Weekly collection

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bisco

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hope i’m in the correct forum. i am a protestant who has been attending mass with my catholic wife for 8 years. a few weeks ago, the usher came over to me during mass and asked if i could help with the collection. not wanting to disrupt anything, i agreed and after telling him i had never done it beore, he told me what to do. my question is, should i have said no? or told him i’m not catholic? my wife said it was okay, but she isn’t really up to par on all the rules and regs. i appreciate being welcome at mass and don’t want to do anything inappropriate. thank you!
 
No, as far as yourself…it’s perfectly fine. Also, since you helped at mass…you’re specially blessed!
 
bisco said:
hope i’m in the correct forum. i am a protestant who has been attending mass with my catholic wife for 8 years. a few weeks ago, the usher came over to me during mass and asked if i could help with the collection. not wanting to disrupt anything, i agreed and after telling him i had never done it beore, he told me what to do. my question is, should i have said no? or told him i’m not catholic? my wife said it was okay, but she isn’t really up to par on all the rules and regs. i appreciate being welcome at mass and don’t want to do anything inappropriate. thank you!
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Assuming that you are willing to help, there is nothing wrong with assisting in something like taking up the collection. It occasionally happens, however – somebody posted here several months ago mentioning that it had happened to him – that a non-Catholic regular massgoer is asked to proclaim one of the readings. That is a liturgical function generally reserved to Catholics, except by special permission of the bishop, as paragraph 133 of the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism states:
133. The reading of Scripture during a Eucharistic celebration in the Catholic Church is to be done by members of that Church. On exceptional occasions and for a just cause, the Bishop of the diocese may permit a member of another Church or ecclesial Community to take on the task of reader.
I know that wasn’t your question, but I wanted to mention it for your information as an example of something that there is a rule about. (Although I think it is a rule regularly ignored at weddings and funerals.)
 
MarkThompson said:
the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism states:133. The reading of Scripture during a Eucharistic celebration in the Catholic Church is to be done by members of that Church. On exceptional occasions and for a just cause, the Bishop of the diocese may permit a member of another Church or ecclesial Community to take on the task of reader.I know that wasn’t your question, but I wanted to mention it for your information as an example of something that there is a rule about. (Although I think it is a rule regularly ignored at weddings and funerals.)
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I don’t think it’s ignored. Because it’s so important to families I think that bishops consider weddings and funerals ‘just causes’.
 
thank you everyone, certainly, it is good to know the ‘do’s and dont’s’. i would hope nothing else is asked of me during mass, i do know not to take communion. i have received ashe’s on ash wednesday which my wife encouraged. the pastor regularly asks for general volunteer’s in the bulletin and i would mention not being catholic to anyone who asked me during normal conversation.
 
You know…helping with collection is just one step closer to conversion. ;)😉 👍👍
 
Phemie said:
I don’t think it’s ignored. Because it’s so important to families I think that bishops consider weddings and funerals ‘just causes’.
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I think it’s overly optimistic to imagine that every case of appointing a non-Latin-Catholic reader at every wedding and every funeral has gone up to the chancery for an official decision. Isn’t it far more likely that the presiding priest just let them slip by with a little infraction?

Our last choir director was Lutheran, and despite his own best efforts to delegate the Psalm to me on occasions, the pastor insisted that the director himself perform it. I doubt our bishop had a word in that, even though I have the utmost confidence in the obedience of our pastor.
 
Elizium23 said:
I think it’s overly optimistic to imagine that every case of appointing a non-Latin-Catholic reader at every wedding and every funeral has gone up to the chancery for an official decision. Isn’t it far more likely that the presiding priest just let them slip by with a little infraction?

Our last choir director was Lutheran, and despite his own best efforts to delegate the Psalm to me on occasions, the pastor insisted that the director himself perform it. I doubt our bishop had a word in that, even though I have the utmost confidence in the obedience of our pastor.
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There are many things that belong to the bishop to decide that he delegates to his priests so what I suspect is after asking a couple of times a bishop has told them to simply go ahead and allow it.

I’ve seen this in other areas too. While most dioceses have ‘lack of form’ cases sent to the Tribunal for evaluation, our former bishop made it clear that the priest preparing a couple for marriage could rule on this as long as the proper paperwork was there.
 
bisco said:
hope i’m in the correct forum. i am a protestant who has been attending mass with my catholic wife for 8 years. a few weeks ago, the usher came over to me during mass and asked if i could help with the collection. not wanting to disrupt anything, i agreed and after telling him i had never done it beore, he told me what to do. my question is, should i have said no? or told him i’m not catholic? my wife said it was okay, but she isn’t really up to par on all the rules and regs. i appreciate being welcome at mass and don’t want to do anything inappropriate. thank you!
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Our head usher, past Grand Knight, told me a funny story. They needed someone to help with the collection, and asked a gentleman they’d seen at that Mass regularly. He said, “but I’m not Catholic.” The usher said “that doesn’t matter–what I care about is, are you a thief?” :eek:
 
LOL, that’s a lot of cash, and i was having a hard time holding the pole and trying to dump it into the bag. i thought mass was going to be over before i finished.😃
 
bisco said:
LOL, that’s a lot of cash, and i was having a hard time holding the pole and trying to dump it into the bag. i thought mass was going to be over before i finished.😃
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What a flashback. I had completely forgotten about the poles and bags. We use baskets at my present Church.
 
yes, when we’re in orlando, at mary queen of the universe shrine, they do pass the basket there, and a few other churches we’ve been to around the country. are poles old fashioned? some pews are too wide for them.
 
If you have been attending mass for so many years there is no reason why you couldn’t help out with the collection.
:):)🙂
 
I’m not sure if they are old fashioned. I just remember them from long ago and I’m old lol. I think you are right though pew width has a lot to do with it. We have wide pews also. No way we could use the poles.
 
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