Do Catholic priests get some Sundays off?

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A friend of mine is a Lutheran rector and he’s given 5 Ordinary Time Sundays off, while my other friend who is an Episcopalian priest gets 6 OT Sundays off.

The nature of their jobs is pretty much spot on with a Catholic priest, but I don’t know any Catholic priests well enough to sorta talk about their personal lives.

Anyway, does anyone know if Catholic priests get time off?
 
Canon law sez—

§2. Unless there is a grave reason to the contrary, a pastor is permitted to be absent from the parish each year for vacation for at most one continuous or interrupted month; those days which the pastor spends once a year in spiritual retreat are not computed in the time of vacation. In order to be absent from the parish for more than a week, however, a pastor is bound to inform the local ordinary.

(All the links are theirs… gotta love those lawyers…)

I have a priest who’s from Africa. We’ve had him for two years. Each year, he goes back to his home country for one full month. (Which makes sense, because it’s a long, expensive trip, so you might as well get the most time out of it!)

Otherwise, priests in the past have taken off their time in one or two-week chunks.

Plus, they get their week of retreat every year. Usually, it’s a Diocesan retreat, and all the priests in the Diocese go on retreat together at the same time.
 
Priesthood is a vocation. Not a job.

Just like my marriage is a vocation.

I do not cease being married once a week.
How could someone cease being a priest once a week?
 
vz71 said:
Priesthood is a vocation. Not a job.

Just like my marriage is a vocation.

I do not cease being married once a week.
How could someone cease being a priest once a week?
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Are you seriously suggesting priests should not be allowed vacation time?
 
thistle said:
Are you seriously suggesting priests should not be allowed vacation time?
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No.
I am suggesting their vocation does not cease.

I have a job. And on weekends, normally, I cease that function.
I am also married. That is my vocation, and I do not cease to love and honor my wife…no matter date or time.

I propose it is the same for other vocations.
I do not believe the functions of the priesthood vocation cease.
 
vz71 said:
No.
I am suggesting their vocation does not cease.

I have a job. And on weekends, normally, I cease that function.
I am also married. That is my vocation, and I do not cease to love and honor my wife…no matter date or time.

I propose it is the same for other vocations.
I do not believe the functions of the priesthood vocation cease.
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I agree with you (and I think most respondants here will too)

To be clear though, my question was in regards to their Sunday celebration obligation, not their vocation.
 
Priests can go on a holiday but they will still celebrate Mass everyday and pray the Liturgy of the Hours.

A parish priest I know visited his family members and was busy with his siblings marriages and baptising their children. And the local parish priest took a holiday at the same time so there were Masses to celebrate and confessions to hear.

Another one I know went walking in the mountains and wrote a book on his holiday.
 
vz71 said:
No.
I am suggesting their vocation does not cease.

I have a job. And on weekends, normally, I cease that function.
I am also married. That is my vocation, and I do not cease to love and honor my wife…no matter date or time.

I propose it is the same for other vocations.
I do not believe the functions of the priesthood vocation cease.
Click to expand...
I am retired but I was a banker, i.e. I had a job. When I took vacation, even overseas I would get calls about transactions.
A job doesn’t cease either just because you are on holiday!
 
Episcopalian said:
A friend of mine is a Lutheran rector and he’s given 5 Ordinary Time Sundays off, while my other friend who is an Episcopalian priest gets 6 OT Sundays off.

The nature of their jobs is pretty much spot on with a Catholic priest, but I don’t know any Catholic priests well enough to sorta talk about their personal lives.

Anyway, does anyone know if Catholic priests get time off?
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You can’t really compare because Protestant ministers have families.

Additionally, your post isn’t really talking about vacation time… it’s really talking about having Sundays off.

Perhaps those off days are part of vacation, I don’t know. Or they might be simply regularly scheduled Sundays off which can be connected with vacations or not.

I don’t know for sure. However, I can say this… it makes sense that a man with a family might easily need 5-6 Sundays to attend church elsewhere. Vacation, visiting in-laws, etc.

If I think about the number of times I attend mass elsewhere (which far exceeds 6 times a year) I can easily see how a married clergyman would need at least 5-6 Sundays off so he can attend Sunday services elsewhere for family obligations.

One of the reasons why Latin Catholic priests are celibate is so family obligations and parish obligations do not interfere with each other.

Now, that’s not to say there not times when a priest isn’t on vacation on a Sunday. But many do their best to avoid that because they typically have to find another priest to cover for them when they take a Sunday off. And depending on the time of year, that may not always be easy to do.

God Bless
 
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So are you asking if Catholic priests are required to celebrate Mass on Sundays? To my knowledge, no. I know several priests who might not celebrate or concelebrate Mass on Sunday if they have done so on Saturday evening. The majority of them are of advanced age (85+).

Even if not required to celebrate Mass every Sunday, most priests will anyway (or concelebrate) because they love the Mass.

Many priests have a day each week free of scheduled activity related to their vocation, including the celebration of Mass, in order to allow for rest, recreation and essential activities such as grocery shopping and medical appointments. This is not to say that a priest won’t act if an urgent situation comes up, such as administering Last Rites to a dying parishioner. He does, after all, remain a priest on his day off.

Other priests cram those activities around the demands of their vocation and do not take a set day off each week.

Not all priests celebrate Mass daily, though most of the ones I know do.

Note that all the above are my own real-life observations where I live. I know a lot of priests in my Archdiocese. YMMV.
 
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Priests take vacations. They might visit family, join in on the parish pilgrimage to a distant place (they often get a big discount), go on retreat, or take a trip on their own or with other priests.
 
vz71 said:
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thistle:
Are you seriously suggesting priests should not be allowed vacation time?
Click to expand...
No.
I am suggesting their vocation does not cease.

I have a job. And on weekends, normally, I cease that function.
I am also married. That is my vocation, and I do not cease to love and honor my wife…no matter date or time.

I propose it is the same for other vocations.
I do not believe the functions of the priesthood vocation cease.
Click to expand...
You’re being too cute by half here. No one suggested the “vocation “ ceases on vacation. And in one breath you’re saying that your NOT suggesting that priests not be allowed vacation time, but in the next breath you’re saying that the “functions” of the priesthood do not cease. Which is it? A “function” of the priesthood is saying Mass; another is ongoing pastoral care. So if those don’t “cease,” then you are saying “no vacation.”
 
I asked a monk today, if when he went back to the mother house Monastery, was he technically on vacation, i.e. not ministering and visiting people. His answer - we are always on vacation, our job is to pray , and that is a great job.
 
In our Diocese, priests get X number of weeks vacation every year. They also have a couple of half week retreats, and are given a week to make their own retreat.
 
phil19034 said:
You can’t really compare because Protestant ministers have families.
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There are also Catholic priests who are married and have families. They will take more personal time in order to not neglect their wife and kids. We have two married priests in our town, and there is one other in the Diocese.

Yes, they do need to take time off for little Johnny’s recital, etc.
 
I can only speak with respect to Church of England priests. They are allowed to be away from their parish on a number of Sundays per year. I believe they must be taken as part of a priest’s annual holiday entitlement.
 
They may well get as others have said holidays, but these holidays are often taken in other places such as other parishes where they stay as a guest and may say mass as a courtesy. I live in UK so this is not such a bad thing as our priests may go to Rome and Spain etc. for instance and those priests come stay in our parish. They say mass now and again and the rest of the time is free time but they may choose to become involved in more masses if they like. One Polish priest likes to say mass daily to practice his English, the congregation love it as hes a college lecturer and loves to tell us about the days saint in his homily and our parish priest loves it as it frees him up for admin. It’s like an exchange a priest program, lol. But our parish priest just goes to look after his disabled sister and do the housework she hasn’t been able to manage on his 2 two week holidays.
 
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