The Church is very clear in Canon Law (the Law of the Church) when it comes to Mass intentions and offerings. We feel it is important for us to explain a change to the system that we inherited, in order to prevent misinterpretation and to bring our practice into line with what is required by Canon Law.
A priest can only ever celebrate Mass for one intention, although this single intention may be for more than one person or cause, such as for a couple on their wedding anniversary or for all the deceased members of a particular family Each individual priest at Mass may offer for a different intention but each priest may only lawfully receive one offering.
The practice here in the partnership in recent years has been that, although the priest offers the Mass for only one of the intentions (the first to be received and registered in the book) any others which requested that date or particular Mass have also been printed in the bulletin and prayed for during the Mass (mainly in the bidding prayers) Any offerings for these other printed intentions are then sent off to Bishop’s House and distributed to other priests either in our diocese or in the missions. Those priests will then offer Mass for these intentions.
While this system has provided valuable support for these priests and ensured such intentions are indeed offered, as well as remembered and prayed for here on the specified date, it can also create uncertainty and be open to misinterpretation. Therefore from the beginning of next year we will be making the system clearer by accepting only ONE intention per Mass and by printing only that intention in the bulletin.
On Sundays a Parish Priest is obliged by Canon Law to offer one Mass for the People of the Parish and therefore is not allowed to accept another intention at that Mass. This will further limit the availability of Sunday Masses at which any other intention can be offered. The priests of the partnership are also obliged to celebrate Masses for the Northern Brethren Fund.
In practical terms what will these changes mean? In future the first intention received for a specific date/Mass will receive it, if available. Any subsequent requests will be fitted in as close to that date as possible. Please therefore try to be both specific and flexible when requesting dates. All other intentions will be fitted in to the schedule of Masses and offered as soon as possible. Canon Law further requires that any intention received MUST be said within 1 year. Given the volume of intentions we receive, particularly duplicates for the same intention, it may be necessary for some to be forwarded to Bishop’s House, as we mentioned above, and so these Masses will be celebrated outside of the partnership. Those Mass intentions would not then be printed in the bulletin, but you can be assured that the Mass will be offered.
In order to ensure you have the best chance of having your intention offered on a specific date and within the partnership please give plenty of notice and hand your intention in as soon as possible; at the moment we are receiving some intentions just a few days before the specified date, which if nothing else rules out any chance of having it printed in the bulletin.
While only one intention can be offered and will be printed per Mass there is no reason why other people or intentions cannot be prayed for at that Mass, especially in the bidding prayers. If you would like something included please see or ask the priest before Mass.
We wanted to clarify the system that has been in place for many years and we have taken advice from those who specialize in Canon Law. We have been advised that change is essential and wished to explain why this is necessary. While we appreciate these changes may be painful we hope that you will understand that although we will always try to help, we are forbidden to act outside the Church’s law and ask for your support as we bring our practice into line with the teaching of the Church.
