Why was daily Mass for Catholic school children eliminated?

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Our school day began with Mass…the classroom followed.

Mass made it possible for us to make the First Fridays. This was a blessing for all of us.
 
From the time I was in first grade until sixth grade, our school went to Mass every day (back in the 1960s). The doors of the school were open so all students could pick up their missals (by one’s number, in one’s classroom), and female students could pick up their beanie or hat clip. The sisters met us in church, where we were seated by grade (the first, second and third grades on the sides by class- two of each class, followed in the front of the middle asile seating by fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth in the back. Any high school kids form the parish high school who missed their Mass earlier say way in the back with Mother Superior). By this time, it was an hour fast before communion, but most moms were willing to pack a twinkie or some other tidbit for a quick breakfast for those who missed it.

What changed since 1969?
  • The number of sisters dropped off. There was nobody to supervise. This was particularly true for 2 classes of each grade and high school kids.
    *Lay people, particularly married female lay people, have to get their own kids up for school and out the door, check homework, etc. As it was the City, this was tough, as most lay teachers took the CTA to work. From talking with people in the City, I think they still do, as parking is a real pain. We were approached with this as a faculty, and while some of us attend morning Mass at 0700, we do not bring the kids out of extended care to Mass. We can barely make the early morning faculty meeting once a week.
  • Kids help plan their own once-a-week Masses. It does help their catechesis.
  • There is usually one priest to parish with a school today. Priests are only allowed to say so many Masses in a day. In our day (back when we rode the dinosaur to school;) ), there were six priests living in the rectory. The daily school Mass was celebrated on a rotational basis.
  • For safety’s sake, the doors of the school are not thrown open, nor are the classroom doors. Who knows who might wander in?
 
OutinChgoburbs said:
  • There is usually one priest to parish with a school today. Priests are only allowed to say so many Masses in a day. In our day (back when we rode the dinosaur to school;) ), there were six priests living in the rectory. The daily school Mass was celebrated on a rotational basis.
    My parish only has one daily Mass, so there would no issue of a priest saying too many Masses. Also, there are only about 400 children in the school, so they would easily fit in the church. There would still be room for other people to find a pew if they came to Mass, because the church is very large.
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One reason for the disappearance of Catholic schools as we knew them is demographics. Cities used to be, more or less, ethnically comprised neighborhoods. This was a time when most immigrants came from Europe.

Ethnic parishes flourished and each had a school from 1st to 8th grade. Different teaching Orders taught the children.

My nuns were “The Teaching Sisters of Notre Dame,” God bless them ALL. And WE ALL LEARNED —NO EXEPTIONS !

The nuns took pride in the kids achievements in academic competition throughout the Diocese and even beyond.

Ethnic neighborhoods are virtually a thing of the past…some may still exist in the less commercialized areas.

America seems to be fragmenting in a similar way, so it appears.
 
When I was in Catholic school (80s and 90s), we were lucky if we got a mass for each first Friday of the month. We didn’t even get it weekly!!! They spent more time pulling us into the church to teach us the folk hymns each week that were popular back in the 80s, than to have us go to mass. I don’t know if it is the same now. Academically it was one of the better schools, but when I look back, I would have loved to attend mass daily or at least weekly, especially when I was seriously contemplating religious life as a girl. They used to call me “Sister xxxx” and was chosen to play the Blessed Mother for our Christmas Pageant in 8th grade - a HUGE honour back for the girls back then.

For two years right out of college, I taught music and directed the children’s choir and bell choir at a little Catholic school in our city. It was once an ethnically German parish, with a little, old-fashioned two-story school across the street from the church. They had mass once a week for the children. I know that one of the reasons they couldn’t do it every day was because of the standards the government puts on them for educating the children. They only have a certain number of hours a day to keep up to the standards expected (as puzzleannie and others have noted). Teachers are under a lot of pressure to get the kids up to those standards. It was amazing that they could even afford a music teacher and art teacher. They have since closed down along with many of the other schools in the area and placed into one huge school, unfortunately. I wish I had an answer as to how to go back to daily mass, but I don’t.
 
Sounds to me that many/most problems are due to the decrease in priests and nuns. My guess, and only that, is that with those money would be less tight and bishops might be able to see their way clear to add back daily mass. Think?
 
brigid12 said:
Sounds to me that many/most problems are due to the decrease in priests and nuns. My guess, and only that, is that with those money would be less tight and bishops might be able to see their way clear to add back daily mass. Think?
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I really do not see where this would make a difference in a parish that has a school on its property and a daily Mass in the morning already. Even if the teachers were not nuns, they could still go to Mass with their students. The priest would most likely say a Mass every morning anyway.
 
In my Catholic school, we went to Mass on a weekday if it was holy day or a feastday of a particular saint where we were to receive a sacramental/blessing (such as the Feast of St. Blaise), and every First Friday. Our church held weekday Mass at 0730 in the morning, and 12:30 in the afternoon during lent. But daily Mass? Never knew it was part of the Catholic School Experience at one time.
 
I was in Catholic elementary school from 1960-1968 and I only remember going to mass occasionaly with the school…maybe First Firdays. I do remember going to Benediction every Wednesday because we had hymn practice after it. We did go as a school on Sunday…kids only…no parents allowed. They had to go to mass in the school basement and we had to meet up with them after mass.
 
I went to public school so I’m just going to throw out something and you all can take it with a grain of salt.🙂

We used to do a lot of things in public school that my kids no longer get to do either. (We used to be able to walk home for lunch when I was in first grade and now my kids get about 7 minutes to choke down a sandwich, we used to have PE everday, now it’s twice a week, several recesses a day were a given, now it’s about 10 minutes a day) Why? Because the federal and state government have so many more standards and goals that the schools are required to meet.Unless you want your kids to go to school from 7-5 things have gotten cut out of the day.

Maybe that has something to do with why Catholic Schools don’t have Mass everyday?
 
I think we are also missing the bigger question – where are the Catholic schools and the children to fill them? There are room in parochial elementary schools in this diocese for perhaps 10 maybe 20% of the children whose families identify as Catholics. The factors that we remember as traditional from our own school days only remain viable when the schools in which they developed remain viable. Sad fact, parishes no longer support parish schools. Today’s gospel relates directly to the reasons why: priorities.
 
I attended Catholic elementary school, from 1957-1965.

We did not have to attend daily Mass.

My wife however, attended during another Catholic School, across town, during the same years. They had Mass daily.
Of course back then, her parish had no less than 5 priest, my parish had 2.

Jim
 
I attended a Catholic elementary school and we had daily mass. That was in Omaha, Ne.in the 60’s. The Catholic school in the town I now live in only has mass once a week. I don’t know all the hows and whys but I know that our poor priests just can’t extend themselves anymore. They go nonstop from early in the morning until late at night. It is sad there is not daily mass here but I can understand why it isn’t happening.
 
In our parish, the daily Mass is at 7:30 and school starts at 8:45 (the busses are run by the public school here). I’m sure they could move daily Mass back to 9:00, but then many of the working people in our parish would not be able to attend daily Mass. I think it’s a balancing act. We have 2 priests in our parish and in addition to daily Mass, they say Mass Tuesday morning for the school children, Wednesday morning at the retirement home, and twice in the evenings during the week. Also, our pastor is also in charge of the pastoral needs of a very small parish outside city limits. Add to that the fact that the priests spend at least an hour teaching in the school each day (to the various age levels through the week) and that they have administrative and pastoral duties for the school and church . . . well, I can see how the shortage of priests limits the ability of a parish to offer daily Mass for all students. In the end, of course, it’s a matter of choices, and for a variety of reasons, a number of Catholic schools have chosen to spend less time in Mass than was common in the past.

MJ
 
Another possibility on why Masses are not offered daily to schoolchildren could be enrollment of non-Catholic kids.

Were that the case, in some instances, it would be a kind of “sell-out” of the Faith.
 
One more reason…there are fewer and fewer nuns teaching in our Catholic schools. In fact, I know three of the teachers that teach in our Catholic parochial school are not Catholic, They are Christian but not Catholic. So the emphasis on worship has been eliminated. Sad fact.
 
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