First, I’m truly sorry for your situation and what your father is going though. God willing, he will be able to attend mass at least one more time. Praying for your intentions now.Like I said, I’m fine with fundraising and understand the need, but in homily time seems inappropriate and potentially damaging
That’s fine, you do you. I’m not sitting in judgment. And if you want to call St. Athanasius or one of the other Fathers an “alternate reality,” that’s up to you.It would never occur to me to sit in judgment on what my bishop has approved for me to hear at Mass, nor to bring a Kindle as some kind of alternate reality.
Fair enough.There are several things at play here. Having been very involved in parish finances in the past, I can tell you there is simply no other time to make financial appeals except during the homily. That is unfortunate, but it is a fact. After communion, during announcements, people do not want to sit through more than a few sentences. We tried before mass, and the simple fact is half the church fills up the last couple of minutes before Church starts, so you miss a lot of people.
I can further tell you that every priest I have ever met, hates to do it, does it reluctantly, and as rarely as possible. In this particular case, if it was a visiting priest, I assume he was travelling to various parishes to specifically raise funds for his apostolate, and the pastor allowed him to do so.
Okay.Now, a few words about the Gospel and readings should be given, a short homoly if you will, prior to the fundraising appeal, IMO.
See, I think the homily is important.OTOH, I can certainly make the argument there is nothing wrong with financial appeals during the homily. Material support of the Church, based on each of our ability, is precept of the Church. Not following a precept of the Church is a objectively a mortal sin. So it does not hurt any of us to be occasionally reminded that what we are obligated to do. On top of that, every good Catholic should realize that the homily is by no means the focal point of the mass, indeed it is quite low on the priority list. So low, it can be omitted. So lets keep things in perspective, we need to be reminded of our obligations. And we don’t go to mass to hear a great homily.
Yes, I don’t really like that also. That is just omitting the homily. But, to my knowledge, it is a legitimate option for the priest to do this. I have seen it also, but it really doesn’t happen very often at all.Okay.
But, I have also seen homilies where the priest did not even comment on any of the readings, but just said, “And now we’re going to hear from Sister Mary of the XYZ Mission” and then the person from the mission spoke.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying the homily is not important. All parts of the mass are important. But there is still levels of importance, and I can easily think of hald a dozen things in the mass more important than the homily.See, I think the homily is important.
Not the most important part of the Mass, but important nevertheless.
Just as, as you say, we may need someone to remind us of our obligation to give to our Church and the missions, we may also need someone to remind us how the lessons in today’s readings (e.g., “help the poor,” “don’t get caught up in material things,” “love your enemies”) might apply to Christians in our culture today.
The pastor and priest had no means of knowing the situation, however tragic, of one particular attendee. As bad as I feel for the OP and his dad, they attended mass, you do that primarily for one spiritual need. To take part in the sacrifice of the mass and to receive our Lord. By all indications, this spiritual need was met.Secondly, the debate here so far is about the institutional church and not the faithful. Nearly every one posting explains how we need to support the church, how the church is not perfect and the services are bad, how we need to put up with things, etc. Not one person mentioned the spiritual needs of the father, or indeed all the faithful.
Nothing wrong with this at all. We have a beautiful special prayer for our parish which includes sentence such as this. We said it all through our capital campaign and we continue to say it after every mass. I think most people would be upset if it was stopped.To “encourage” the faithful, the pastor wrote (or someone wrote for him) a special prayer where the faithful were pleading with God to persuade them to give money
Still I have to agree that asking for money in the homily is of poor taste. Our archdiocese does it and I have to agree that they’re not being considerate of the potential for it to be someone’s last mass, thus it’s only appropriate in the announcements or when there’s a reading on generosity.I’m sure if people would give/donate to the church without the pastor having to ask, the pastor would be thrilled.
But, it doesn’t happen. Many people simply won’t give unless they are asked.