The use of phones in the church, between Masses and during Mass

[choy]

I think if people were REALLY concerned about actual emergencies (and not showboating) they would sit near an exit and leave their phones on vibrate. Done deal.

that is what i suggested. but some comments here generalize in banning cellphone use regardless

 

[Apryl]

that is what i suggested. but some comments here generalize in banning cellphone use regardless

I am not in favor of a general ban of cell phones or jamming of the phones just because cell phones do, despite all the negative publicity, serve a purpose

I have been in Mass or at Good Friday and seen people get sick. Ok, in these cases, no one was near death, and in each case, there were some nurses around (although we have doctors in our parish, they were not there for these Masses… hmmm). But supposing it was a heart attack or a stroke, or a child that fell and hurt themselves really badly

With a cell phone, we could call for help. I would not see the need for the caller to leave out of Mass. Yes, it’s a disruption, but we were already disrupted by the medical emergency.

Do like you said and have the people who are needed (and it’s not just the professions you mentioned. There are others) to sit near the door, put the phone on vibrate, when the phone goes off, LEAVE THE CHURCH, take the call, and if possible, return quietly:thumbsup:

 

[Chatter163]

No ER would be sans doctor – else it would not be an ER.

If I was a pastor, I would put a jamming system in like they do in theaters and performing arts centers.

Theatres and performing arts centers do not jam phones, as this is prohibited by federal law. (Goodness knows that I hear them go off all the time in such places.) Several years ago there was talk that movie theatres might ask to be exempt from the ban, but nothing ever came of that. At the moment, it seems that the federal government allows only itself to jam cell phones.

 

[choy]

I am not in favor of a general ban of cell phones or jamming of the phones just because cell phones do, despite all the negative publicity, serve a purpose

I have been in Mass or at Good Friday and seen people get sick. Ok, in these cases, no one was near death, and in each case, there were some nurses around (although we have doctors in our parish, they were not there for these Masses… hmmm). But supposing it was a heart attack or a stroke, or a child that fell and hurt themselves really badly

With a cell phone, we could call for help. I would not see the need for the caller to leave out of Mass. Yes, it’s a disruption, but we were already disrupted by the medical emergency.

Do like you said and have the people who are needed (and it’s not just the professions you mentioned. There are others) to sit near the door, put the phone on vibrate, when the phone goes off, LEAVE THE CHURCH, take the call, and if possible, return quietly:thumbsup:

good point, i was in a Mass once where the Paramedics were needed. if the cellphone signal was jammed, the poor old lady wouldn’t have gotten the help she needed

 

[snowbee]

i wouldn’t say outright ban them. there are people who justifiably need them. i wouldn’t want to be in the ER bleeding to death and the doctor can’t be reached because he or she is attending Mass.

Would that make you a martyr of sorts??

 

[Sarabande]

I have been in Mass or at Good Friday and seen people get sick. Ok, in these cases, no one was near death, and in each case, there were some nurses around (although we have doctors in our parish, they were not there for these Masses… hmmm). But supposing it was a heart attack or a stroke, or a child that fell and hurt themselves really badly

With a cell phone, we could call for help. I would not see the need for the caller to leave out of Mass. Yes, it’s a disruption, but we were already disrupted by the medical emergency.

Something similar did actually occur at my parents’ parish. My mother is a nurse and my father is a doctor. A person in the congregation was having what was believed to be a heart attack during the mass. While my father attended to the person, my mother called the paramedics on her cell phone. The mass was disrupted, but it was completed once the paramedics arrived and took the person away.

On a side note, my father’s cell phone or beeper has never gone off during mass while he was on call. We also sat on the end of the pews so that he could leave if it was an emergency. I think most doctors and other medical professionals are the same way.

It seems that the phones which do go off are of people who don’t need their phones on in the first place. Although there are honest mistakes of leaving it on. I used to have a phone which would turn on after I turned it off if it hit something in my purse. After that happened, I just didn’t bring that particular cell phone in with me again. Once when I was cantoring a mass, an older man who looked like he was in his 70s was sitting about 4 pews from the front. During communion, his phone rang and he actually answered it. While the hymn was being sung I could hear him say loudly, “Hello? Hello? … I’m at church…” etc. I could see from the corner of my eye while I held my hymnal, people in the communion line looking at him shaking their heads and then some of the younger people laughing at him. It was pretty bad.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

The GIRM gives the instructions for the celebration of Mass. The CCC tells us the truths of our faith. Common sense and good manners don’t fall under either category. These are properly addressed by parents and etiquette experts. Unfortunately, technology has run so far ahead of us that we have been caught unprepared to deal with it.

A few years ago, I was at Mass, and a man nearby answered a call on his cell phone. My companion frowned and said, “He’d better be waiting for a kidney!”

Betsy

But I do understand that doctors on call MAY have to take their emergency calls—also other service personnel like police and firemen.

The rest of us? Naaaah.

 

[judegirl33]

Here’s another way to look at this question:
I have apps for both the Breviary and the Magnificat on my phone, both of which contain the readings and the prayers for all masses. While I do not personally use them during mass, because as a cantor I believe in hearing and participating in the Word as it is proclaimed, rather than reading along, I can see where someone might use them during mass, especially someone who is hard of hearing, and in churches that do not already provide a missal.

I would never accept or make a call during mass, or even check for messages. Even news of death in my family would not take precedence over showing respect for the Eucharist. If someone has a situation emergent that is more important than mass they should attend to it and attend mass at an alternate time, IMO.

Posted from my cell phone.

 

[sedonaman]

people who are expecting emergency calls (doctors, nurses, police, firemen, etc.) should put their phones on vibrate and sit close to the exit so the can step out if they need to take a call.

 

[Apryl]

Here’s another way to look at this question:
I have apps for both the Breviary and the Magnificat on my phone, both of which contain the readings and the prayers for all masses. While I do not personally use them during mass, because as a cantor I believe in hearing and participating in the Word as it is proclaimed, rather than reading along, I can see where someone might use them during mass, especially someone who is hard of hearing, and in churches that do not already provide a missal.

I don’t have the Breviary or the Magnificant on my phone, but on my old Palm (How I miss my Palm!) I had the Readings for that Liturgy (and I could link a few days back, and a few days ahead), I had a Bible Reader with about 17 translations of the Bible where I could make notes, there was the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the GIRM on my handheld device.

Before Mass, questions may come up and I can answer them with the informaton on my device. During Mass, I could see the Readings and even look at the scriptures before and after the Readings for that Liturgy.

Then, I had someone tell me that the kids in the parish thought that I was texting during Mass…so the kids would comment to their parents… and it was just a distraction.

I no longer use my Palm, or any other device IN Mass… before? Sure. After? Yes. But during? No. If the kids think it’s texting, and these are kids who know me, what about visitors? And if I start with my gizmo, what’s next? Then, you do have people who say, 'well, how can you tell MY texting from her reading/referencing?

The big picture is, we are all supposed to be there to share in the Eucharist and for Jesus to be the Center of what we are doing. Having the toys and other information, be it on a handheld device, or in a bookcase, doesn’t encouage that.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Here’s another way to look at this question:
I have apps for both the Breviary and the Magnificat on my phone, both of which contain the readings and the prayers for all masses. While I do not personally use them during mass, because as a cantor I believe in hearing and participating in the Word as it is proclaimed, rather than reading along, I can see where someone might use them during mass, especially someone who is hard of hearing, and in churches that do not already provide a missal.

I would never accept or make a call during mass, or even check for messages. Even news of death in my family would not take precedence over showing respect for the Eucharist. If someone has a situation emergent that is more important than mass they should attend to it and attend mass at an alternate time, IMO.

Posted from my cell phone.

I have the same things and more on my phone!

I sometimes use them after Confession and before Mass to help in prayer.

 

[Love_Divine]

I’d bet you “dollars to donuts” that they do! Have you ever seen an ‘emergency call’ that’s actually for these people? Every church I’ve been in, Catholic or Protestant, with a doctor, nurse, etc that had to take a call, you never even got to notice if they were taking the call. They left out, discretely, and did what needed to be done

Professionals such as that aren’t the ones causing the problems.

I recall sitting next to an older lady in a pew who kept texting throughout Mass, and she didn’t even have it on silent. Actually, she had it on the most annoying setting where it beeps every time you type something. :banghead: So annoying and so very distracting.

 

[remjsmom76]

The way we have our rules in our parish is this. If the priest is saying a sermon…its a big no no. You wouldnt like to be talking to someone then that person flips their phone on and starts to call someone else while your in a conversation with them. Also if you were to go to a hospital into a room of a very sick person who is trying to rest. You wouldnt start talking and carrying on a conversation and laghing a belly of content while that person is trying rest?

Its always turn off/ silence your phone when entering the house of our Lord. People go to pray, mediate and rest their minds and souls with GOD when a mass isnt going on. And during mass, of course…anyone who starts to talk on a cell phone while the priest is giving his sermon…should be pellted with cotton balls…hehehehe seriously thats just rude!

 

[Janine_Therese]

To me this is a no brainer. There is absolutely no possible justification for using a cell phone in church! Doctors and people with emergent situations can be informed by silent cell phone prompters, and that can get them out of the church proper and outside to answer–and this is no time for conversation! I once saw our Lord in The Blessed Sacrament endure being insulted by a woman on a cell phone IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT CHAPEL! She knew that she was doing wrong. All she had to do was get her out of The Lord’s presence or turn the stupid phone off. Cells, twitters, all this high tech idolitry should not even need to be inquired after as practicing Roman Catholics! In our Cathedral Parish, The Rector of The Cathedral has made it forbidden to allow cells to ring in church during Holy Mass. Anyone who does (who’s not a Doctor) is fined 100.00 by Father to go into the general fund of The Parish. It has happened to some but never twice. Our poster is correct in being incredulous at cell phones in church! I am incredulous at the extreme abuses of The Mass I grew up with. Now, one point also to be made about non-Catholic Churches. Though they keep not the Blessed Sacrament on their premises—the are indeed Holy buildings and temples of worship. They are made sacred by Christian Faith of other creeds who may have invincible ignorance of The Catholic Faith—and these people have married, and buried their loved family members, they have weeped in sorrow, they have yearned for God and found him, and in many cases been led to The Catholic Church by the nurture recieved in other churches. They most certainly are sacred buildings for many of the same reasons as Catholic Churches are, saving The Eucharist of course, and they remain holy when their worshipers are not present because of the things I have said. Jesus said “whoever is not against us is for us” and He said it in this very context. “Lord, they are not with us”. We Catholics do not have the monopoly on God and our Church, while the True one, is Holy only because God dwells in it in a most unique way in The Eucharist. But as I say, the others, Synagogues, Mosques, Protestant Churches, etc. These buildings are places of spiritual/moral significance to our seperated brethren, and we should never call them unholy or simply four walls and a ceiling. Thank you, and thank you for your concern over the dignity of The Church.

 

[johns58w]

I know some parishoners in emergency services. They know “The Lord’s Day”.
Their phones are on vibrate during Mass. I also understand parishoners who are special caretakers for those who have mental, phyisical and, medical challenges where being “on call” is the common norm.

I have been at my home parish for nine years. For the most part emergencies are a fact of life due to the number of elderly people in our area.

Then there are those who insist on having their cell phone on at Mass. Are their social priorities above God’s plan and God’s will? Then they wonder why they don’t get anything out of Mass.

Let’s get real! God asks us the bare minimum to attend Mass on Sunday, and it’s only about an hour or an hour and a half. But yet peole will about kill each other racing home or racing to the mall. Sports from noontime to many at times into the wee evening hours on Sunday. People at the mall for about an hour to about most of the day. Cell phones “yakity yak” “text,text,text”. “OK,God I showed up now I’ll take care of things from here.”

And folks wonder why their life is depressing and pathetic no matter how much in material wealth they possess or how many are on the “popular list”.

An issue for the diocesan bishops to send instructions to their parishes. No more “hiding heads in the sand”. Tell the people like it is. “Cell phone use during mass is ignorance and disregard to God”. “Mass is thanksgiving, praise and worship to the Almighty God”. Cell phone use is appropriate outside the church building.

If people empty the pews during Mass, TOO BAD. Holy Orders is a call from God, not from man. The call from Jesus Christ is to serve and spread the Gospel. As a layman, I am to receive the Gospel, live it, serve for God, then my neighbor.

I attend Mass not just because it’s mandatory. Actually I look forward to Sunday to give thanks,worship to God. I leave my cell phone in my car. The Church and the faith are my life. My parish has 24 hour perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I attend a few times a week right after work for about a 30 miniute duration.

Who is our Lord? The cell phone or Jesus Christ?

 

[johns58w]

To me this is a no brainer. There is absolutely no possible justification for using a cell phone in church! Doctors and people with emergent situations can be informed by silent cell phone prompters, and that can get them out of the church proper and outside to answer–and this is no time for conversation! I once saw our Lord in The Blessed Sacrament endure being insulted by a woman on a cell phone IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT CHAPEL! She knew that she was doing wrong. All she had to do was get her out of The Lord’s presence or turn the stupid phone off. Cells, twitters, all this high tech idolitry should not even need to be inquired after as practicing Roman Catholics! In our Cathedral Parish, The Rector of The Cathedral has made it forbidden to allow cells to ring in church during Holy Mass. Anyone who does (who’s not a Doctor) is fined 100.00 by Father to go into the general fund of The Parish. It has happened to some but never twice. Our poster is correct in being incredulous at cell phones in church! I am incredulous at the extreme abuses of The Mass I grew up with. Now, one point also to be made about non-Catholic Churches. Though they keep not the Blessed Sacrament on their premises—the are indeed Holy buildings and temples of worship. They are made sacred by Christian Faith of other creeds who may have invincible ignorance of The Catholic Faith—and these people have married, and buried their loved family members, they have weeped in sorrow, they have yearned for God and found him, and in many cases been led to The Catholic Church by the nurture recieved in other churches. They most certainly are sacred buildings for many of the same reasons as Catholic Churches are, saving The Eucharist of course, and they remain holy when their worshipers are not present because of the things I have said. Jesus said “whoever is not against us is for us” and He said it in this very context. “Lord, they are not with us”. We Catholics do not have the monopoly on God and our Church, while the True one, is Holy only because God dwells in it in a most unique way in The Eucharist. But as I say, the others, Synagogues, Mosques, Protestant Churches, etc. These buildings are places of spiritual/moral significance to our seperated brethren, and we should never call them unholy or simply four walls and a ceiling. Thank you, and thank you for your concern over the dignity of The Church.

AMEN . Thank You

 

[Apryl]

Now, one point also to be made about non-Catholic Churches. Though they keep not the Blessed Sacrament on their premises—the are indeed Holy buildings and temples of worship. They are made sacred by Christian Faith of other creeds who may have invincible ignorance of The Catholic Faith—and these people have married, and buried their loved family members, they have weeped in sorrow, they have yearned for God and found him, and in many cases been led to The Catholic Church by the nurture recieved in other churches. They most certainly are sacred buildings for many of the same reasons as Catholic Churches are, saving The Eucharist of course, and they remain holy when their worshipers are not present because of the things I have said. Jesus said “whoever is not against us is for us” and He said it in this very context. “Lord, they are not with us”. We Catholics do not have the monopoly on God and our Church, while the True one, is Holy only because God dwells in it in a most unique way in The Eucharist. But as I say, the others, Synagogues, Mosques, Protestant Churches, etc. These buildings are places of spiritual/moral significance to our seperated brethren, and we should never call them unholy or simply four walls and a ceiling. Thank you, and thank you for your concern over the dignity of The Church.

Touche! Well said! Bravo!

I agree with every last thing you said. I hadn’t thought about it in that way before.

Bravo!

 

[area52]

why would you go to church and answer a call during service?
why do you go to church at all if you can’t even pay attention to the priest service?
is’nt spending 60mins of your time in a Catholic service more important for your salvation?

Other than life or death phone call, there is no more important than attending church with a thankful heart and worshiping Jesus with thankfulnes and prayer because Jesus made the way for us to be saved.

 

[Apryl]

why would you go to church and answer a call during service?
why do you go to church at all if you can’t even pay attention to the priest service?
is’nt spending 60mins of your time in a Catholic service more important for your salvation?

Other than life or death phone call, there is no more important than attending church with a thankful heart and worshiping Jesus with thankfulnes and prayer because Jesus made the way for us to be saved.

Have you heard about the people who have died for texting while driving? And the number of states and cities that had already banned the use of phones while driving?

We have people for whom the cell phone is their Leader… and not a tool for their use

 

[ladytatslace]

I’m going to throw a monkey wrench into the discussion.
our Priest usually turns his cell phone off during Mass. one day a couple months ago, he reached in his pocket during the homily and removed his cell phone. It was a call he was expecting about a 5 yr old parishioner of our sister parish that was near death. That child did die, and Father said he had told the parents to call him no matter when, as even if it was during Mass he wanted to know. the intercessions were changed due to his having died.

as for using a cell phone outside of Mass times, we have a very rural parish, there is no parish hall, and the rectory is locked nearly all the time as we don’t have a resident Priest. when we are there cleaning, or doing work around the church, cell phones are the only method of communication, and yes they are used in the church itself, but I do not consider that bad manners, simply a way of life.