Thirty Third Sunday n Ordinary Time
April 2, 2025 Column Father De Celles
Election Follow Up. Congratulations to our new President-Elect Donald J. Trump.
I know a lot of parishioners are ecstatic about the results of the election. But there are many good people who are not as happy. Some, of course, because they think killing babies and mutilating the sexual organs of children is a great idea, but some because they just don’t trust President-Elect Trump.
For those who are happy, I exhort you to be patient with those who are not. We cannot be like some of the leftist elites who have been encouraging their fellow leftists to cancel Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends who voted for Trump. Their hatred is palpable.
But we, as Catholics, can’t be like that. Jesus commands us: “love your enemies.” We can fight for what we consider just causes, but we must do so as Christians. As St. Paul instructed St. Titus, which we read at Mass this last Wednesday:
“Remind them to be under the control of magistrates and authorities, to be obedient, to be open to every good enterprise. They are to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, exercising all graciousness toward everyone.
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another. But when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us.”
By the Way. According to news reports Trump won the 58% of the Catholic vote, the highest percentage a Republican has won since Reagan’s landslide victory in 1984.
Mass Attendance. As you know every October the Bishop requires us to take a count of attendance at all Sunday Masses. This year’s count showed that our average Sunday attendance (counting 5 Masses, including the Vigil) was 1,506 people. This number is up 2% from last year, which is good, but still represents a
856 person or 36% decline from the 2,362 people in attendance in the 2019/pre-Covid Count.
I’m at a loss to understand this. First of all, because it looks like attendance is way up, and so I expected a much higher count. But the count is what it is, and it’s hard to argue with numbers. Of course, the downturn is nationwide, but where did these people go? This is what I really don’t understand.
One concern of mine is that after Covid, and with reduced number of priests in the rectory, we cancelled the Sunday 5pm Mass, which had a pre-Covid average of 389 Mass attendees. Typically dropping a 5pm Mass in a parish does not markedly affect a parish’s average attendance on Sunday, as parishioners tend to attend the earlier Masses. Moreover, most people seemed to agree that perhaps more than half of the attendance at the old 5pm were from other parishes (“last chancers”).
One thought I have had is to reintroduce the 5pm Sunday Mass. But I am very reluctant do that. It’s difficult to get servers, lectors, cantors and ushers, and priests are pretty beat by that time of day. And again, most of the folks who will attend will probably be from other parishes. Finally, we have a full evening schedule in the parish with CCD and Youth activities.
But I would like your feedback. What do you think: would it be a good idea to bring back the 5pm Sunday Mass? Let me know by emailing me at fdc@straymonds.org.
Catechesis: Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. This last week and in the coming days I will be commissioning some new Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (EMHCs) at various Masses. However, as I have explained to them, I hope to employ them only rarely at Mass.
You may have noticed that over the last few months we have mainly depended on the priests to distribute Communion at Mass, using the EMHCs only to bring Communion to the homebound on Sundays. The reason I have done this is because I am trying to more perfectly conform to the laws of the Church, and in doing that also emphasize reverence for the Blessed Sacrament.
The law of the Church is clear, although it has been widely ignored or compromised in the last 50 years. The rule, restated in the 2004 Vatican decree “Redemptionis Sacramentum,” is this:
“….the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion may administer Communion only when the Priest and Deacon are lacking…or when the number of faithful coming to Communion is so great that the very celebration of Mass would be unduly prolonged.”
This is because the Priest is ordained, in part, to feed the flock, and so to distribute Communion. His hands are specifically anointed for this purpose. So only the priest, and the deacon (also ordained) should normally, or ordinarily distribute Communion. It is a matter of reverence for the Eucharist: we use consecrated gold vessels for holding the Sacred Species, and we use consecrated ministers to distribute It. This does not diminish the dignity of the laity, but emphasizes the dignity of the Eucharist. So the priest is the ordinary minister of distribution, while the laity may do so only in extraordinary situations.
So when there are an adequate number of priests to distribute Communion, I am prohibited from using EMHCs. At St. Raymond’s we usually have 3 priests available to distribute. When we consider that the Mass with the largest attendance (the 11am Sunday) averages about 500 people, and then consider that about 100 of those do not receive Communion. With 3 priests that means about 133 Communicants each. Now that may seem like a lot, but it actually takes only about 6 minutes to distribute Communion.
That being the case, if we added 2 EMHCs to the 3 priests, working through the numbers, I calculate that a most we would reduce the time from 6 minutes to 3½ minutes. (Sorry, I’m a numbers guy.)
Now, can we really say, in absolute honesty, that 2 ½ minutes extra minutes would mean “the very celebration of Mass would be unduly prolonged.” I can’t, especially considering that any given Sunday, the Mass may be prolonged by 3, 5, or 10 minutes due to the priest’s homily. Or by the choir. Or by whatever.
RS goes on to say: “This…is to be understood in such a way that a brief prolongation…is not at all a sufficient reason.”
Moreover consider the guidance of the 1997 Vatican decree, “Ecclesiae de Mysterio: “certain practices are to be …eliminated …: the habitual use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Mass thus arbitrarily extending the concept of “a great number of the faithful…[and] considering as ordinary and normal, solutions that were meant for extraordinary situations…”
I hope this makes sense and you can appreciate the importance of following this law.
40 Days for Life. I what to thank all our parishioners who took part in the 40 Days for Life campaign. It was a great effort and incredible witness. Thank God we have so many faithful witnesses for life, especially amount our young people and little children. God bless you for your efforts!
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles