What happens if a Tornado Warning is issued during Mass?

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Hey everyone. We are expecting severe weather on Saturday afternoon and there is a chance of tornadoes. This caused me to think about what would happen if a Tornado Warning were to occur during Mass and everyone was in imminent danger. Our parish hall has a basement so I thought that maybe everyone would go to the basement and continue the Mass down there but I am not sure. Is there any kind of protocol for an event like this? I don’t think the Mass can be stopped but that it has to be completed, right?
 
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Well, our building is made of giant concrete blocks that are approx 30 inches thick. If a tornado blows that down, it is going to blow down anything 🙂

Because everyone in Mass has their cell phones off, if we heard the sirens go off we would likely all head over to the school basement. Mass would continue in 15 minutes or so when the danger passes.
 
This happens often in some places. When the siren sounds everyone would seek shelter. Then after the all clear Mass would be completed.
 
I wouldn’t worry.

It just means the evangelicals were right and Rapture has begun.
 
This actually happened to me last year. I usually silence my cell phone before Mass begins, but for some reason I had it on vibrate. It was after the consecration but before Communion had been distributed. I saw the warning, went to the priest and showed him the warning on my cell phone. We had about 10 minutes before the weather was to hit. He informed the people and let them know that after they recv’d Communion they should go to the Church basement; that if they chose to leave and try to drive home before the storm that was their choice but he strongly recommended against that. If we had had less than the 10 minute warning we would have adjourned to the basement, taking the Eucharist with us, and we would have continued distributing communion there.
 
Hmm. I don’t know. I’ve been present when a lot of tornado warnings sounded, and yet never been in imminent danger.

Once I heard a tornado siren go off in the middle of the night, got up, turned on lights, turned on the TV and looked out the window. There was a warning, but a tornado was nowhere near. Finally I went back to bed. My wife slept soundly through the whole thing.

Maybe the accuracy of these warnings has now improved. I don’t want a warning for the whole county. I want to know if the tornado is a mile away and headed in my direction.
 
This happened in St. Louis on Good Friday once. A tornado hit just after 7PM, when everyone was in church. Our church evacuated to the basement and finished the service once the warning was over. I’m not sure if things would have been different if we’d been in the middle of the Eucharist. One parish was seriously damaged in the tornado and I don’t think they finished the service.
 
God wants us to be good stewards of our lives, not recklessly through them away.
 
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We aren’t supposed to test God and by recklessly and imprudently staying in a place where we are in danger, we would be testing God.
 
But, at Mass you are staying in the presence of God. Why would He want you to run and hide? Or maybe by sending the tornado He is testing your faith?

Didn’t God tell us not to worry and not to fear?
" But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it."
 
Common sense says get out of the way of the tornado. If the priest is obliged to finish the mass once safe, I think anyone who couldn’t get back to where he was finishing it because of the tornado would be dispensed from their obligation that Sunday
 
Okay, when the tornado hits, you may stay in the church in pray for an increase in my faith. I will be in the basement praying for an increase in your prudence.

-Fr ACEGC
 
ontheway1 said:
If He decides to take you at that particular moment, you can guess where you are likely to wind up.
Click to expand...
That reminds me of the old joke about the family trapped in their house during a flood. First the sheriff waded through the water to their door to ask them to leave, but the said, “God will save us!” As the water rose the sheriff returned in a boat, but again the family replied, “God will save us!” The water kept rising and a rescue helicopter flew over the family gathered on the roof. Again they said, “God will save us!” Well, the water kept rising and all of the family drowned. When they got to the pearly gates that father complained, “Why didn’t you save us?” Saint Peter replied, “What do you mean? I sent you the sheriff, a boat and a helicopter.”
 
Remember when the devil tempted Jesus about jumping from the cliffs? The devil had the temerity to quote scripture about God commanding angels to guard his chosen ones “lest they dash their foot on the rocks”? The devil throws into doubt the faith of Jesus. Jesus answers is it is not good to tempt God.

Same thing with the tornadoes. Seeking shelter is not lack of faith but the presence of prudence. Faith does not ever contravene the virtue of prudence or of truth.

My favorite Pope, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI says faith and reason are not mutually exclusive. Faith without reason is fanaticism. Reason without faith is secularism. We know the fruits of one without the other.
 
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Because He sends us a warning…
Thanks God for the people who do research and study how to save people’s lives through those warnings…
Two or three weeks ago, being alone in the ranch, I perceived something very different all of a sudden and a wind that wasn’t normal. I had just enough time to close a couple of blinders , a window and run to one of the safest rooms. Then there was this sound of glass as a window broke to pieces. It was moderate compared to one about two years ago which did away with a roof and a couple of galleries, plus uprooting trees but I tell you…I would have carried Jesus Himself to run with me…without blinking!
 
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