A Plea for Funds During Mass

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Today at Mass, the priest didn’t give the homily. After the Gospel reading, the priest said a visiting sister/nun would offer a reflection of the reading. I don’t recall her saying anything in regards to the reading. She talked about her missionary work being done overseas and a plea for money. I just think that it should not be done in place of the homily. Perhaps at the end of the Mass. Have you seen this at Mass? What are your thoughts on the matter?
 
mexolic said:
Today at Mass, the priest didn’t give the homily. After the Gospel reading, the priest said a visiting sister/nun would offer a reflection of the reading. I don’t recall her saying anything in regards to the reading. She talked about her missionary work being done overseas and a plea for money. I just think that it should not be done in place of the homily. Perhaps at the end of the Mass. Have you seen this at Mass? What are your thoughts on the matter?
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I can’t remember something like that being done in place of the homily. I have seen it done at the end of the Mass before the final blessing and dismissal.

What is more unfortunate is that this was done in place of what could have been a great teaching moment being that the Gospel reading was John 6:41-51.
 
mexolic said:
Today at Mass, the priest didn’t give the homily. After the Gospel reading, the priest said a visiting sister/nun would offer a reflection of the reading. I don’t recall her saying anything in regards to the reading. She talked about her missionary work being done overseas and a plea for money. I just think that it should not be done in place of the homily. Perhaps at the end of the Mass. Have you seen this at Mass? What are your thoughts on the matter?
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Without getting into the “Is this allowed at this time during the liturgy?” debate, I will just say how I am always surprised when people say they have never seen this.

For as long as I can remember I have seen visiting priests, brothers, sisters, and lay people giving talks and making appeals for money. (Granted, the appeals were made by priest missionaries in the 1960s.) In all cases these appeals took place at the time of the homily.
 
mexolic said:
Today at Mass, the priest didn’t give the homily. After the Gospel reading, the priest said a visiting sister/nun would offer a reflection of the reading. I don’t recall her saying anything in regards to the reading. She talked about her missionary work being done overseas and a plea for money. I just think that it should not be done in place of the homily. Perhaps at the end of the Mass. Have you seen this at Mass? What are your thoughts on the matter?
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They have done something like this at my church a few times too…I don’t like it AT ALL, the priest that usually does this at my church sounds just like a used car salesman. We have special events after mass often to raise money, I don’t see why it is justifiable to do this during a time of teaching.
 
SMHW said:
Without getting into the “Is this allowed at this time during the liturgy?” debate, I will just say how I am always surprised when people say they have never seen this.

For as long as I can remember I have seen visiting priests, brothers, sisters, and lay people giving talks and making appeals for money. (Granted, the appeals were made by priest missionaries in the 1960s.) In all cases these appeals took place at the time of the homily.
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Yes.
This is the primary way that these ministries are funded.
 
pianistclare said:
Yes.
This is the primary way that these ministries are funded.
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Yes - I’ve only been Catholic eight years and I see this a lot. Sometimes at different times during the Mass - at our parish it’s frequently during the announcements - but sometimes during the homily, though in those cases it’s usually the pastor reading a letter from the bishop regarding a specific initiative.
 
mexolic said:
Today at Mass, the priest didn’t give the homily. After the Gospel reading, the priest said a visiting sister/nun would offer a reflection of the reading. I don’t recall her saying anything in regards to the reading. She talked about her missionary work being done overseas and a plea for money. I just think that it should not be done in place of the homily. Perhaps at the end of the Mass. Have you seen this at Mass? What are your thoughts on the matter?
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I have seen this sort of thing substituted for a homily before, and I don’t see it as a problem.

The fact is the Church and its missions need money just like any other institutions, to paraphrase a priest I know.
 
And, if you really think about it, much of the Gospel message is about being generous to the poor, the hungry and the uneducated. I don’t have a problem with it.
One such appeal came well over 20 years ago in our parish. People were asked to “adopt” a person in Guatemala. A friend of mine selected an older woman…80 years old. he figured “how long can she live?” (I kid you not.) Eventually, he met her at the 100th birthday party celebration. She lived far longer due to his contributions. 🙂
She recently passed away, and he is devastated. They had formed a bond via letters and his trip to see her.
Lots of good come from these missionaries. I’d rather hear them than the Annual Appeal, frankly.
 
This is done in our diocese. Once a year, I think. Missionary priest will give an appeal.
 
I believe it is common for the Missions office of a diocese to work with the many requests they get for appeals to arrange a guest speaker at Masses in a given parish one weekend, typically during the Summer, and I believe often these are coordinated with the pastor’s schedule to allow him some vacation time. From what I understand dioceses have been becoming more restrictive and have been requesting that the appeal speakers be priests or deacons only. But overall I can’t recall a time when this WASN’T a common practice. In our area we experience a missions appeal speaker typically twice yearly.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
From what I understand dioceses have been becoming more restrictive and have been requesting that the appeal speakers be priests or deacons only. But overall I can’t recall a time when this WASN’T a common practice. In our area we experience a missions appeal speaker typically twice yearly.
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Exactly.

(And those appeals do not include the yearly parish and diocesan appeals for funds.)

This is why I find it odd that so many people are unfamiliar with such appeals. (I can understand in the case of recent converts.) Perhaps some people have managed to always be on vacation themselves when the visiting missionaries are in town. 🤷
 
We had a guest priest recently that was a missionary in the mountains in the Philippines. He had a bit of an accent but spoke English pretty well. He spoke briefly about what he did and being a mountain boy and missing his horse (which the terrain necessitated and he had to ride to all nine mission churches he was responsible for), but he also spoke about this week’s Gospel reading and the last, which were the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and then the reading about not working for bread that passes. He spoke about how everyone he ministered to loved him and how he would go through villages caring for people and just doing basic things like giving seniors blood pressure checks and things like that, which really made me think of the concept of the priest being In Persona Christi. It definitely sounded like a hard life, but it was really a great experience hearing how large of a family God had blessed him with. He simply spoke towards the end about generosity, highlighting the fact that their seminary was really in need but didn’t make an outright appeal or have brochures or anything. They simply said there would be two collections before mass began.

Either way, I don’t really mind it since hearing from priests who are on or have been on missions is always interesting and they need generosity to function.
 
My understanding is that the homily must be about at least one of the scripture readings of that day’s Mass unless permission is given by the bishop.

Appeals for money would seem to fall under the latter.
 
Kay_Cee said:
My understanding is that the homily must be about at least one of the scripture readings of that day’s Mass unless permission is given by the bishop.

Appeals for money would seem to fall under the latter.
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The ordinary does not have authority to dispense from the requirement that the homily be about the Scripture readings or a Mass text, nor does he have authority to dispense from the requirement that the homily be given only by ordained clergy.
 
Elizium23 said:
The ordinary does not have authority to dispense from the requirement that the homily be about the Scripture readings or a Mass text, nor does he have authority to dispense from the requirement that the homily be given only by ordained clergy.
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That would come as news to the many Ordinaries I have experienced over the years who have directed that a letter from them on some matter - often but not always a financial appeal - be read and commented on in place of the homily. Similarly, a diocesan Mission Director who controls the access of mission speakers to parishes on the designated “Mission Sundays” presumably does so under the bishop’s authority and with the understanding that the focus of the mission appeal will be the organization in question. Of course, it is always desirable that some link to the day’s readings be made as a segue to the appeal, but in my experience this seems somewhat rare.
 
Kay_Cee said:
My understanding is that the homily must be about at least one of the scripture readings of that day’s Mass unless permission is given by the bishop.

Appeals for money would seem to fall under the latter.
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It may well be that in this case that this appeal was being made at the request of the bishop.

I have never seen a priest completely ignore the need for a homily, though when there is an appeal like this, the “homily” may be a minute or two one the reading of the day. It should be noted that only an ordained bishop, priest or deacon can give this actual homily, even if it is shorter than the appeal from a layperson or non-ordained religious. But seriously, I would not sweat it if it was a one time mistake. I guess if it really bothers someone, they could talk to the priest about it. But unless something is systemic, I like to keep my complaints for substantial issues.

Now the actual idea of appealing for money in Mass is fine with me, even good. Stewardship is part of our Christian life, as is charity and the connectivity with the universal Church. We need to be open to God calling us to do more, dig deep and give all we can.
 
robertmidwest said:
This is done in our diocese. Once a year, I think. Missionary priest will give an appeal.
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It’s fine for a missionary priest to give an appeal as part of, but not replacing, a homily. It’s not okay for a religious or layperson to appeal for funds as a substitute for the homily. In my diocese these appeals usually take place just before the final blessing.

While I agree that all the faithful need to be involved in helping the needy and that appeals must be made, I definitely don’t agree with violating the liturgy to do so.
 
Kay_Cee said:
My understanding is that the homily must be about at least one of the scripture readings of that day’s Mass unless permission is given by the bishop.

Appeals for money would seem to fall under the latter.
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What everyone is missing is that homilies are not intended to be Bible Study lectures. Homilies are about applying the scriptures to everyday life.

The homilist need only take a line of scripture (or other Mass text) and run with it, applying it to the lives of the congregation. All it takes is one small reference to the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the uncatechised, the hungry, the orphaned…

Appeals for mission support are very much an application of Scripture. There are very few (if any) Masses with no texts that directly or indirectly call for the Church to support some kind of missionary effort.

At least in recent years, the visiting missionaries at my parish have always quoted a line from one of the readings as an introduction to their mission “pitch”.
 
SMHW said:
The homilist need only take a line of scripture (or other Mass text) and run with it, applying it to the lives of the congregation. All it takes is one small reference to the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the uncatechised, the hungry, the orphaned…
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Yes, the homilist can. But a homilist is always ordained clergy. Not so in the OP’s scenario.
 
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