Kneelers in your church - question

[Brendan]

Does your church have them? Yes or no…

Yes.

And they have been required in the Archdiocese of Detroit for years. A past bishop (Cardinal Dearden) discouraged the use of kneelers, so some churches built in the 70’s and 80’s did not have them.

But Cardinal Maida required that they be installed if a parish renovates.

I imagine that there are less than a dozen parishes (out of 300+) that still lack kneelers.

FYI, my parish also uses a communion rail.

 

[Incomplete]

You don’t need kneelers to kneel on, Catholics knelt without the use of kneelers at Mass for centuries, if it hurts your knees you could always take a cushion, I just kneel on the floor at my church.

We are required to kneel, and more to the point should want to kneel whether their are kneelers or not during the consecration though I have noticed Catholics in the US often don’t seem to care about this.

We aren’t required to kneel if there is no room. Before our church was renovated, to have enough chairs, there wasn’t always room to kneel. But we did do a profound bow at the consecration.

 

[Brendan_McCabe]

We aren’t required to kneel if there is no room. Before our church was renovated, to have enough chairs, there wasn’t always room to kneel. But we did do a profound bow at the consecration.

I have attended churches in the US where there is plenty of room to kneel and there are even kneelers and still the whole congregation does not kneel, in fact does nothing to show recognition of the consecration.

While I do not know your particular situation I do know it generally takes no more room to kneel than it does to sit down, I am betting you all still sit right?

 

[Incomplete]

While I do not know your particular situation I do know it generally takes no more room to kneel than it does to sit down, I am betting you all still sit right?

We all kneel now because we renovated so we have space to kneel.

But when we had chairs, they were so close together we couldn’t kneel because we were blessed and our congregation grew well beyond what the builders of our parish had planned. Note that it only takes space enough for your legs to sit. To kneel requires some forward motion to get to the kneeling position. And no, we didn’t have room for that.

 

[Monica4316]

I’ve never been to a Catholic church that doesn’t have kneelers

some of the churches from the middle ages, etc, don’t have kneelers, because people stood for the whole Mass. But all the new churches should have them definitely. That is strange to me that they don’t always

 

[MissRose73]

When I attended Mass in the Archdiocese of Detroit when I lived there a few years ago, I remember kneeling and had no issue with it coming from the Diocese of Saginaw where the churches I went to had few or no kneelers in place and have since returned, and still its mainly chairs, no kneelers.

I miss having kneelers and have not found any local parish in my area within a 10 mile drive that has them. At least I know when I go to the metro Detroit area, and attend Mass while there, kneelers are available in most churches I’ve gone to.

Yes.

And they have been required in the Archdiocese of Detroit for years. A past bishop (Cardinal Dearden) discouraged the use of kneelers, so some churches built in the 70’s and 80’s did not have them.

But Cardinal Maida required that they be installed if a parish renovates.

I imagine that there are less than a dozen parishes (out of 300+) that still lack kneelers.

FYI, my parish also uses a communion rail.

 

[SecretGarden]

Up here, I guess I am lucky. The churches are extremely old so all of them I have attended have them with the exception of the basilica part of St Joseph’s Oratory which originally had uncomfortable steel chairs but in recent years, pews are slowly replacing the steel chairs. (The crypt does have them.) The only other place I’ve been to is :the Newman Centre which also doesn’t have them but that is to be expected considering it is a student mission and the area where mass is held is also used for a variety of other activities therefore it doesn’t have them for pure practical reasons. That said, the Newman Centre is just an amazing place. It has helped me so much with my journey that it doesn’t bother me that I don’t have them. If you are a student visiting Montreal, check out the Newman centre because it is so awesome.

Despite there being kneelers, not everyone uses them. It’s an unspoken rule: you use them if you can. if not it’s ok to sit in your seat and pray with rest of the congregation.

 

[felicity1984]

We have kneelers. I have never thought about not having them!! The only comment I have about them is that they are folding down kneelers and sometimes the can be ‘slmmed’ down quite loudly on the tiled flooring, makes me jump every time!!

 

[StarFireKK]

We don’t have kneelers, we have knee-breakers! The kneelers weren’t designed well and put a ton of pressure on your knees and back unless you are a small child. We all joke at our parish that we “offer up” to the souls in Purgatory every mass.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Does your church have them? Yes or no.

If not, would you like to see them added new or put back if they were available in the past?

My local parish does not have them but had them in the past. A few other local churches also had them but no longer. I would welcome a return to having kneelers to kneel on after the Sanctus is sung to the start of the Our Father then kneel again in preparation for Communion then praying after receiving Communion.

I have been to many older churches that still have them as I grew up with attending churches that did not have them at all.

Yes we have them and I’d like to see them removed. You can come to my parish and take away the kneelers if you wish

 

[HerrZJA]

The kneelers we have at my parish are the folding variety, but I think they might be baffled with springs, because even the first time I tried to fold it down, I managed not to slam it! (Thank God for small favours, right?)

Frankly, I couldn’t imagine saying mass without them. I’m young, but I have bad knees; even the tiny bit of padding and the slight elevation helps a ton when it comes to getting down and back up.

 

[PattiDay]

Padded kneelers here in our five-year old church

 

[Evan]

When we were building our new church (a decade ago) we looked into the number of additional pews we could get in if we did not have kneelers. Answer: 0.

Due to fire codes in Washington, the pews had to be a certain distance apart. That distance was enough to allow kneelers

 

[Angel_Bradford]

We have kneelers.

 

[JHow]

To the OP, both the churches I regularly attend (one English, one Polish), plus the one at my kid’s school (English) all have kneelers. My parish church (English) was probably built in the 1960’s and it looks (in the words of my wife) “like a movie theater”, but it still has kneelers.

In Poland, everybody kneels regardless of the seating situation (pews, benches, nothing to sit on at all). On several occasions (e.g., Corpus Christi) when churches are jam-packed I have seen people outside the church (they listen on loudspeakers) kneel in the street. I also attended an outdoor ‘field mass’ (msza polowa) for a hunting club where, again, people knelt in the mud. My wife always wore thick stockings in Poland both against the cold and for kneeling purposes.

 

[silicasandra]

Yes we have them and I’d like to see them removed. You can come to my parish and take away the kneelers if you wish

Do you mind if I ask what your reasoning is for this?

I know that I do get irritated when I hear them slamming down sometimes, but I have learned how to raise and lower them quietly. I know that if I were kneeling on a rough floor (our church has stone floors) it would be much harder for me to pay attention!

I have attended Mass without kneelers, but this was on our college campus where Mass was celebrated in a interdenominational chapel. There the floors were carpet so it wasn’t too bad.

 

[Brendan_McCabe]

Do you mind if I ask what your reasoning is for this?

I know that I do get irritated when I hear them slamming down sometimes, but I have learned how to raise and lower them quietly. I know that if I were kneeling on a rough floor (our church has stone floors) it would be much harder for me to pay attention!

I have attended Mass without kneelers, but this was on our college campus where Mass was celebrated in a interdenominational chapel. There the floors were carpet so it wasn’t too bad.

It will be because he is an eastern rite catholic and they don’t kneel they bow.

 

[TheMc]

Do you mind if I ask what your reasoning is for this?

I know that I do get irritated when I hear them slamming down sometimes, but I have learned how to raise and lower them quietly. I know that if I were kneeling on a rough floor (our church has stone floors) it would be much harder for me to pay attention!

I have attended Mass without kneelers, but this was on our college campus where Mass was celebrated in a interdenominational chapel. There the floors were carpet so it wasn’t too bad.

ConstantineTG is a Byzantine (Ukrainian) Catholic. They don’t kneel as much. He can give you more specifics.

 

[Cavaille-Coll]

In my diocese, all parishes have kneelers and all are in use per the GIRM.

I remember attending a wealthy, modern parish where there were no kneelers. The priest there would actually call you out if you did kneel on their plush carpet.

Later that year, I went to Mexico and attended Mass at a neighborhood church still under construction. There were two walls, no ceiling, and an ungraded dirt floor. People arrived in their Sunday best, as Mexicans usually do, and knelt on the dirt during the Consecration.

The differences were not lost on me.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Do you mind if I ask what your reasoning is for this?

I know that I do get irritated when I hear them slamming down sometimes, but I have learned how to raise and lower them quietly. I know that if I were kneeling on a rough floor (our church has stone floors) it would be much harder for me to pay attention!

I have attended Mass without kneelers, but this was on our college campus where Mass was celebrated in a interdenominational chapel. There the floors were carpet so it wasn’t too bad.

ConstantineTG is a Byzantine (Ukrainian) Catholic. They don’t kneel as much. He can give you more specifics.

Thats the answer right there
As much as you would like to see kneeling back in your parish, I would hope that kneeling would stop in our parishes on Sundays. Even when we do kneel during Lent, we don’t need kneelers. Because we also do prostrations and we need lots of space that the pews won’t give us. We would exit the pews and prostrate on the aisles. Isn’t that a clear sign that we don’t need the pews?

That is why I say, come to our parish and take the kneelers.