Sacraments and money?

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I ask this question in sheer ignorance-I have no clue about the answer.

I know you need to pay a priest for a baptism or wedding, but what if you had no money? A priest can’t refuse to do them, can he?

I’m not planning to be baptized anytime soon (already did) and I’m not getting married either-I was reading another post and the question just came to my mind.

I don’t think most priests would care about the money factor-but is it still important?
 
Rascalking said:
I ask this question in sheer ignorance-I have no clue about the answer.

I know you need to pay a priest for a baptism or wedding, but what if you had no money? A priest can’t refuse to do them, can he?

then you don’t know much because Catholic churches and priests never charge for sacraments, if somebody tells you there is a charge investigate further. There is often a charge for use of the church say for a wedding, and if a priest or deacon comes in from outside the parish must pay him a stipend, so it would be in order for the family to pay that if they can (usually $100 or less), there is sometimes a charge for sacramental preparation classes to cover cost of resources and materials, for instance the company that administers the focus test taken by engaged couples charges for that service. In all these cases any charge is waived in case of true need, including any required classes. Talk to the pastor and explain your situation.

This is the third time I have typed this answer today to similar questions, I am beginning to think somebody is spamming this forum on this topic.
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puzzleannie said:
Rascalking;6807190:
I ask this question in sheer ignorance-I have no clue about the answer.

I know you need to pay a priest for a baptism or wedding, but what if you had no money? A priest can’t refuse to do them, can he?

then you don’t know much because Catholic churches and priests never charge for sacraments, if somebody tells you there is a charge investigate further. There is often a charge for use of the church say for a wedding, and if a priest or deacon comes in from outside the parish must pay him a stipend, so it would be in order for the family to pay that if they can (usually $100 or less), there is sometimes a charge for sacramental preparation classes to cover cost of resources and materials, for instance the company that administers the focus test taken by engaged couples charges for that service. In all these cases any charge is waived in case of true need, including any required classes. Talk to the pastor and explain your situation.

This is the third time I have typed this answer today to similar questions, I am beginning to think somebody is spamming this forum on this topic.
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Um, no. I wasn’t spamming or anything else. And your right- I don’t know much on the topic. That’s why I said I didn’t in the OP.

Thanks.
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uh actually you first pleaded innocence, then you said “I know this to be true” and stated it as fact
 
There was a day when priests did not have regular paychecks, then they were given gifts of money for things like baptism and weddings, things outside of his regular routine. Most churches today provide many things for the priest such as house, utilities etc. and they still have a paycheck. Of course it is small compared to most people’s wages. Even mass intenttions are paid directly to the church now, it is customary to pay $10 to have a mass for someone, but if a person does not have money, of course none is needed.
 
No money, no problem.

If you have money don’t be greedy.
 
Thanks guys. I thought that was how it worked~I cannot for the life of me think of a Priest turning down someone for a monetary reason, but I did want to make sure.
 
When I was married we were never told that we should pay the priest. We did anyway, although it was hard to figure out how much to give him because no one ever talked about it that much with us. We just gave him $100 and hoped that was sufficient. :o
 
Canon law does provide for an offering for the administration of the sacraments. It is the province of bishops that set the fee.

Can. 1264 Unless the law has provided otherwise, it is for a meeting of the bishops of a province:

2/ to set a limit on the offerings on the occasion of the administration of sacraments and sacramentals.

In our diocese it is $25 and the offering goes to the fund for the Works of Charity, not to the priest/deacon himself by law in our diocese. If someone wants to give the priest something in addition to the $25, they can do so.

The fee for the offering of a mass intention is $10, also set by the diocese, and it goes to the priest.

And, many parishes set a usage fee for the church for weddings and funerals, or for a private baptism or other private sacrament or service (quincenera, for example, which isn’t a sacrament). Ours is $100.

As to your question regarding those who cannot pay the fee amount set by the province, that is also covered in canon law:

Can. 848 The minister is to seek nothing for the administration of the sacraments beyond the offerings defined by competent authority, always taking care that the needy are not deprived of the assistance of the sacraments because of poverty.

So, yes, there is an offering expected for the administration of the sacraments. And, yes, there is a provision for those who are needy.
 
puzzleannie said:
then you don’t know much because Catholic churches and priests never charge for sacraments, if somebody tells you there is a charge investigate further.
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Actually, puzzleannie, this is not quite accurate.

Canon law does indeed specify an offering for sacraments. In our diocese it is $25 and it is expected that parishioners pay it. It does not go to the priest, it goes to the works of charity. In addition, it is *customary *, but not required, to give the priest something too.

Additionally, our bishop gets a *required *fee of $150 *per parish *when he confirms. Our parish pays that stipend out of the parish funds, instead of passing it along to the families of our teens, because we are a small parish and only have a couple of kids per year. So that would be a lot per kid.

If someone doesn’t pay the sacrament stipend because they cannot afford it, they can certainly still receive the sacrament, as outlnied in canon law 848.

But I don’t think it’s accurate to say that there is no charge or that an investigaion is in order if you are notified to pay a stipend.
 
1ke said:
Actually, puzzleannie, this is not quite accurate.

Canon law does indeed specify an offering for sacraments. In our diocese it is $25 and it is expected that parishioners pay it. It does not go to the priest, it goes to the works of charity. In addition, it is *customary *, but not required, to give the priest something too.
.
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an offering is not a fee, neither is a stipend a fee and the person receiving the sacrament is obligated to pay neither of these, that is why there is no charge. The stipend is paid by the parish if the family does not pay it, and it goes toward the priest’s support. The offering is just that, a free will offering.

a usage fee for use of facilities is, as I said, a separate matter entirely, and still is not the same as “charging a fee for sacraments.”

if you ask at the parish office they will tell you what the customary offering is but if that person uses words like “fee” or “mandatory” ask the pastor for clarification because they are speaking incorrectly.
 
Rascalking said:
I ask this question in sheer ignorance-I have no clue about the answer.

I know you need to pay a priest for a baptism or wedding, but what if you had no money? A priest can’t refuse to do them, can he?

I’m not planning to be baptized anytime soon (already did) and I’m not getting married either-I was reading another post and the question just came to my mind.

I don’t think most priests would care about the money factor-but is it still important?
Click to expand...
as mentioned, Sacraments are free! there’s no charge for them. some parishes may have a fee for the use of the church, which includes the utilities. you may need to work with the priest if you don’t have money so he can put you in a time that you’re not using too much of the parish’s resources
 
seems a good time to add a note that deacons perform many baptisms, weddings and funerals these days, and down here, quinceneras. Those deacons often are not paid a salary unless they have also been hired for a specific position, and other than a very small stipend for things like books and retreats, possibly gas mileage, receive no compensation for sacraments performed in their parish assignment other than donations from families of those involved. Keep it in mind next time someone in your family is preparing for sacraments. This is certainly the case for our retired deacon, and for many if not most our deacons down here.
 
Actually, providing a payment in these situations is called an “honorarium”

An honorarium is an ex gratia payment made to a person for their services in a volunteer capacity or for services for which fees are not traditionally required.

While it isn’t required to “Pay” someone, it is considered gracious to offer something in appreciation.
 
I stated this in another thread, but some of the fees for weddings really are getting out of hand. We looked at parishes outside of ours (destination wedding) and the cost was $2000 - $2500 for non-registered marriages (multiple parishes). We ended up getting married in our parish and the cost was $1000 ($2500 for non-registered couples). We had to pay for the organist ($75), an alter boy ($20), pre-cana ($150), cleanup ($20), FOCCUS ($25), and an honorarium for the deacon. The documents they gave us said that we should provide an honorarium of $500, but that $250 was the “minimum acceptable.” The procedure is to give the honorarium to someone from the Wedding Guild so that she can verify how much was given. So, it definitely did feel like we were paying (through the nose) for a wedding.

The response is of course “well, you could have just gotten married with two witnesses in the deacon’s office, and it would have just cost you the pre-cana, FOCCUS fee, and a reduce honorarium”, which is technically true, but come on… I now know you can get married during a regularly scheduled Mass, but I’ve never seen this done in decades at the parish, so I am not even sure if it is an option.

Of course the other argument is that “you’re paying for electricity and water”, which is also technically true, but I have a hard time getting that to $1000 (or $2500). We all know what really happens: the average wedding in our area is around $30,000 and protestant churches charge $1500 - $2000. So pastors feel that they can “get away” with $1500 to $3000 in total charges since it’s a small portion of the overall wedding cost and close to “market rate”. That money collected over the year is used as a major income source for the parish for capital improvements, ministries, etc.

Luckily, I was able to pay for a wedding, but that pricing still bothers me a great deal.
 
i forgot how much i paid the chapel for our wedding but it was spruced up for the event, so you know the money is going somewhere and not just into the pockets of the parish. and the fee also includes the use of a room. the chapel where i got married was part of a retreat center (the chapel was beautiful so the parish opened it up for weddings. and since its small, its a very private ceremony) so the rooms were rented out separately but were included in the fee for weddings
 
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