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Question

Good morning Father Angelo,

searching through various Catholic sites I dwelt on yours and I saw that many people  ask you different types of questions. I am writing to you for some  clarifications on Gregorian masses.

My father passed away recently and my mother after 64 years of life together wanted the Gregorian Masses to be celebrated in suffrage of my father’s soul.

I asked a father of the (name of the religious institute, editor’s note) for his availability to celebrate them and he said yes, so on January 31 the sequence of 30 masses began. Going  to mass on Saturdays and Sundays, I heard other deceased names as well as my father.

My mother says  that  the mass must be celebrated for only one deceased person.

Being a community of religious inserted in the context of a nursing home for the sick and the elderly, the mass is celebrated in turn by more  priests.

I cannot  attend Holy Mass every day and therefore I do not know if it happens every day that other dead people are named. I believe in the universal value of the Mass and that it is not possible to limit the immensity of God to finite and human categories. My 82-year-old mother would like me to point this out to the priest by reproaching  him, but I do not know the principles that regulate the Gregorian masses. I’m embarrassed.Could you  give me some directions?

Thank you.

M.

A priest answer

Dear M.,

your email gives me the opportunity to clarify several things.

1.     The first and most important is that the celebration of Mass makes present on the altar the one sacrifice of  Christ , made once and for all as the letter to the Hebrews reminds us and as St. Peter also recalls..

Here are the two texts: “he entered the sanctuary once for all, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption”. (Heb 9,12)

“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, to  lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit.” (1Pt 3,18)

2.     Therefore, the Mass is not a repetition of Christ’s sacrifice, but makes the one sacrifice of Christ present on the altar for the particular benefit of those who are present and for whom it is intended.

3.     The one who has a particular power of destination is the priest, who is one with Christ on the altar.

In good theology it is said that he acts in persona Christi, that is, identifying himself with Christ.

4.     The Church has always held that the priest, as he celebrates Christ’s sacrifice, can also allocate it to some particular intentions, beyond the benefit that it always and unfailingly brings to the whole Church, both heavenly and in purgatory as well as a pilgrim on earth.

5.     If two or more priests concelebrate, each of them – precisely because he acts in persona Christi – can allocate the one sacrifice of Christ that they themselves make present on the altar for some particular intentions.

They do this regardless of the intention that each of them puts into it.

6.     Therefore – if there is only one priest who celebrates – it is not legitimate to add another intention received from another faithful to the intention of the deceased for whom the course of Gregorian Masses is taking place.

This is because the course of Gregorian Masses is valid only for an intention, especially since the offer for the celebration of Gregorian Masses is greater.

If, on the other hand, there are more priests who celebrate, then each one puts his particular intention.

So the names are said either by the individual concelebrants (as it is done in some places) or they are mentioned all together by a single concelebrant, knowing however that each of them has his particular intention 

7.     Since you tell me that these Masses are celebrated in a church officiated by religious, it is easier for the Mass to be concelebrated by several priests, among whom there is one who celebrates for your father.

Therefore, as you can see, the problem is solved.

I wish you well, I entrust you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo