The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-01-04

price on the Mass when the priests
have salary? 2. When priests are
ordained they make vow of poverty.
Is this broken when they save up
money and accept money for admin
istering the Sacraments?
1. 1t is true that the Sacrifice of
the Mass is the greatest act of relig-
ious worship in which Catholics are
privileged to participate. If you were
as we'll instructed in your religion as
you ought to be, you would know
very well that no one can put a price
on the Mass. You probably think
that when you ask priest to say a
Mass for your intention and make
the customary offering you are buy
ing" the Mass. You cannot buy the
Mass with all the gold in the world
Furthermore, the priest does not re-
ceive his salary for saying Mass for
your intention. The priest receives
his salary for devoting his time to the
spiritual welfare of his flock, for offer
ing up the Mass for the members of
his parish on Sundays, and for ad-
ministering the Sacraments and doing
all that his holy calling requires for
the benefit of the people among whom
he labors. Apart from the obligation
of saying the Sunday Mass for his
people HIS Masses are his own to dis
pose of as he wishes. 1t is his privi-
lege to offer Mass for his own inten-
ton and when you ask him to say
Mass which he would otherwise offer
that you should make the customary
offering for that purpose. You ask
him to pray especially for you and
to say, according to your intention.
Mass which he would otherwise have
for his own or for some other inten-
ton. 1t is but just that you should
make some little offering to him in
return for his willingness to accom-
modate you, but not as a purchase
price for the Mass. You evidently
belong to the class of people who
think they own the priest and that
he is placed in the parish for their
special benefit. 1t would be well for
you to study your religion a little
more thoroughly and then you would
probably understand what is required
of a good Catholic. 2. This question
also shows that you know many
things about the Catholic religion
which are not so. No diocesan
priest, at his ordination, takes vow
of poverty. This vow is taken only
by priests who belong to religious
orders and who, in return for the
work they do, are supported by the
Order. The diocesan priest who min
listers to the people in a parish does
not take a vow of poverty though he
is sometimes as poor as if he had
such VOW. Since he has no vow
of poverty there is no question of
breaking it when he saves money. If
he is able to save little from his
scanty salary that is his own business.
If he accepts money for administer
ing the Sacraments he does so be-
cause it is customary for good Cath
olics to make an offering on these
occasions. If the offering is not made
the priest will not demand it, and he
will not think any the less about
those who are too poor, or too stingy,
Catholics make on the occasion of the
administration of the Sacramento will
never make them any poorer nor will
they make the priest millionaire, as
some people profess to fear. These
offerings are used to help defray the
expenses of the priests household,
and in great many parishes they are
so miserably small that he cannot
have the ordinary comforts enjoyed
by many of his parishioners.
Can a we'll educated deaf man be
ordained a priest? If not, why? In
speaking of his work mean he is to
look after deaf people, not those who
can hear who are amply taken care
of by hearing priests. In the Catholic
Church there is not one deaf priest
that know of. There must be a
reason for it and ! would like to
know it.
Deafness is not necessarily a bar
to ordination, though it is scarcely
probable that Bishop would ordain
candidate who was very deaf, as it
would interfere with his efficiency in
the priesthood There is no reason
why deaf man should be ordained
priest for the purpose of minister
ing to the deaf Their spiritual well
fare can be we'll attended to by the
ordinary priest who has the full use
of his faculties. The fact that you
do not know a priest who is deaf
does not argue that there are none
who are so afflicted. Like other NOR
tails they are subject to this affliction
but the number is not very great. 1t
shows the care which is exercised by
the Church in selecting candidates for
the priesthood. The few priests who
are deaf were, in the majority of cases
afflicted after their ordination.
When a priest Is called to sick
person but has not the Blessed Sacra-
ment with him, but says Mass in the
morning to conseerate the Holy Viati-
cum for the sick person, would il be
all right to give the Holy Viaticum
at the time of the Communion in the
Mass or wait until after Mass?
We presume that, in the case under
consideration, the priest celebrates
Mass in the room of the sick person.
Under these circumstances liturgical
writer's saw that the celebrant NAV