How do Catholic sex offenders attend mass?

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Opal0427

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Everyone is rightly concerned with getting justice for victims at the moment.
I’m wondering though, if a sex offender is Catholic, assuming they’ve served their time or the offense is past the statute of limitations… How do they (safely) meet their obligation to attend mass and recieive the Eucharist?

How does the church both fufill their obligations to keep people safe while also providing a path to salvation for the offenders when it comes to mass obligations?
 
I would assume that the risk of a sex offender molesting someone in a highly public place like mass is remote. If the individual is concerned that they might be tempted to do something criminal, maybe they can attend the earliest Sunday mass, where there are likely no small children.
 
The diocese would have guidelines regarding sex offenders attending Mass.
 
That probably depends on the laws where they live. For example, if the law says they cannot be within 300 feet of children, they could not attend mass in the normal way. Instead, they would have to contact a nearby pastor and ask that their obligation to attend mass on Sunday be dispensed. They could then be treated like the homebound and have communion delivered to them after mass (along with Sacrament of Confession as needed). Another possibility is the priest saying a private mass for this person (maybe at a small chapel away from other people), but that would be a pretty large burden on the priest, so I doubt it would happen.
 
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If there was a rule that sinners could not attend church, then the pews would be completely empty. And that would include the priests and the servers.
 
I don’t think the OP’s question is implying that. Legally, sex offenders are required to stay away from areas children go to, like parks, schools, day cares, etc. I think the OP is asking about how that would affect how a sex offender could attend Mass.
 
I assumed the OP meant pedophiles, but bear in mind that “sex offender” is way broader than that. There are eighteen year olds who are sex offenders because they had consensual sex with their 16 year old girlfriends, or were caught urinating in the bushes after a night at the bar. Neither of those dudes are exactly menaces to society.
 
As far as I know, There is no legal prohibition against a Registered Sex Offender attending Church. I believe it was ruled as unconstitutional…

Realistically speaking, if they’re barred from a Church they should also be barred from Libraries, Restaurants, Grocery Stores and Hospitals. Children and vulnerable persons are everywhere.
 
The problem with the sex offender registration laws is that they vary from state to state, since criminal law dealing with sex offenses is generally a state law matter. So you could conceivably have different outcomes in different states. The states sometimes have tried to require the sex offender to go to church at a certain location (like the county jail) or tried to keep him from going to any church that has children’s activities like Sunday School going on, claiming the church is a school and thus falls under the sex offender registry ban. These types of bans usually get challenged and the sex offender probably has a good chance of winning if all he’s trying to do is just go to Mass and not trying to sit in on the Sunday School lesson or something.

I reckon if a sex offender wants to go to Mass, he just shows up. If people realize he’s a sex offender and start giving him the cold shoulder, he probably would go someplace else to Mass. There are usually Mass options where someone wouldn’t have to face an entire parish of families and kids; for example, very early Masses, or Masses at monasteries or convents, or Masses at churches where the priests are heavily involved in prison ministry or other social justice work. I can think of several places around here where I’m pretty sure a sex offender who just wanted to worship in peace could do that without anybody getting bothered about it. The sex offender probably doesn’t want to be going to the church that has a big elementary school with a lot of kids coming to church all the time.
 
Reminds me of a story in Denver where a judge temporarily threw out sex offender restrictions when a defense attorney showed the judge a map of the city with all the restriction radii drawn out on it.

After years of little additions to the registry restrictions, a sex offender essentially wasn’t allowed in Denver Colorado.

Tragic, given that you could be added to it for merely peeing on the side of a building after a night of drinks.
 
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They go to mass.

If they are in a state of Grace, they may also receive communion.

Any special requirements would be worked out on an individual basis with public safety and parish/diocesan authorities.
 
Vonsalza said:
Tragic, given that you could be added to it for merely peeing on the side of a building after a night of drinks.
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I know a guy from my HS who was sending / receiving nude pictures between himself and his girlfriend. Because he was 18 and she was 17, he was charged as an adult with possession of child pornography and is a sex offender. It’s absurd.
 
I’ve read an article about a man and woman, expecting their third child. She was on bed rest, he couldn’t drop their other children off at school because he was on the list.

He was put there for Statutory Rape of his now wife. They were just outside of the Romeo and Juliet laws when they dated and her father didn’t like the guy.

He was, again, petitioning the court to be removed from the list. And it was looking good for him to prevail.

I’m guessing that Granddad doesn’t get many invitations to see the grand kids…
 
In humility and desire to worship our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I have come to call sinners, not the self-righteous.” The Catholic Church is a field hospital for sinners, not a pantheon for the godly.

@Tis_Bearself has already covered the issue of unconstitutionally banning sex offenders, these rules and laws may be passed with good intention, but they are typically illegal, and surface all sorts of unintended side-effects.

There was a feature some years ago on a program like 60 Minutes or 20/20 about these laws creating ghettoes in Florida. Released offenders literally could only live in a few buildings and could not get to their jobs, places of worship, grocery stores, etc., without crossing into areas they were forbidden.

Reintegration of offenders into society presupposes their abilities to find jobs, go shopping, go to places of worship (which are often the locations of support groups and 12-step programs that help such individuals live without re-offending).

Ghettoes are terrible ideas for any group, and serve as a terrible way to treat someone who is trying to straighten out their life.

I remain a sinner,
Deacon Christopher
 
Wow! Powerful answer. Nice work.

May those without sin cast the first stone.

God bless… Gary
 
What wonderful reply! Very nice and I do agree. God bless you… Gary
 
Unless someone who is a CAF member has the necessary expertise I do not know if an answer is available here. I have noticed some people have mentioned different states have different laws and they are referring to the 50 states of the U.S.A. However, not all CAF members are from the U.S.A. There are members from Australia, Canada, the UK, etc. Therefore, the law is going to depend on (a) the jurisdiction and (b) any restrictions imposed by the courts on the offender/ex-offender.

Dioceses may also have their own policies, guidelines, procedures, etc., and to know what they are you could ask your parish priest (pastor) (who ought to know) or contact your diocesan curial offices (chancery) and ask. Alternatively, in some countries there may be national policies, etc., from the episcopal (bishops’) conference. Again, parish priests and curial offices should know about these.

I live in England and each of our dioceses employs an official who responsibility is ‘safeguarding’ and they are the appropriate people to contact. In my diocese, each parish is required to have a safeguarding coordinator and s/he is someone to whom this type of question could be posed.
 
I know of one that while on probation, he couldn’t attend his regular parish b/c it had a school. So he went to a church that didn’t have a school until he was off probation.
 
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