SPLIT: What to do if the priest is late for Mass?

[cho_pilo]

[edited] How about for most parishes that have a fixed daily mass schedule for example 6 or 7 pm. and the priest is not yet in the church 30 minutes after 6 or 7? should the congregation call the next available priest? what if there is no available priest? Can just the people leave and go home?

 

[Jean_Anthony]

aaa

 

[corsair]

That has happened to us several times over the past 10 years. Usually the priest will realize that he is running late and will call someone.

After the priest is 30 minutes late I usually go home. My intent was to attend Mass but that is kind of pushing the limits.

 

[marty1818]

If there is no priest and there is another priest at the parish then you could see if he was around. If there is no priest available then you may as well go home because there won’t be a mass.

 

[jimrob]

This only tends to happen at my church at the vigil Mass on a Saturday night. Our priests are chaplains at a number of local hospitals and may be delayed. And sometimes they forget whose turn it is. We have confessions for an hour before the vigil Mass so we get some warning if the priest isn’t coming and we try and find one. (Two live next door and a third lives half a mile away). If no-one’s around, we page them.

If all else fails and the priest hasn’t arrived by ten minutes after Mass was due to start, we start without him. On only one occasion did we get to the Gospel with no priest and we continued with a Eucharistic service giving Holy Communion from the reserved Sacrament. I have subsequently been advised by our Diocesan Liturgical Commission that we acted correctly.

 

[w_s_s]

This reminds me of a story…
Very early one Sunday, people arriving for Mass found the church doors locked. They were surprised, of course, but decided to wait and see. At the time Mass was to begin, the doors were still locked and the people started to murmur. Finally, 15 minutes after the scheduled time, the priest arrived and, pushing his way through the people, began to unlock the door. As he did so, the unhappy parishioners started complaining: “Father! You are late!” As he pushed the door open, the priest peered inside the Church and then looked back at the people, saying “Really? Has Mass already begun?”

 

[Mrs_Sally]

This has only happened once or twice atmy parish because we have more than one priest and they live at the rectory on church grounds. If there is not priest even 5-10 minutes before Mass is to begin, someone can go over to the rectory and alert the priests. I know on one occasion the priests had swaped Masses and someone just forgot.

If the parish only has one priest and he isn’t there at Mass time, there should be a process to follow to find him or another priest. i.e., first alert the parish office, then page/text the priest, then call neighborhing parish X. If a priest is late or missing for daily Mass, it would probably just get cancelled. For Sunday Mass it would depend on if the priest would be avialable for the next regularly scheduled Mass, then people could just come to Mass then. If there is only one Mass, people can choose to go to another parish if possible, the parish can have an emergency process for “Sunday service without a Priest” (Communion Service) as another poster mentioned, or people just don’t go to Mass.

If there is no priest and no Mass is available, no obligation exists for that Sunday.

 

[raaucoin]

Um, maybe if a priest is 30 minutes late-someone should go to Rectory and check on him?

 

[CB_Catholic]

Um, maybe if a priest is 30 minutes late-someone should go to Rectory and check on him?

Sadly, this is true–the priest at my daughter’s former parish was found dead in his bed from a heart attack when he failed to show up for a wedding Mass. May he rest in peace.

 

[thequeen]

Sadly, this is true–the priest at my daughter’s former parish was found dead in his bed from a heart attack when he failed to show up for a wedding Mass. May he rest in peace.

You are so right about 6 or 7 years ago the priest that was the parochial vicar was scheduled to do the 5 oclock pm saturday vigil mass well we waited for about 30 minutes finally me and some other parishioners went over to see if everything was okay when we got to the door we knocked when we didn’t get and answers one of the deacons who had a key opened the door when he opened the door we were saddened to see Father collapsed lying face down by the sofa they called an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital unfortunately he did not make it he died after the perimedics tried for 20 minutes to revive him He was in his sixties don’ t remember exactly how old though.

 

[Phemie]

The priest who is overseeing our parish often decides to cancel Mass at the last minute. He’s usually good about notifying the sacristan but sometimes he just posts a sign on the door. For daily Mass and the Saturday evening Sunday Mass we don’t do anything – if we weren’t notified and show up we just turn around and go home.

On Sundays, we have 4 people in the parish who are trained to do a Sunday Liturgy of the Word with Communion in the format prescribed by the CCCB. To make it easier on everyone if we are called upon at the last minute (the last time the call came to me at 9:10 a.m. that the 10 a.m. Mass was cancelled) I’ve prepared a separate order of service for several consecutive Sundays so all they have to do is walk in, pull out the book and follow the page numbers on the list. It will give them the proper prayers for each specific Sunday. We’re so used to these cancellations that I even prepared the services for Christmas and Mary, Mother of God. I’m very thankful that they weren’t required.

When there is no advanced notice, we do a silent reflection on the Readings. If it was a planned service, such as we also have been having more frequently when the priest is out of town, there is usually a reflection from an online homeletic service.

 

[Tridentinum]

You are so right about 6 or 7 years ago the priest that was the parochial vicar was scheduled to do the 5 oclock pm saturday vigil mass well we waited for about 30 minutes finally me and some other parishioners went over to see if everything was okay when we got to the door we knocked when we didn’t get and answers one of the deacons who had a key opened the door when he opened the door we were saddened to see Father collapsed lying face down by the sofa they called an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital unfortunately he did not make it he died after the perimedics tried for 20 minutes to revive him He was in his sixties don’ t remember exactly how old though.

Lord have mercy!

 

[MissBorgia]

You are so right about 6 or 7 years ago the priest that was the parochial vicar was scheduled to do the 5 oclock pm saturday vigil mass well we waited for about 30 minutes finally me and some other parishioners went over to see if everything was okay when we got to the door we knocked when we didn’t get and answers one of the deacons who had a key opened the door when he opened the door we were saddened to see Father collapsed lying face down by the sofa they called an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital unfortunately he did not make it he died after the perimedics tried for 20 minutes to revive him He was in his sixties don’ t remember exactly how old though.

same thing here about 20 years ago when Father Salzlay failed to show up for morning mass one sunday. he had died the night before in bed.