Mass on a Cruise Ship

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Travers22 said:
I understand that Royal Caribbean has Catholic priests on its re-positioning cruises, but have not been able to verify that. Anyone know if that is correct? Here is where I found that info
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I would check for a more up to date list. As I understand it Cunard has done away with priests on board. And I believe several years ago RCI did away with them completely as well. Only time you might catch one is Christmas or Easter, or if a priest is on vacation and chooses to say mass they’ll sometimes give him a spot to do so.
 
Padres1969 said:
Has anyone else ever had the opportunity to attend mass on a ship or cruise ship? I just completed a cruise on Holland America and they offered daily mass during the week and both a Sunday night and Saturday Vigil mass. They apparently bring on priests from a ministry at sea called Apostleship of the Sea free of charge (though the priest has to pay his own way to the ship).

I attended the Vigil Service out of curiosity and it was quite nice, and more well attended then I would have expected. It was a little odd out of necessity, such as the candles being those little battery powered tea lights, the Nicene Creed was left out, and the crucifix also being an anchor. That and the priest was required to wear a plastic glove while handling the host (the blood was a complete no-no) due to a norovirus concern. In fact the priest made a point to express his happiness he was able to distribute communion at all since he’d been forbidden to do so during the week.

The priest was also very keen to ask for our support in expressing to Holland America appreciation for maintaining chaplains on board. They’re apparently the last major cruise line (or at least US owned line), the still has chaplains after Cunard dropped chaplains last year for more casino staff (and by extension HAL is the last line offering any kind of regular religious services (they also have a non-denominational service on Sunday as well).
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I don’t see why a priest couldn’t bring his own cross or crucifix. He should come properly prepared for the celebration of Mass. Maybe the anchor that you mentioned is a crucifix on an anchor. I have seen those. Is the use of candles for Mass forbidden on cruise ships? What disturbs me most is the priest wearing a plastic glove to distribute Holy Communion. I hope that he took proper care of that plastic glove when Mass was over. I am interested in hearing what the liturgical guidelines are in this situation.
 
zab said:
I don’t see why a priest couldn’t bring his own cross or crucifix. He should come properly prepared for the celebration of Mass. Maybe the anchor that you mentioned is a crucifix on an anchor. I have seen those. Is the use of candles for Mass forbidden on cruise ships? What disturbs me most is the priest wearing a plastic glove to distribute Holy Communion. I hope that he took proper care of that plastic glove when Mass was over. I am interested in hearing what the liturgical guidelines are in this situation.
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No unfortunately candles are no permitted on cruise ships due to the fire hazard. As for the anchor crucifix I suspect that’s on purpose. It’s still a cross as well as an anchor so it may be in one of those liturgical grey areas until addressed by a higher authority. The plastic glove was required for health reasons due to the spread of the particularly transmissible norovirus. As mentioned it was the only way the cruise staff would allow mass to be held at all. Father seemed to take great care with it, and joked he might consider doing that at all his masses since health concerns are so prevalent these days.
 
Padres1969 said:
No unfortunately candles are no permitted on cruise ships due to the fire hazard. As for the anchor crucifix I suspect that’s on purpose. It’s still a cross as well as an anchor so it may be in one of those liturgical grey areas until addressed by a higher authority. The plastic glove was required for health reasons due to the spread of the particularly transmissible norovirus. As mentioned it was the only way the cruise staff would allow mass to be held at all. Father seemed to take great care with it, and joked he might consider doing that at all his masses since health concerns are so prevalent these days.
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I still do not understand the plastic glove because the people are not obligated to receive Communion if they are that concerned about the norovirus.
 
zab said:
I still do not understand the plastic glove because the people are not obligated to receive Communion if they are that concerned about the norovirus.
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The glove was a requirement of the cruise line, not the communicants. The cruise line was in full lockdown to prevent the transmission of norovirus which is through hand to surface contact and if on the priest’s hands could have transmitted to the host and then the communicant. It was probably overkill, but then they were also having everyone wash their hands for 20 seconds in a special machine with some pretty harsh chemicals just to walk through the buffet area, and they’d been scrubbing down every surface of the ship seemingly hourly. They were dead serious about stopping the disease outbreak. As it is the priest had to beg the line to allow him to say mass on Saturday night with the glove. They didn’t let him perform mass at all from Sunday through Friday because of norovirus concerns.
 
Padres1969 said:
The glove was a requirement of the cruise line, not the communicants. The cruise line was in full lockdown to prevent the transmission of norovirus which is through hand to surface contact and if on the priest’s hands could have transmitted to the host and then the communicant. It was probably overkill, but then they were also having everyone wash their hands for 20 seconds in a special machine with some pretty harsh chemicals just to walk through the buffet area, and they’d been scrubbing down every surface of the ship seemingly hourly. They were dead serious about stopping the disease outbreak. As it is the priest had to beg the line to allow him to say mass on Saturday night with the glove. They didn’t let him perform mass at all from Sunday through Friday because of norovirus concerns.
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So people were going through the buffet without wearing gloves?
 
zab said:
So people were going through the buffet without wearing gloves?
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Yes, but not until they had undergone a through compulsory hand washing of no less than 20 seconds in these machines they had at every access point that included some pretty harsh chemicals in them. As norovirus is normally transmitted via the fecal-oral route, this is seen as an effective way to combat the virus. I suspect it was too much to ask to have the priest and communicants have access to one of these machines at the mass location as it was held in a different part of the ship. So the glove on his distribution hand was the compromise.
 
Personally I would be grateful for the opportunity to receive Communion, and wouldn’t worry about the glove. I’m sure the priest knows what to do about that. Possibly even the Apostleship of the Sea might, under the direction of its bishop, have anticipated such situations - norovirus being a constant threat on cruise ships - and have rubrics in place for such an eventuality.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
Personally I would be grateful for the opportunity to receive Communion, and wouldn’t worry about the glove. I’m sure the priest knows what to do about that. Possibly even the Apostleship of the Sea might, under the direction of its bishop, have anticipated such situations - norovirus being a constant threat on cruise ships - and have rubrics in place for such an eventuality.
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🙂 Well, personally, I would be grateful for the opportunity to receive Communion as well, and I would not have been bothered if the priest did not wear a glove. However, I do understand why the glove may be necessary. I only wonder if this has been approved by the bishop in charge. It is the Church who has authority over the Liturgy, not the cruise line.
 
Travers22 said:
I understand that Royal Caribbean has Catholic priests on its re-positioning cruises, but have not been able to verify that. Anyone know if that is correct? Here is where I found that info
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Everything that I have heard from my priest friend is that priests onboard is voluntary. They publish a list and priests can sign up. If a priest signs up, R.C. pays their travel expenses to the ship and all shipboard expenses.

My friend has been on two repositioning cruises, both from US ports to Europe. He takes the ship there, spends time in Ireland (where he is from), and flies home at R.C. expense.
 
zab said:
🙂 Well, personally, I would be grateful for the opportunity to receive Communion as well, and I would not have been bothered if the priest did not wear a glove. However, I do understand why the glove may be necessary. I only wonder if this has been approved by the bishop in charge. It is the Church who has authority over the Liturgy, not the cruise line.
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Well, yes and no. Strictly speaking the cruise line has no authority over the Liturgy. However, as noted earlier, the cruise line does have a restriction against open flames, thus the priest used battery-operated “candles” in compliance with this reasonable restriction. I would put measures designed to prevent the spread of the noro virus, such as the plastic glove, in the same category. The alternative would be to deny Communion to the passengers and crew. Given the nature of the Apostleship of the Sea - and the fact that noro is a constant threat aboard ships - I’m quite sure that such a contingency has been addressed by the bishop under whose authority the Apostleship operates.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
Well, yes and no. Strictly speaking the cruise line has no authority over the Liturgy. However, as noted earlier, the cruise line does have a restriction against open flames, thus the priest used battery-operated “candles” in compliance with this reasonable restriction. I would put measures designed to prevent the spread of the noro virus, such as the plastic glove, in the same category. The alternative would be to deny Communion to the passengers and crew. Given the nature of the Apostleship of the Sea - and the fact that noro is a constant threat aboard ships - I’m quite sure that such a contingency has been addressed by the bishop under whose authority the Apostleship operates.
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Yeah I believe in the US the bishop in question is Most Reverend J. Kevin Boland who is the Bishop Promoter for the Apostleship of the Sea in the US. He’s also the Bishop Emeritus of Savannah. However while the ship in question is US owned, it is Dutch flagged, so I’m not 100% sure it was under his jurisdiction or his bishop promoter counterpart from the Netherlands.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
Well, yes and no. Strictly speaking the cruise line has no authority over the Liturgy. However, as noted earlier, the cruise line does have a restriction against open flames, thus the priest used battery-operated “candles” in compliance with this reasonable restriction. I would put measures designed to prevent the spread of the noro virus, such as the plastic glove, in the same category. The alternative would be to deny Communion to the passengers and crew. Given the nature of the Apostleship of the Sea - and the fact that noro is a constant threat aboard ships -** I’m quite sure** that such a contingency has been addressed by the bishop under whose authority the Apostleship operates.
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I would hope so, but “quite sure” now, are you?
 
zab said:
I would hope so, but “quite sure” now, are you?
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Well you could always ask Bishop Boland?

But I suspect that even if it is irregular he wouldn’t object to it. I mean it can’t be any more irregular than holding mass on a roadside snow altar. And I didn’t see much objection to that.
 
Padres1969 said:
Well you could always ask Bishop Boland?

But I suspect that even if it is irregular he wouldn’t object to it. I mean it can’t be any more irregular than holding mass on a roadside snow altar. And I didn’t see much objection to that.
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I don’t know if the bishop gave permission or not. I will only assume that he did. However, I do not believe that this was an easy decision that was made. Perhaps you don’t understand the difficultly of granting permission to a priest to wear a plastic glove while distributing Holy Communion because you are not Catholic. There is a big difference in the irregularity of Mass being offered on a roadside snow altar and the requirement for the priest to wear a rubber glove while distributing Holy Communion
 
zab said:
I don’t know if the bishop gave permission or not. I will only assume that he did. However, I do not believe that this was an easy decision that was made. Perhaps you don’t understand the difficultly of granting permission to a priest to wear a plastic glove while distributing Holy Communion because you are not Catholic. There is a big difference in the irregularity of Mass being offered on a roadside snow altar and the requirement for the priest to wear a rubber glove while distributing Holy Communion
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What is the difficulty? Also it was a plastic, not rubber glove. One of those food service type gloves.
 
Padres1969 said:
What is the difficulty? Also it was a plastic, not rubber glove. One of those food service type gloves.
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Ok, plastic, same difference. It would be similar to the reason why people including First Communicants are not allowed to wear gloves. Particles of the Sacred Host could become stuck to the cloth and then the gloves would have to be properly purified, rinsed and soaked in clean water for a while and then the water poured into the ground, not the drain. There is also the difficulty of handling the Host while wearing plastic gloves. And reception of Communion on the tongue would be a problem. It seems to me that trying to purify plastic gloves and dealing with the disposal of them would be of concern.
 
zab said:
Ok, plastic, same difference. It would be similar to the reason why people including First Communicants are not allowed to wear gloves. Particles of the Sacred Host could become stuck to the cloth and then the gloves would have to be properly purified, rinsed and soaked in clean water for a while and then the water poured into the ground, not the drain. It seems to me that trying to purify plastic gloves and dealing with the disposal of them would be of concern.
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Possibly, though I’m not sure it was a concern in this case. The priest as I recall purified the glove over the chalice in a manner similar to the Paten before removing it. Being as it was a plastic glove, and not a cloth glove, it seems unlikely an particles of the host would have remained behind given that treatment (assuming any were present before purification).
 
Whether it seems unlikely or not, proper care needs to be taken in purifying vessesls and in this case, the glove. There is also the difficulty of handling the small Hosts while wearing a plastic glove. If the proper authority, after giving careful consideration to this practice has determined that this ok, then it should be ok.
 
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