What to do when the priest is out of sorts

[Ctomlin]

Not necessarily true.

It depends how engaging the homily is.

An adult’s attention span should be about 40 minutes.

Nope: I teach 15-18 year olds for 82 minutes a class.

They can handle sitting still and listening for 40 minutes if the topic engages them.

Adults in church could handle much more than 10 minutes.

If the priest is a good homilist and the people are mentally checking out it’s because they are choosing to prioritize other things in their lives.

Hardly. Homily greater then ten minutes is discouraged even by the seminary.

There is only rare circumstances for a 40 minute homily, this is not science class with 15 yr olds …its Mass with still a bulk of the service to complete.

 

[Joan_M]

What sort of testimony is it if I willingly do wrong to them in the name of religion? I would be rightly fired if I pulled a stunt like that. I would certainly make every attempt to make Mass later that day, but if I couldn’t make it then what would I do?

I think you are off the mark here. The situation that the OP wrote about was a Sunday Mass, where a homily is required. You appear to be talking about a daily Mass, where no homily is required, although many priests do give one.

Maybe once in a while a priest might give a homily that might be more than 5 minutes long at a daily Mass. Most priests are aware that people need to get to work, particularly at lunch time Masses.

 

[SMHW]

My initial thoughts are that it is a shame this priest did not have a deacon or other adult to assist him. It seems odd to me that an elderly priest who is somewhat infirm would say Mass at a parish where someone did not know his situation. It seems likely that he would be the relative of a parishioner or else he is a local retired priest and that someone would know he might need some help.

Of course maybe some of the people at that Mass WERE trying to guide the priest through his homily and it just wasn’t working. (The clapping and music were obviously unsuccessful and obviously just came across as rudeness.) It is also possible that this priest had very recently suffered from a stroke or other illness that should be brought to the attention of the pastor of the parish and/or the bishop.

 

[hannajomar]

My initial thoughts are that it is a shame this priest did not have a deacon or other adult to assist him. It seems odd to me that an elderly priest who is somewhat infirm would say Mass at a parish where someone did not know his situation. It seems likely that he would be the relative of a parishioner or else he is a local retired priest and that someone would know he might need some help.

Unfortunately, this will probably become more common. Due to the priest shortage, priests will try to stay in ministry when they really are in a position to retire from public life. In the situation that the OP describes, it does seem that this priest would benefit from some kind of assistant.

 

[SMHW]

Unfortunately, this will probably become more common. Due to the priest shortage, priests will try to stay in ministry when they really are in a position to retire from public life. In the situation that the OP describes, it does seem that this priest would benefit from some kind of assistant.

It’s exactly because this is becoming so common that I find it odd no one was assisting the priest.

 

[DarkLight]

I think you are off the mark here. The situation that the OP wrote about was a Sunday Mass, where a homily is required. You appear to be talking about a daily Mass, where no homily is required, although many priests do give one.

Maybe once in a while a priest might give a homily that might be more than 5 minutes long at a daily Mass. Most priests are aware that people need to get to work, particularly at lunch time Masses.

Point taken. Though I could see some other situations where a person might need to leave by a certain time, especially for those with small children (40min is definitely beyond the attention span of most toddlers!). Personally I’d have a problem because I need to eat far more regularly than most people, and the extra delay could cause issues.

 

[Incomplete]

We had a somewhat similar situation in our parish once. Our priest was on vacation and had hired a priest from a different diocese, someone he apparently didn’t know and we had no deacon.

The priest had several obvious difficulties, but the alter servers (who were probably about 12 years old) had enough experience that they guided him through them. I was so impressed!

The homily…well, I won’t even go there. It wasn’t really a homily, I’ll just leave it at that.

But still, this man had served the Church for most of his life, and still obviously loved God and serving Him.

I was not aware of anybody leaving early or showing disrespect. In fact, some of the parishioners took him to dinner after Mass and made sure he was well taken care of.

 

[triumphguy]

Hardly. Homily greater then ten minutes is discouraged even by the seminary.

There is only rare circumstances for a 40 minute homily, this is not science class with 15 yr olds …its Mass with still a bulk of the service to complete.

So?

If the priest wants to talk for 40 minutes it’s his prerogative.

There are some subjects that ought to be talked about that would take at least 30 minutes to do a decent job of explaining.

If the priest (or deacon) has his homily properly prepared you won’t even notice how long he goes.

Unless you have somewhere “more important” to be.

 

[ilySHJ]

Having lived in the deep south where a good Homily might easily last 45 minutes to over an hour … the issue of a long Homily fails to impress me.

May God bless and keep all our priests.

 

[Aggies08]

As this was a one-time thing, I think it would have been best to sit it out.

Let his superiors know of the issue in case they do not.

If this was a chronic problem, then the priest (if he’s aware of it) should have the correct people to signal him/tap him on the shoulder, and, again, superiors/brother priests he lives with notified to find out how to correct this issue.

It’s not ideal, but if you need to be at work, you can leave mass early.

 

[grasscutter]

Sorry it is true. Based on average like I posted.

40 minute homily would have 95% checked out in their attention span.

Umm… I’m sure that I could attend to a 40 minute homily (without checking out) and I’m just an average person. Plus, compassion and charity would have kicked in…

 

[Opie90]

1. whole short attention span argument is pretty insulting.
2. If we cannot pay attention for more than 10 minutes than we obviously do not think what we are listening to is very important.
3. Even if our attention spans were that short, they could improve over time and it would be good for them to improve.

As a Protestant, I listened and payed attention to 45 minute to an hour sermons every Sunday. There can be great short homilies, but there is no reason that longer homilies should not be allowed as well. No reason (considering attention span alone anyway) why a homily could not, for example, be 20 or 30 minutes every once and a while.

 

[odile53]

How sad to see a man of God influenced by the same frailties that may come to us all, if we should live so long! If the homily truly was circumstantial ramblings, I would try to meditate on the fate of man as dust and unto dust we shall all return. If I absolutely had to get back to work, such as at a noontime weekday Mass, I’d try to slip out as discreetly and quietly as possible. I’d also politely and discreetly let the pastor, or the priest’s superior if he is a religious, know about the situation, and leave it at that.

The antics of the choir and the women who were clapping are inexcusable, from either the point of Christian charity or plain old civility. Inexcusable.

In regard to the length of the homily: I have some Baptist friends from work. They are amazed that Catholic Masses are generally over with in roughly an hour. When they go to church on Sundays, their services last a few hours, and frequently involve multiple ministers with multiple sermons. They don’t seem to have a problem with this, but do note that some of the smokers in the congregation sneak out for a smoke and then sneak back inside the church.

 

[Ctomlin]

1. whole short attention span argument is pretty insulting.
2. If we cannot pay attention for more than 10 minutes than we obviously do not think what we are listening to is very important.
3. Even if our attention spans were that short, they could improve over time and it would be good for them to improve.

As a Protestant, I listened and payed attention to 45 minute to an hour sermons every Sunday. There can be great short homilies, but there is no reason that longer homilies should not be allowed as well. No reason (considering attention span alone anyway) why a homily could not, for example, be 20 or 30 minutes every once and a while.

If a parish averaged a 30 minute homily there would be no congregation.

That is why weekend Mass averages 10 minutes. No my decision but advised by the seminary

 

[agapewolf]

I really don’t think the point of 40 minutes itself is the issue.

The issue is that this man is old and rambling, and wasn’t really coherent. This CAN be a true problem, as other parts of the mass can be forgotten or skipped over accidentally.

 

[Ctomlin]

I really don’t think the point of 40 minutes itself is the issue.

The issue is that this man is old and rambling, and wasn’t really coherent. This CAN be a true problem, as other parts of the mass can be forgotten or skipped over accidentally.

Amen. We can all agree to that. Good way to end discussion.

 

[Aramis]

My sister experienced the following at Mass last Sunday:

An elderly priest, who normally does not celebrate Mass at her parish, presided over the Mass. He was visibly frail, and his hands shook as he held up the bread and wine during the Consecration.
The part that was most troublesome in many ways, however, was the homily. He appeared to be suffering from dementia, and his homily went on for about forty minutes because he kept repeating his ideas and going in circles.
The congregation, in response, was not very gracious. The pianist started playing a instrumental hymn about twenty minutes in. Some older ladies in the back started clapping. One person got up and stood near the pulpit. Although he didn’t seem to notice these things, he did eventually conclude his homily and proceed with the rest of the Mass.

This made me wonder: what is the appropriate response, if any, when the priest who is celebrating Mass seems to be incapacitated in some way?

1. write the bishop and
2. pray for the priest.

Why? Because if he’s mentally disabled, he should not be preaching.

 

[benjohnson]

If I was sitting in the pews, I would have probably gotten a tear in my eye.

If he was incoherent, then that would probably by his last Mass, and I would have counted myself blessed to have been a part of it.

As a Lutheran, I would say he did a good job with the time on his homily. 40 minutes is a just about right.

 

[Joannm]

We have a frail priest in our parish and he would do the same things with his homilies and people started complaining. He also got lower and lower as the homily progressed so no one could hear him. Now the deacons preach at all his masses.

 

[Phemie]

I’ve experienced this several times in a former parish where the same retired priest was hired every time the Pastor had to be away. Although this retired priest was a lovely man without any sign of impairment, when it came to his homilies he rambled and he repeated the same thing three or four times - years later I saw the same sort of thing in the correspondence of my early stage Alzheimer’s-suffering Pastor.

I would always avoid telling the kids if I knew this priest was going to be the celebrant, it avoided the complaining I was likely to hear. In return, I would not take them to one of his Masses two Sundays in a row unless I was scheduled to be a reader or EMHC. In the event that he was going to be there two Sundays running we’d go to Mass at the parish associated with their school on one of those Sundays. That’s when we had the luxury of 5 parishes to pick from on any given Sunday – something totally foreign in this part of the world.