I would point out that in many (most?) diocese in the United States, priests currently do not actually received the Mass stipend. It is considered part of the "salary" and the money itself simply goes to the parish. This can be different for retired priests, who strictly speaking, do not receive a "salary." So, in some places, if a retired priest "covers" a Mass, he would receive the stipend in addition as part of his reimbursement.
The diocese that I am familiar with tend to be rural, and the rules are perhaps different in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.
In my Diocese, and a few others I know of, priests do, indeed, receive the stipend given for that Mass, although some priests accept no more than the 'customary' $10, with anything extra going to the designated fund. Also, retired priests do ordinarily receive a salary.
The parishes make retirement contributions for active priests, and that is invested by the diocese, and based on that and the work of actuaries, a pension for retired priests is calculated.
At least that is how we and our neighboring diocese do it.
Interesting. I didn't know that. Where I am, our retired priests receive a salary that matches whatever a pastor is usually paid. Always interesting to learn new things!
SPM: Yes, I think this is true throughout the US, where there is a distinction between the mass stipend (for the stated mass intention) and the salary or monthly pay of the priest, which is usually designed to cover the receipt of the stipend. In my own archdiocese, there used to be an option (a) receive all mass stipends or (b) receive a set amount each month which, if memory serves, was about $400 per month. Option A is no longer available. In other words, a priest assigned to a parish never actually receives the particular stipend for offering the mass, and these stipends are instead subsumed into the parish accounts. This is also true of visiting or "weekend priests" at a parish who are not given the mass offering, but are instead given an agreed upon "per service" amount for a mass, anywhere from $50 to upwards of $150 per mass depending upon the travel, type of service (daily, Sunday, wedding, funeral, quince, baptism) and the ability and size of the parish to pay. Most dioceses now have a set amount for visiting clergy stipends in addition to the mass stipend offering suggested donation. Ours does not, which can result in a bidding war for talented visiting clergy who are available. These parish "rent-a-priest" stipends are not mass intentions, and I know some semi-retired diocesan priests and religious order priests in non-parish assignments who make a decent living just receiving these offerings from mass and confession ministry at parishes with no stated salary. This is the way it works in mega-dioceses like ours, whose parishes sometimes have up to a dozen weekend masses in various languages and mission locations and a real need for assistance.
I will finally add that a mass intention offering was originally supposed to be a sort of cotidianum. Well, in1920, that $5 or $10 (the same amount suggested today) was enough for lunch, dinner and maybe a tank of gas. Today, it is about the cost of medium coffee. Here in the US - where no priests actually live on mass stipends - I would just do away with any stated mass offering and also limit how many masses one person can request each year.
In Catholic historical context, cotidianum (Latin for “daily” or “daily payment”) typically refers to a daily allowance or stipend—especially in reference to money or provisions given to clergy or members of a religious household.
More specifically:
• In medieval and early modern Church administration, a cotidianum could be a daily payment or sustenance allowance given to canons, monks, or chaplains, often in cathedral chapters or monastic communities.
• It could also refer to a regular, daily portion of food or income provided by a benefice or ecclesiastical office, separate from larger or fixed annual revenues.
So, when you see “cotidianum” mentioned in Church documents, especially financial or administrative ones, it usually means the daily monetary support or living stipend given to someone in the clergy or religious life.
I think that if priests truly do not receive Mass stipends, this is a grave abuse of the practice and needs to be corrected immediately. Stipends go to the priest, not any other Church entity. And to tax Mass stipends is explicitly forbidden. The situation you describe I think technically works, if $10 goes to the parish, and those $10 go to the priest, that seems to be a wash and ok. But I think it should be clear in a priest's compensation decree that $300 per month is from Mass stipends, or whatever the number is.
The term used is "in lieu of" for Plan B. It is just a way of averaging monthly stipends for each priest and makes for easier tax bookkeeping at the end of the year. Well, the IRS would love to have a talk with a priest who is not declaring his stipends, if that is what you mean by "taxing" stipends. All sources of income for a priest - who is a quarterly filer and makes 1040ES payments must declare all sources of his income, including speaker fees, stipends, and such. One good thing is that you can also claim business expense deductions if you are regularly speaking, serving on a hospital ethics board, or receiving stipends and fees for various out-of-parish events. You can write off a portion of your office, office equipment, and travel X.
The practice of "hey, we don't have enough priests, let's outsource intentions to poorer countries" has always seemed like an injustice for the Catholics of those countries - who can't reasonably "compete". Incidentally also places where I most frequently see grouped intentions.
I don’t think Mass intentions sent to the missions are competing with their own faithful’s desire for a Mass. Rather it is providing Mass intentions to priests who wouldn’t otherwise have an intention. It is also helping missionary priests with their salary. I think this practice is a good thing.
I could talk a long time about Mass intentions as a former parish secretary.
Any clarification on “purgatorian” Masses? We had a former pastor establish this practice once per week or month. Multiple intentions for the same Mass knowingly. But def accepted $5 per request
Also, what does Canon Law say on what are eligible/allowable Mass intentions? When our book is open, the “new” secretary fills in with some really creative Mass offerings now.
We’re also given limits for how many Masses we can request, and how many an individual can have said for them (this latter part seems bizarre to me) ? I didn’t enforce these rules likely because I’m a millennial who questions authority. But instead tried to meet people where they were. If someone wanted 10 Sunday Masses for their intentions, I’d say look we got a lot of people wanting Mass intentions. Please be considerate of the needs of others. Never had to say any more, people always tried to be considerate of the needs of other families in the parish. And if someone just died and 5 Masses were requested, I didn’t say, “sorry this document from our pastor in 1994 says you can only request 4 Masses for your son that unexpectedly died”. I let them request all the Masses they felt called to have said for their loved one.
Don't forget the value to the person putting forward the intention to the priest, who will have the comfort of doing something for the intention they are promoting. They may well get more comfort from knowing that a mass is being devoted solely to their intention, as opposed to knowing that their intention is being joined with 999,999 others
I know that this is the practice in a number of dioceses and I thought it was odd. I was assured that the diocese had permitted the practice. After reading this article, I wonder if that was a loose interpretation of the law or a misunderstanding.
I pretty much gave up on ever requesting Mass intentions at a parish, unless it's some parish in a poor area with few parishioners that might have a spot open on a random Tuesday three months from now if you request it in the first month the book is open. If it's your average well-off parish with 2000 parishioners and 3 priests, your intention is not happening unless you rush down there in the first week they have the annual intention book open.
I just send my money to some mission online and hope that Father Anonymous in Africa somewhere actually says the Masses I request.
I also have met Catholics who object to the Mass stipends/ intentions business entirely, so when they want to offer Mass for someone, they simply attend Mass and offer their own attendance and Holy Communion for the person. This seems like a good and practical solution so I now do it myself from time to time.
I belong to a huge and prosperous parish. Masses are "booked" so far ahead that I don't even try to have one offered for my intention here. Instead, I send my requests to Aid to the Church in Need which arranges to have priests in poor countries cover them. It's a win-win all around.
Many of these comments are complaining about how hard it is to find an open mass time to schedule their intentions, or how parishes have to limit it. I wonder for how many years has the standard stipend been $10? I suspect if we kept up with inflation it should be easily $100… Which would probably solve the problem of people coming in with long lists of all the masses they want said.
Part of the point of keeping the stipend so low is to have it remain accessible to as many faithful as possible, and, as someone on a tight budget, I am grateful for that. I do think, though, that it can lead to a lack of consideration of the expenses involved, and possibly a lack of importance attributed to the Mass. In a diocese where I was formerly parish secretary, a casual paid to a visiting priest for him to preside a weekday Mass was equal to the whole stipend. Add in the extra for a homily, and/or a confession permanency (sorry if that's not how it's said in English! ), and the immediate costs for the Mass are already higher than the stipend. This is not counting the candles, wine, hosts, etc.
In and of itself, it is not a problem. We are not "buying a Mass" despite that terminology sometimes being used, and that should be clear. However, we are supposed to be supporting the needs of the Church, and giving a scant 5$ (if generous) at Sunday Mass does NOT cover the difference.
Many of the parishes here are dying out and have available Mass intentions; it is the more active and devout parishes that both have more demand and less availabilities. The local bishops appear to have (years ago) given out dispensations for "common intention" Masses to be celebrated, though they have to be explained as such to those requesting. In my old parish, the amount requested per "common intention" ( ~3$) was significantly less than the habitual amount (15$, then 20$), but the parish often ended up receiving significantly more (if I remember correctly, once it even reached ~300$!).
I think you are right. At least it should be explicitely stated that the $10 is a bare minimum and that a larger sum would be more customary for a Mass intention. I think a higher Mass stipend would prevent these multiple Mass intentions, because a person offering $100 for a Mass would not want to be part of 20 other intentions for that same Mass.
I find it especially a problem when some parishes have over 20 intentions for each Sunday Mass but have no intentions for the majority of their daily Masses, especially in the less popular parishes.
Since many of the poorer or less popular parishes have no intentions for many of their Masses. maybe it would be a good idea for each diocese to have an attachment to their diocesan website that would list which Masses in the diocese do not have a Mass intention. The secretary or priest in a parish would simply choose from the following next to a Mass in their parish: " no intentions for this Mass," or "there is at least one intention for this Mass." Then, to avoid parishioners not having these Masses open until a reasonable date beforehand, the person going on the website would only see the Masses that were still open 7 days before that Mass. Then a lot of parishes could receive thousands of dollars that could help their budget.
Yes, but not everyone and it does not change anything about the eternal value of that Mass offered whether you or anyone else besides the priest is present. The Marian Fathers at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Stockbridge have a website where you can request Masses. I don't even ask them when the Mass I donated for will be celebrated, because our participation is nothing in comparison to the greatness of every Mass itself.
I don't think I agree with that, Thomas. Remember how the widow's mite was valued. Making an effort to attend seems rather important to me, compared to simply filling in a form on a website.
Yes, it is always better to attend, but is not necessary. If I am suffering in Purgatory, because someone cannot get a Mass said for me at the local parish until next year, but he can get a Mass said at St. Mary's Church in Next to nowhere, Alaska the next week, I would prefer that.
But if the person for whom the Mass is intended lives at a distance, limiting the request to the week before would not allow that person to receive the Mass card before the Mass is said.
True, but the diocese could set up a system where a Mass card could be printed out or emailed to a person immediately after the donation payment by credit card was processed.
Having just led courses by Drs. Edward Sri and Scott Hahn on the biblical underpinnings and transformative nature of the liturgy, I must admit that this discussion thread gave me a migraine that may last until Pentecost. Ite, missa est.
//The changes on Sunday, and earlier in 1991, “were intended, precisely, on the one hand, to ensure justice, that is, the keeping of the word given to the offerers, and on the other to remove the danger, or even just the appearance, of ‘trade’ in sacred things,” the Vatican said.//
Can I just say, I like commas more than the next person, but this quote from the Vatican is something to behold.
I wish the Holy See would set some kind of monetary limit. The Bishops of Wisconsin recently jacked the price up to $20 a Mass, double the $10 it used to be. Our pastor went out of his way to emphasize that this is an offering and if you can only offer $5, that's just fine. But the expectation from the parish is $20. And the bishops didn't give an explanation for why they raised it. It's not like costs for the Mass have doubled.
I requested Gregorian Masses said for my mother after she passed away in 2018, and found a religious order that I paid a stipend to for the masses. I forget the name of the order, but it was a missionary order. It provided great comfort to me and still does, knowing I did what I could for my mother’s soul.
I try and let as many people as I can know about this practice, yet - given the potential outcome - it is almost universally a revelation to them. I've used both Our Lady of Angels Association (Vincentians) and Aid to the Church In Need in the past, for anyone interested.
If I knew a bishop who was interested, I would develop an app or website that linked priests with Mass intentions, allowing priests across the world to receive stipends and people around the world to have their intentions offered.
I'm curious about religious orders. Would the stipends & intentions they receive for Masses offered in their private chapel be shared with the local diocese or their province?
I second the comment requesting more instruction from I'm not sure whom (canon law? the dicastery? our local bishops?) about what a Mass intention may be. E.g. For the repose of the soul of Jack/ For the salvation of Jill, etc... instead of "Blessings for (insert presidential candidate name)" : / Obviously, celebrities need prayers too and parish staff can't always be aware of the latest current news or pop culture, but still. My own parish just lists names now in the bulletin (with a cross after the name if the person is deceased) but I've also seen "birthday blessings for x person," "for my wife," , "in thanksgiving" and other things at other parishes. I don't have a problem with those intentions; it's just the political celebrity ones make me uneasy.
So all those mailings I receive from various religious orders offering to pray for my intentions (and politely asking for a donation /stipend ) - I guess they must have some fine print that says my intention will be offered with many others at a mass? Because based on the volume of mailings from at least one place , if they get a lot of “hits” then I don’t see how they can offer one mass per each intention . Who oversees these orders - the bishop in the diocese where they reside ?
I would point out that in many (most?) diocese in the United States, priests currently do not actually received the Mass stipend. It is considered part of the "salary" and the money itself simply goes to the parish. This can be different for retired priests, who strictly speaking, do not receive a "salary." So, in some places, if a retired priest "covers" a Mass, he would receive the stipend in addition as part of his reimbursement.
The diocese that I am familiar with tend to be rural, and the rules are perhaps different in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.
In my Diocese, and a few others I know of, priests do, indeed, receive the stipend given for that Mass, although some priests accept no more than the 'customary' $10, with anything extra going to the designated fund. Also, retired priests do ordinarily receive a salary.
A pension. Not, strictly speaking, a salary.
The parishes make retirement contributions for active priests, and that is invested by the diocese, and based on that and the work of actuaries, a pension for retired priests is calculated.
At least that is how we and our neighboring diocese do it.
Interesting. I didn't know that. Where I am, our retired priests receive a salary that matches whatever a pastor is usually paid. Always interesting to learn new things!
SPM: Yes, I think this is true throughout the US, where there is a distinction between the mass stipend (for the stated mass intention) and the salary or monthly pay of the priest, which is usually designed to cover the receipt of the stipend. In my own archdiocese, there used to be an option (a) receive all mass stipends or (b) receive a set amount each month which, if memory serves, was about $400 per month. Option A is no longer available. In other words, a priest assigned to a parish never actually receives the particular stipend for offering the mass, and these stipends are instead subsumed into the parish accounts. This is also true of visiting or "weekend priests" at a parish who are not given the mass offering, but are instead given an agreed upon "per service" amount for a mass, anywhere from $50 to upwards of $150 per mass depending upon the travel, type of service (daily, Sunday, wedding, funeral, quince, baptism) and the ability and size of the parish to pay. Most dioceses now have a set amount for visiting clergy stipends in addition to the mass stipend offering suggested donation. Ours does not, which can result in a bidding war for talented visiting clergy who are available. These parish "rent-a-priest" stipends are not mass intentions, and I know some semi-retired diocesan priests and religious order priests in non-parish assignments who make a decent living just receiving these offerings from mass and confession ministry at parishes with no stated salary. This is the way it works in mega-dioceses like ours, whose parishes sometimes have up to a dozen weekend masses in various languages and mission locations and a real need for assistance.
I will finally add that a mass intention offering was originally supposed to be a sort of cotidianum. Well, in1920, that $5 or $10 (the same amount suggested today) was enough for lunch, dinner and maybe a tank of gas. Today, it is about the cost of medium coffee. Here in the US - where no priests actually live on mass stipends - I would just do away with any stated mass offering and also limit how many masses one person can request each year.
Cotidianum: Thank you, new to me.
ChatGPT:
//
In Catholic historical context, cotidianum (Latin for “daily” or “daily payment”) typically refers to a daily allowance or stipend—especially in reference to money or provisions given to clergy or members of a religious household.
More specifically:
• In medieval and early modern Church administration, a cotidianum could be a daily payment or sustenance allowance given to canons, monks, or chaplains, often in cathedral chapters or monastic communities.
• It could also refer to a regular, daily portion of food or income provided by a benefice or ecclesiastical office, separate from larger or fixed annual revenues.
So, when you see “cotidianum” mentioned in Church documents, especially financial or administrative ones, it usually means the daily monetary support or living stipend given to someone in the clergy or religious life.
//
I think that if priests truly do not receive Mass stipends, this is a grave abuse of the practice and needs to be corrected immediately. Stipends go to the priest, not any other Church entity. And to tax Mass stipends is explicitly forbidden. The situation you describe I think technically works, if $10 goes to the parish, and those $10 go to the priest, that seems to be a wash and ok. But I think it should be clear in a priest's compensation decree that $300 per month is from Mass stipends, or whatever the number is.
The term used is "in lieu of" for Plan B. It is just a way of averaging monthly stipends for each priest and makes for easier tax bookkeeping at the end of the year. Well, the IRS would love to have a talk with a priest who is not declaring his stipends, if that is what you mean by "taxing" stipends. All sources of income for a priest - who is a quarterly filer and makes 1040ES payments must declare all sources of his income, including speaker fees, stipends, and such. One good thing is that you can also claim business expense deductions if you are regularly speaking, serving on a hospital ethics board, or receiving stipends and fees for various out-of-parish events. You can write off a portion of your office, office equipment, and travel X.
The practice of "hey, we don't have enough priests, let's outsource intentions to poorer countries" has always seemed like an injustice for the Catholics of those countries - who can't reasonably "compete". Incidentally also places where I most frequently see grouped intentions.
I don’t think Mass intentions sent to the missions are competing with their own faithful’s desire for a Mass. Rather it is providing Mass intentions to priests who wouldn’t otherwise have an intention. It is also helping missionary priests with their salary. I think this practice is a good thing.
The mass stipend in our parish is still $5….
I could talk a long time about Mass intentions as a former parish secretary.
Any clarification on “purgatorian” Masses? We had a former pastor establish this practice once per week or month. Multiple intentions for the same Mass knowingly. But def accepted $5 per request
Also, what does Canon Law say on what are eligible/allowable Mass intentions? When our book is open, the “new” secretary fills in with some really creative Mass offerings now.
We’re also given limits for how many Masses we can request, and how many an individual can have said for them (this latter part seems bizarre to me) ? I didn’t enforce these rules likely because I’m a millennial who questions authority. But instead tried to meet people where they were. If someone wanted 10 Sunday Masses for their intentions, I’d say look we got a lot of people wanting Mass intentions. Please be considerate of the needs of others. Never had to say any more, people always tried to be considerate of the needs of other families in the parish. And if someone just died and 5 Masses were requested, I didn’t say, “sorry this document from our pastor in 1994 says you can only request 4 Masses for your son that unexpectedly died”. I let them request all the Masses they felt called to have said for their loved one.
So, can there be multiple Mass intentions for individual Masses? If so, does that diminish the efficacy of each Mass intention?
A Mass is of "infinite value" spiritually. How is an efficacy of Infinity/ 1 any different from Infinity/ 1,000,000?
If that is the case, then why have specific Mass intentions at all?
Don't forget the value to the person putting forward the intention to the priest, who will have the comfort of doing something for the intention they are promoting. They may well get more comfort from knowing that a mass is being devoted solely to their intention, as opposed to knowing that their intention is being joined with 999,999 others
But we are materialists and, thus, we instinctively and compulsively quantify everything. Uncle Joe was not a nice man. Let's do two, just in case.
I know that this is the practice in a number of dioceses and I thought it was odd. I was assured that the diocese had permitted the practice. After reading this article, I wonder if that was a loose interpretation of the law or a misunderstanding.
I pretty much gave up on ever requesting Mass intentions at a parish, unless it's some parish in a poor area with few parishioners that might have a spot open on a random Tuesday three months from now if you request it in the first month the book is open. If it's your average well-off parish with 2000 parishioners and 3 priests, your intention is not happening unless you rush down there in the first week they have the annual intention book open.
I just send my money to some mission online and hope that Father Anonymous in Africa somewhere actually says the Masses I request.
I also have met Catholics who object to the Mass stipends/ intentions business entirely, so when they want to offer Mass for someone, they simply attend Mass and offer their own attendance and Holy Communion for the person. This seems like a good and practical solution so I now do it myself from time to time.
I belong to a huge and prosperous parish. Masses are "booked" so far ahead that I don't even try to have one offered for my intention here. Instead, I send my requests to Aid to the Church in Need which arranges to have priests in poor countries cover them. It's a win-win all around.
Many of these comments are complaining about how hard it is to find an open mass time to schedule their intentions, or how parishes have to limit it. I wonder for how many years has the standard stipend been $10? I suspect if we kept up with inflation it should be easily $100… Which would probably solve the problem of people coming in with long lists of all the masses they want said.
Part of the point of keeping the stipend so low is to have it remain accessible to as many faithful as possible, and, as someone on a tight budget, I am grateful for that. I do think, though, that it can lead to a lack of consideration of the expenses involved, and possibly a lack of importance attributed to the Mass. In a diocese where I was formerly parish secretary, a casual paid to a visiting priest for him to preside a weekday Mass was equal to the whole stipend. Add in the extra for a homily, and/or a confession permanency (sorry if that's not how it's said in English! ), and the immediate costs for the Mass are already higher than the stipend. This is not counting the candles, wine, hosts, etc.
In and of itself, it is not a problem. We are not "buying a Mass" despite that terminology sometimes being used, and that should be clear. However, we are supposed to be supporting the needs of the Church, and giving a scant 5$ (if generous) at Sunday Mass does NOT cover the difference.
Many of the parishes here are dying out and have available Mass intentions; it is the more active and devout parishes that both have more demand and less availabilities. The local bishops appear to have (years ago) given out dispensations for "common intention" Masses to be celebrated, though they have to be explained as such to those requesting. In my old parish, the amount requested per "common intention" ( ~3$) was significantly less than the habitual amount (15$, then 20$), but the parish often ended up receiving significantly more (if I remember correctly, once it even reached ~300$!).
The stipend is a suggestion though, so if somebody was unable to afford $100, they wouldn’t pay $100.
People like guidelines so setting it at a more responsible sum would likely encourage people to scale back the number of intentions.
I think you are right. At least it should be explicitely stated that the $10 is a bare minimum and that a larger sum would be more customary for a Mass intention. I think a higher Mass stipend would prevent these multiple Mass intentions, because a person offering $100 for a Mass would not want to be part of 20 other intentions for that same Mass.
I find it especially a problem when some parishes have over 20 intentions for each Sunday Mass but have no intentions for the majority of their daily Masses, especially in the less popular parishes.
Since many of the poorer or less popular parishes have no intentions for many of their Masses. maybe it would be a good idea for each diocese to have an attachment to their diocesan website that would list which Masses in the diocese do not have a Mass intention. The secretary or priest in a parish would simply choose from the following next to a Mass in their parish: " no intentions for this Mass," or "there is at least one intention for this Mass." Then, to avoid parishioners not having these Masses open until a reasonable date beforehand, the person going on the website would only see the Masses that were still open 7 days before that Mass. Then a lot of parishes could receive thousands of dollars that could help their budget.
But I imagine that many people want to attend the mass associated with their intention?
Yes, but not everyone and it does not change anything about the eternal value of that Mass offered whether you or anyone else besides the priest is present. The Marian Fathers at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Stockbridge have a website where you can request Masses. I don't even ask them when the Mass I donated for will be celebrated, because our participation is nothing in comparison to the greatness of every Mass itself.
I don't think I agree with that, Thomas. Remember how the widow's mite was valued. Making an effort to attend seems rather important to me, compared to simply filling in a form on a website.
Yes, it is always better to attend, but is not necessary. If I am suffering in Purgatory, because someone cannot get a Mass said for me at the local parish until next year, but he can get a Mass said at St. Mary's Church in Next to nowhere, Alaska the next week, I would prefer that.
Speaking for myself, it’s enough to know a Mass has been said. I don’t need to be there.
But if the person for whom the Mass is intended lives at a distance, limiting the request to the week before would not allow that person to receive the Mass card before the Mass is said.
True, but the diocese could set up a system where a Mass card could be printed out or emailed to a person immediately after the donation payment by credit card was processed.
Interesting read. As of July 2024 the Diocese of Madison has increased their stipend to $20.
Having just led courses by Drs. Edward Sri and Scott Hahn on the biblical underpinnings and transformative nature of the liturgy, I must admit that this discussion thread gave me a migraine that may last until Pentecost. Ite, missa est.
//The changes on Sunday, and earlier in 1991, “were intended, precisely, on the one hand, to ensure justice, that is, the keeping of the word given to the offerers, and on the other to remove the danger, or even just the appearance, of ‘trade’ in sacred things,” the Vatican said.//
Can I just say, I like commas more than the next person, but this quote from the Vatican is something to behold.
Rhetorical. Spoken, the pauses are nearly necessary. For the same reason, one might insert yet another comma, after "other".
I wish the Holy See would set some kind of monetary limit. The Bishops of Wisconsin recently jacked the price up to $20 a Mass, double the $10 it used to be. Our pastor went out of his way to emphasize that this is an offering and if you can only offer $5, that's just fine. But the expectation from the parish is $20. And the bishops didn't give an explanation for why they raised it. It's not like costs for the Mass have doubled.
I requested Gregorian Masses said for my mother after she passed away in 2018, and found a religious order that I paid a stipend to for the masses. I forget the name of the order, but it was a missionary order. It provided great comfort to me and still does, knowing I did what I could for my mother’s soul.
I try and let as many people as I can know about this practice, yet - given the potential outcome - it is almost universally a revelation to them. I've used both Our Lady of Angels Association (Vincentians) and Aid to the Church In Need in the past, for anyone interested.
If I knew a bishop who was interested, I would develop an app or website that linked priests with Mass intentions, allowing priests across the world to receive stipends and people around the world to have their intentions offered.
I'm curious about religious orders. Would the stipends & intentions they receive for Masses offered in their private chapel be shared with the local diocese or their province?
I second the comment requesting more instruction from I'm not sure whom (canon law? the dicastery? our local bishops?) about what a Mass intention may be. E.g. For the repose of the soul of Jack/ For the salvation of Jill, etc... instead of "Blessings for (insert presidential candidate name)" : / Obviously, celebrities need prayers too and parish staff can't always be aware of the latest current news or pop culture, but still. My own parish just lists names now in the bulletin (with a cross after the name if the person is deceased) but I've also seen "birthday blessings for x person," "for my wife," , "in thanksgiving" and other things at other parishes. I don't have a problem with those intentions; it's just the political celebrity ones make me uneasy.
So all those mailings I receive from various religious orders offering to pray for my intentions (and politely asking for a donation /stipend ) - I guess they must have some fine print that says my intention will be offered with many others at a mass? Because based on the volume of mailings from at least one place , if they get a lot of “hits” then I don’t see how they can offer one mass per each intention . Who oversees these orders - the bishop in the diocese where they reside ?