A scare at Mass today

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Tis_Bearself

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This morning at Mass, I was sitting in the back and just as our priest started the consecration, some guy came in the side door, waved at an elderly man sitting in the pew by the door, and proceeded up the side aisle. First I thought he had just come late and was going to take a seat, but then he kept walking and turned and walked in front of the sanctuary. I was afraid he was going to go up and mess with the priest who was just continuing with the consecration as you’d expect him to do, but then the guy disappeared from my view and I didn’t want to stand up and crane my neck to see where he went. I thought maybe he took a seat up front but apparently he had gone to the middle of the aisle in front of the sanctuary and was kneeling on the top step. I go to this church all the time and have never seen this person at Mass or anyone acting like him, so it’s not like some parishes that are like missions for homeless or rehabs where that might be considered just something an eccentric person does.

When the priest finished the consecration and we were all saying the acclamation, the guy got up and walked back out the way he came, except before leaving he started grabbing and hugging the old man he had waved to coming in and started kissing his head and face and whispering to him and touching him which was super alarming because of COVID and the guy wasn’t in a mask. I don’t know whether the two knew each other or not, but after the guy finally left, the old man was wiping at his face and head like he was not pleased with the situation and trying to get spittle off and a lady sitting behind him gave him her plastic bag of moist wipes.

Thank heaven the priest today was a physically fit man in his 30s and was being assisted by a visiting young seminarian so if the guy had approached them they could have protected Jesus. If that man had tried to grab me or kiss me I probably would have screamed and tried to run away. I’m just glad nothing worse happened. We have been seeing so many incidents on the news of street people coming in and menacing priests or others, and this church is in a generally well-policed town and has no security.
 
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That must have been unnerving. The homeless people I’ve seen at Mass generally just sit in the back and doze, but at one parish I used to go to there was one young man who would always wander in in the middle of Mass, proceed right up to the foot of the altar and just stand there staring for awhile before leaving. I remember the priest mentioning to a few people that while the young man was mentally ill, he didn’t think he was dangerous and had never tried to do anything violent or disruptive. Still weird though.
 
Yeah, I am used to the urban parishes where some people just sit in the pews and rest or sleep or panhandle or even are actually attending Mass. One of them used to loudly chant what sounded like Native American songs but might have been just gibberish at Communion time, despite the priest trying to get him to stop. A lot of them are regulars and some of those churches do have security. It’s different when a guy just comes in at the Consecration, and instead of just going quickly to a seat he heads very purposefully straight to the sanctuary and he definitely doesn’t look like he belongs there, and the church isn’t one that has homeless hanging out on the lawn (there is a shelter and a free food program here but they aren’t near the worship space).
 
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This had to be frightening - I chaired our Parish Emergency Response Plan development and this definitely would have triggered a response (if anyone would have followed the plan). I say that with a little smirk - I’m not sure how many parishioners have read the document or see the need for such.
 
Yikes!

Our “group home” parishioners walk around or perform ritualistic behaviors or a couple of them will do some non-verbal vocalizations, but we’ve never had anybody touch touch another parishioner.
 
You know about 2 years ago we called the bomb squad on a homeless man who had left a backpack in a pew and bolted out of the back of the church. Several people left. But the priest and some others stayed to finish the mass. The backpack was luckily just his backpack. We found him in the bathroom.

Many of our parishioners, myself included, conceal carry.
And I would never let a child go to the restrooms without an adult durning Mass.
 
A few years ago I was at a funeral Mass. A woman came in who no one knew. I must have been focused on the Mass or prayers, but at one point this woman sat behind my family and tried to take my daughter’s stuffed kitty toy and I didn’t even notice.

She was apparently also saying profane things or weird things to people. I didn’t realize all of this happened until after the Mass when people were talking about it outside.

I think the woman was mentally ill.
 
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At one 7 am weekday Mass at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, when I used to work in the city, a man of about 30 came wailing in the mass yelling in a thick accent that his best friend, the only friend he had, was just killed in a road accident. He eventually calmed down and the priest nicely said “let us all pray for this man’s only friend”. When I got to my office I logged onto my computer and was looking at a news item when indeed there was a report of a driver of a delivery van losing control of his van and was killed when it slammed into a building.

A more serious event happened relatively recently at the same church when a mentally-ill man tried to stab the rector who was presiding at Mass that day. He did manage to inflict non-life threatening woulds before being manhandled by security.
 
That road accident thing reminds me of a recent event almost directly outside the cathedral in Cleveland when a tour bus for Gary Numan that was heading to a concert venue accidentally ran over an old man, possibly homeless, crossing the street. The rector came running out of the cathedral to do last rites or whatever he could do for the poor man who was killed. The news all reported on the priest running out to the street to minister to the man. I thought it was a nice reflection on Catholicism.
 
Reminds me a few years ago a man came in during mass walked up the aisle of our packed church and lit a cigarette off the candles while our priest was doing the homily, he walked out after a few puffs, it was a bit spooky Tbo but not as weird as this event.
 
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Montrose said:
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redcatholic:
But the priest and some others stayed to finish the mass.
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I’m pretty sure (but not 100%) that once the Mass starts the priest is not permitted to leave under any circumstances. He must continue with the Mass.
Click to expand...
There are exceptions…

 
I think it’s the case that once the priest has started the consecration part of the Mass, he has to finish it.

The Beirut priest was not performing the consecration. Although even if he had been, I reckon that the ceiling falling on the priest would have been a big interruption.

My priest at Mass the other day was starting the consecration when the man walked in, and to his credit, he just kept right on like nothing was happening.
 
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I know. I was just showing that the roof falling on everyone’s heads would probably stop the completion…but that is about the only thing that would!

Notice…at the first rumble and lights going out, he didn’t miss a beat!
 
I have twice had to watch young men who came into the church (two different parishes) and had no obvious reason for being there. One time, oddly enough, it was at a Melkite church, and without getting into demographics, he seemed to be out of place, as much for his dress (like a vagrant) as anything else. He was taking an unusual interest in the women’s purses. I made him feel unwelcome and he left. The other time, someone apparently a street person, acting suspicious, came in the cry room and was behaving strangely. I told someone in the vestibule, and I don’t know if they were just what we called “odd-turned” in my household growing up, but they acted like they didn’t appreciate my comments. I then replied “for all I know, he could be the president of the parish council, but something just doesn’t seem right”. Maybe she just had a hard time processing what I was saying.

People who act odd or suspicious are just asking to be treated like they’re up to something, whether they are or not. Can’t be too careful these days.
 
People may call me paranoid, but I am usually very alert when I’m at Mass and aware of my surroundings, especially after a massacre that occurred a few years ago at a nearby Jewish synagogue.

I attend Mass at our diocese’s cathedral, which is located near a large city, so we get a few homeless people looking for money and other innocent stuff like that. We haven’t had any hecklers (at least to my knowledge), but whenever I see someone coming into Mass late, I always turn and look because in this day and age, one just never knows what can happen. Sad I didn’t feel this way not even five years ago.
 
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