G
G_S
Guest
Cat,
You said, “But the cell phone or I-Pad doesn’t cause a person to disregard the Mass, any more than a parish bulletin causes people to write out their grocery list instead of paying attention to the homily.”
I would beg to differ. It may not cause you to disregard the Mass but it does others. (Many parishes do not hand out their bulletins until after Mass because they are distracting. Also, I have NEVER seen a worshiper reading the bulletin during one of my homilies and I have been a deacon for almost three decades.) Many, many people have a near addiction to their electronic device. It puts them in their own little world where they do not have to deal with other people. I have been on retreats or diocesan conferences where priests are playing video games while the presenter is speaking. Electronic devices are distracting to the user. I am not saying that they could never have any use in Church and my post states that. In our small rural parish, we have a mostly elderly congregation. The few that use a smart phone during Mass are young people and they are not using them in order to participate in the Mass. It’s because they can’t stop using them. It is only a technology issue because the distraction is already occurring. As a deacon, I can see what’s going on from the sanctuary.
When I said, “The attitude that it doesn’t matter what others are thinking and they’ll just get over it might be, if anything, a good reason for banning electronic devices from church,” I was being facetious. Notice that what I was criticizing in that sentence was not electronic devices but the attitude that, if a fellow congregant is bothered by one’s use of an electronic device, it’s the problem of the person who is being bothered. It bothered me when Fr. M_ was playing Candy Crush on his computer when the bishop was speaking at a diocesan-wide conference. Should Fr. M_ continue to do so because it’s my problem? The limited, specific use of an electronic device as cited by the original poster could be okay, especially if the user is as concerned about proper use and the feelings of fellow parishioners.
We all need to remember to love people and use things not love things and use people. I have seen so many cases of people being consumed by their cell phone to the neglect of their spouses, children, doctors, store clerks, teachers, friends, beauticians, etc. that I think we should be very, very careful about their use at Mass.
You said, “But the cell phone or I-Pad doesn’t cause a person to disregard the Mass, any more than a parish bulletin causes people to write out their grocery list instead of paying attention to the homily.”
I would beg to differ. It may not cause you to disregard the Mass but it does others. (Many parishes do not hand out their bulletins until after Mass because they are distracting. Also, I have NEVER seen a worshiper reading the bulletin during one of my homilies and I have been a deacon for almost three decades.) Many, many people have a near addiction to their electronic device. It puts them in their own little world where they do not have to deal with other people. I have been on retreats or diocesan conferences where priests are playing video games while the presenter is speaking. Electronic devices are distracting to the user. I am not saying that they could never have any use in Church and my post states that. In our small rural parish, we have a mostly elderly congregation. The few that use a smart phone during Mass are young people and they are not using them in order to participate in the Mass. It’s because they can’t stop using them. It is only a technology issue because the distraction is already occurring. As a deacon, I can see what’s going on from the sanctuary.
When I said, “The attitude that it doesn’t matter what others are thinking and they’ll just get over it might be, if anything, a good reason for banning electronic devices from church,” I was being facetious. Notice that what I was criticizing in that sentence was not electronic devices but the attitude that, if a fellow congregant is bothered by one’s use of an electronic device, it’s the problem of the person who is being bothered. It bothered me when Fr. M_ was playing Candy Crush on his computer when the bishop was speaking at a diocesan-wide conference. Should Fr. M_ continue to do so because it’s my problem? The limited, specific use of an electronic device as cited by the original poster could be okay, especially if the user is as concerned about proper use and the feelings of fellow parishioners.
We all need to remember to love people and use things not love things and use people. I have seen so many cases of people being consumed by their cell phone to the neglect of their spouses, children, doctors, store clerks, teachers, friends, beauticians, etc. that I think we should be very, very careful about their use at Mass.
)