, many bishops have appealed to the Holy See for clarification about the celebration of Masses for what are called “collective intentions”. It has been pointed out that the faithful have always, especially in poor areas of the world, had the practice of giving the priest modest offerings, without requesting expressly to have a single Mass celebrated for a particular intention. In such cases, according to the Congregation for the Clergy (Decree on Mass Stipends: Norms established by the Congregation for the Clergy concerning the practice of Mass stipends, February 22, 1991), “it is licit to combine the various offerings in order to celebrate as many Masses as would correspond to the fixed diocesan stipend. The faithful are also free to combine their intentions and offerings for the celebration of a single Mass for these intentions”. Thus, if fifty people in a parish in the Ecclesiastical Province of Neopolis contribute an amount of, let’s say, GHC75 according to these “collective intentions”, a priest in that Province will celebrate 15 Masses, since one Mass offering in that Province is GHC5. This is also in line with Canon 950, “If a sum of money is offered for the application of Masses, but with no indication of the number of Masses to be celebrated, their number is to be calculated on the basis of the offering prescribed in the place where the donor resides, unless the donor’s intention must lawfully be presumed to have been otherwise”.
However, the Congregation for the Clergy condemns the case of those priests who, indiscriminately gathering the offerings of the faithful which are destined for the celebration of Masses according to particular intentions, “accumulate them in a single offering and satisfy them with a single Mass, celebrated according to what is called a ‘collective intention’”.
Monetary Offerings and Concelebrated Masses
When it comes to the practice of concelebration and offering money for concelebrated Masses, it is important first to understand what is actually happening at the altar during a concelebrated Mass – and what is not. The Code of Canon Law does not define concelebration; canon 902 references it simply by stating that priests may concelebrate the Eucharist unless the good of the faithful requires them to celebrate individually. This apparent omission in the Code should not surprise us. The Code does not generally address the celebration of liturgical actions, and so it is necessary to refer instead to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), which has the force of law in liturgical matters, even though it is not actually part of the Code. In the section on Concelebrated Mass, the GIRM not only restates canon 902, but also adds that concelebration “appropriately expresses the unity of the priesthood, of the Sacrifice, and also of the whole People of God”.
When a Mass is concelebrated, each priest offers the sacrifice of the Mass. This means that each priest is able to have his own intention. The fact that they are concelebrating, i.e., are offering their Masses at the same time and in the same location, does not alter the fact that each priest is celebrating a Mass. If ten priests are concelebrating Mass together, the net result is the same as it would be if the ten of them each celebrated a separate Mass: in other words, the sacrifice of the Mass is being offered ten times. Since each concelebrating priest is really saying a Mass, it is only logical that each of them can accept a monetary offering for celebrating Mass for a specific intention. However, according to Canon 951 §2, “A priest who on the same day concelebrates a second Mass may not under any title accept an offering for that Mass”.