Stopping a mass in progress...ever allowed?

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BenRosa

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Greetings:

I’d like to know under what circumstances, a mass in progress can be halted. Life or death situation? I would think so. What about if the where the mass is being said, it is illegal and the authorities are coming to arrest them all? Ok to stop the mas and hide then?

Thanks for any and all feedback (it’s to help with a section of my fictional story).

Edward
 
BenRosa said:
Greetings:

I’d like to know under what circumstances, a mass in progress can be halted. Life or death situation? I would think so. What about if the where the mass is being said, it is illegal and the authorities are coming to arrest them all? Ok to stop the mas and hide then?

Thanks for any and all feedback (it’s to help with a section of my fictional story).

Edward
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Off the top of my head, I would have to say a life/death situation or an “act of God” [earthquake, hurricane, tornado, etc] type situation would be the only valid reasons to stop a mass.
 
BenRosa said:
Greetings:

I’d like to know under what circumstances, a mass in progress can be halted. Life or death situation? I would think so. **What about if the where the mass is being said, it is illegal and the authorities are coming to arrest them all? **Ok to stop the mas and hide then?

Thanks for any and all feedback (it’s to help with a section of my fictional story).

Edward
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I would think so. If the Mass is illegal then we definitely need to keep the priests out of prison, or quickly there will be no Masses as at all.

There are probably rules about this in Canon Law or elsewhere.
 
BenRosa said:
Greetings:

I’d like to know under what circumstances, a mass in progress can be halted. Life or death situation? I would think so. What about if the where the mass is being said, it is illegal and the authorities are coming to arrest them all? Ok to stop the mas and hide then?

Thanks for any and all feedback (it’s to help with a section of my fictional story).

Edward
Click to expand...
All I know is if the bread and wine has not been consecrated yet, then the Mass can be stopped. If it has, then the Mass has to be completed. That is if its possible. I mean, if there is a terrorist chemical attack, then there’s nothing you can do about it. Of in your scenario where people are arrested and there’s no one to call for another priest to complete the Mass.
 
I believe that once the Canon has started the Mass must be finished if humanly possible. If the celebrant drops dead right at the Hanc Igitur then another priest must come in to finish the Mass. Of course if there was a disaster that made such impossible the there’s not much than can be done.

If someone holds a gun to the priest’s head just before the Consecration and tells him to stop… he doesn’t stop.
 
If De Defectibus was printed in OF Missals, then we probably wouldn’t have to have problems like these.
 
I’ve got a vague memory about reading that if the Consecration had taken place, because the priest’s communion was necessary to complete the Mass, if such a situation arose the priest could skip everything up to his Communion and receive the Sacred Species straight away. But I’m not sure about this, it was a long time ago that I read about this, so I could be wrong. I think it may also have been in reference to the time when Catholicism was illegal in the UK and there was a serious risk of priests being executed if caught. But such a thing, even if permissable at all, would only have been allowed in an absolute emergency. It may not even have been mentioned in e.g De defectibus of the EF Missal, but may have been a kind of emergency instruction given to priests who were in that situation.
 
Laudate_Dominum said:
I believe that once the Canon has started the Mass must be finished if humanly possible. If the celebrant drops dead right at the Hanc Igitur then another priest must come in to finish the Mass. Of course if there was a disaster that made such impossible the there’s not much than can be done.

If someone holds a gun to the priest’s head just before the Consecration and tells him to stop… he doesn’t stop.
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Depends how heroic the priest is. But he can stop if the consecration hasn’t taken play. If the priest says, “Take, eat, this is my…” then suddenly, “STOP!!!” Then he can stop the Mass safely.
 
ConstantineTG said:
All I know is if the bread and wine has not been consecrated yet, then the Mass can be stopped. If it has, then the Mass has to be completed. That is if its possible. I mean, if there is a terrorist chemical attack, then there’s nothing you can do about it. Of in your scenario where people are arrested and there’s no one to call for another priest to complete the Mass.
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Interesting. I was at a Mass where right after the Eucharistic prayers, the fire alarm went off.

Nobody moved.

I kind of pitied the fireman who came, because nobody was going to leave. The Bishop waited until the alarms were finished (it was too loud to do anything else) and completed the Mass.
 
I attended a Mass at a convent chapel. During the preparation of the gifts, the priest fell on the floor, almost passing out. After we made sure he was okay and someone drove him home, we called the parish priest who came to finish the Mass. We were very close to the parish, so it was fairly reasonable to get another priest. I don’t know what we would have done if there was no extra priest around. The original priest was coming down with flu or something and was in no condition to finish.

As to priests getting arrested during Mass, this situation would usually occur in environments where no one would be surprised by such a thing. I wish I could remember what book this was in, but I read about times of persecution (possibly Nazi Germany, but I can’t say for sure) where they had to take lots of precautions. Mass would never be said in a church building, but in an apartment. It would take place at the dining room table and set up to appear as just a normal meal. These Masses were also performed as quickly as possible to evade discovery. They would often have the TV or radio turned up loud so that eavesdroppers couldn’t hear them. If you go through all that and still get discovered and arrested, I imagine the Mass just continues in Heaven when you become a martyr…
 
hannajomar said:
As to priests getting arrested during Mass, this situation would usually occur in environments where no one would be surprised by such a thing. I wish I could remember what book this was in, but I read about times of persecution (possibly Nazi Germany, but I can’t say for sure) where they had to take lots of precautions. Mass would never be said in a church building, but in an apartment. It would take place at the dining room table and set up to appear as just a normal meal. These Masses were also performed as quickly as possible to evade discovery. They would often have the TV or radio turned up loud so that eavesdroppers couldn’t hear them. If you go through all that and still get discovered and arrested, I imagine the Mass just continues in Heaven when you become a martyr…
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Interesting…

In my story, this illegal mass is taking place in a home as well (I actually have two occasions of this happening). The story is a work in progress; the link is to a rough draft.

Thank you all for the feedback on my question.

Edward
 
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