Really disappointed by this decision

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Phemie

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Tonight I went to Mass and when I picked up the bulletin I found out that next weekend the pastor has decided to cancel Sunday morning Mass. He’ll celebrate Mass on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. then nothing until the children’s Christmas Eve Mass at 4:30 p.m., Mass during the Night at 9 p.m., then Christmas Day Mass at 10:00 a.m.

Not exactly promoting the obligation to attend two masses to celebrate two Holy Days of Obligation.
 
Is he celebrating these masses himself? If he doesn’t have help that is a full schedule… Maybe you could ask him what you and other parishioners could do to have more masses when Christmas is on a Monday again
 
How many priests does your parish have? If it is only the pastor and no associates, maybe he is trying to make the Christmas holiday workload, (back to back holydays) more workable to himself. Especially if, like many places, he is an older priest. The more sacred nature of feastdays, especially if there is an inordinate amount of kneeling done while incensing the altar, the lectionary, the tabernacle, the congregation, can take a significant toll on 60+ year old knees, back, etc. If that’s the case, give the man a break.
 
Try to be understanding, since there has to be some reason:

An average priest celebrates mass in several different parishes, and also at retirement homes. Besides this there are funerals, baptisms, marriages…If his schedule gets to overloaded, he has to cancel some celebrations keeping the most urgent and unavoidable (like unexpected funerals that are always bound to happen).

The priests I know, celebrate between 3 to 8 masses per day not counting funerals, so you can imagine how difficult and unforeseen their a schedules can be…And priests are humane beings, and they don’t grow on trees either.

Instead of being disappointing, go talk to him (or confess) when you get the chance and tell him how much you appreciate his work and dedication. Then without any fear ask him why this happened and I’m sure he’ll tell you his reasons.
 
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Please remember, the two biggest days of full participation for Catholics are Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. It’s when ‘Catholics’ come out of the woodwork, so to say, and create standing room only situations. Not to mention the parking chaos. That said, be happy you have a priest.
 
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Our pastor has three parishes and we each have one mass for 4th Sunday of Advent and one for Christmas. Our masses are Saturday evening and Sunday evening.
 
He’s the only priest but I’d say early 50s at most. We’re his only responsibility at this time.

Maybe I am being unreasonable but it seems to me that when you normally have a Mass on Saturday evening attended by a handful and a Sunday morning Mass attended by most of those who normally attend Mass, eliminating the Sunday morning Mass makes Sunday Mass seem unimportant.
 
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Phemie said:
We’re his only responsibility at this time.
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That’s an assumption. There could be a queue of bedridden people waiting for the priest to give communion and last rites to them. He could have been summoned by the bishop for whatever mission or reason. And it’s part of your mission, as a layperson, to give him some love back. So go and talk to him when you get a chance. Also, having “bona fides” or “good faith” requires for you to give the best possible interpretation to his actions until you know otherwise…And I personally don’t expect lack of zeal or light-hearted decisions from a priest, there has to be a good explanation.

And perhaps you are right, and could contribute with your precious view to the mission of the priest, since priests get lonely too and welcome and need good advice as much as anyone else.
 
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Phemie said:
He’s the only priest but I’d say early 50s at most. We’re his only responsibility at this time.

Maybe I am being unreasonable but it seems to me that when you normally have a Mass on Saturday evening attended by a handful and a Sunday morning Mass attended by most of those who normally attend Mass, eliminating the Sunday morning Mass makes Sunday Mass seem unimportant.
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I would hate to presume to know why he did this. There are a lot of good reasons, and a few bad ones. My priest cut two of the five Masses he says, but then is saying three for Christmas, for a total of six over forty-eight hours. I think cutting the two was a good idea.
 
Phemie said:
eliminating the Sunday morning Mass makes Sunday Mass seem unimportant
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But the Mass on Sunday is not omitted rather it celebrated Saturday evening.
So the Sunday obligation is met. And the Masses held Sunday eve meet the Christmas obligation.
Perhaps this was done so that more people could attend Mass. Split the crowd between two Masses and days.
 
Unless you have an incredibly small parish in a very small town, the fact that you are his “only responsibility” doesn’t mean you aren’t a substantial responsibility.

I think our priests have enough on their collective plates without having to worry about backlash every time they cancel a Mass.
 
Phemie said:
Tonight I went to Mass and when I picked up the bulletin I found out that next weekend the pastor has decided to cancel Sunday morning Mass. He’ll celebrate Mass on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. then nothing until the children’s Christmas Eve Mass at 4:30 p.m., Mass during the Night at 9 p.m., then Christmas Day Mass at 10:00 a.m.
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Ask him about it. I’m betting he’ll mention that, by canon law, priests are supposed to celebrate no more than two Masses a day (three, in the event of an unplanned emergency).
Not exactly promoting the obligation to attend two masses to celebrate two Holy Days of Obligation.
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However, perhaps he’s prioritizing the Masses that will be attended by the greatest numbers of people.
 
Phemie said:
He’ll celebrate Mass on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. then nothing until the children’s Christmas Eve Mass at 4:30 p.m., Mass during the Night at 9 p.m., then Christmas Day Mass at 10:00 a.m.
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He’s only one man, he’s already scheduled for several masses, I think there is a real limit as to what you can realistic expect. He may well have other things on his plate for Christmas as well.
 
All of the decorations in the church have to be changed from Advent to Christmas. Since the Fourth Sunday in Advent falls on Christmas Eve this year that does not leave much time to make the necessary changes.

Our pastor decided to allow us to decorate the church on Saturday vs. trying to fit everything into the regular Sunday schedule. In my parish decorating the Church for Christmas takes all day and we are a pretty small church.

It may be that your pastor doesn’t have enough help to decorate or he may not like the idea of decorating for Christmas before Advent is over as that is not supposed to be done.
 
Or maybe his mother want him to come for Christmas, just this once…
 
Our 2:30 Sunday Spanish Mass was cancelled, due to the setting up of Christmas Eve decorations. This year the 4th Advent Sunday was also Christmas Eve. Perhaps that’s what happened at your Parish.
 
No, definitely not that. Most of the decorations were in place by the third Sunday in Advent and by Saturday’s 4th Sunday of Advent Mass the only thing not in place was baby Jesus in the manger.

I went to Mass on Saturday and despite there being no other Sunday Mass, there might have been 5 people there who don’t normally attend at this time. There simply was no mention at any time that people needed to attend two Masses to meet both their Sunday and Christmas obligations.

When I mentioned that to the person who does the bulletin, who to be clear is not the priest, her response was “Why have Mass on Sunday morning? I can guarantee nobody is going to come to that Mass if they’re planning to go to Mass for Christmas. Nobody is going to Mass twice!”

At any rate, I went to Mass on Saturday evening then we boarded a plane to Ottawa to spend Christmas and New Year with our daughter, SIL, and grandsons. To our great and delighted surprise, when we got there we saw her younger brother whom she’d arranged to get from Edmonton to Ottawa for several days to surprise us. She and her family went to the 6 pm Mass Christmas Eve; son and I went to Midnight Mass.

We spent a delightful Christmas. It included brunch at our daughter’s brother-in-law’s house and then back to her house to prepare dinner for all 7 of us + SIL’s parents.
 
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My former pastor would cancel his usual Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday (especially after presiding the Easter Vigil and the Salubong procession before the principal Mass at 5:00 am on Easter day) and Christmas Day Masses in chapels/mission churches under the jurisdiction of my parish. He made it clear that for those days, people near those chapels/mission churches would have to go to the Parish for these Masses.

With the clergy shuffling that happened last March, we had a new pastor. This year, he retained the Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day Masses in those chapels/mission churches.
 
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One priest, with no other associates, what came up was a grueling schedule. For a priest, Mass begins with vesting, and does not end until the last person is done shaking his hand. It can easily stretch a Sunday Mass to two hours.

Maybe he is not young, maybe he has bad knees, maybe he has some heart problems, maybe he is going to say Mass for a small mission church where their pastor is not available.
 
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