{"id":57258,"date":"2021-08-07T08:46:26","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T13:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=57258"},"modified":"2021-08-15T13:41:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T18:41:42","slug":"pre-signed-sympathy-cards-on-sale-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/07\/pre-signed-sympathy-cards-on-sale-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Signed Sympathy Cards On Sale Here"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/07\/pre-signed-sympathy-cards-on-sale-here\/copy\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-57261\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-57261 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/copy-217x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/copy-217x300.jpeg 217w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/copy-289x400.jpeg 289w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/copy-768x1062.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/copy.jpeg 926w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\" \/><\/a>Mass intentions are an area of sacramental theology that require more theological reflection (see the recent articles by John Baldovin <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/0040563920985245\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/0040563921998055\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>In Ireland the practice of giving a Mass Card when you pay your respects at a funeral or a wake is still very common. Funerals are still a major social event here and it isn\u2019t unusual for the family of the deceased to receive a couple of hundred Mass cards from the different mourners.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago this led to legislation in the Charities Act that specifically dealt with Mass cards.\u00a0 The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mscmissions.ie\/ways-to-help\/masses-gifts\/mass-card-legislation\/\">law<\/a> basically says that pre-signed Mass cards cannot be sold in commercial outlets (unsigned Mass cards, that one brings to the local parish for signing, are not affected). This legislation was to curb the practice of fake Mass cards, or Mass cards that kept the majority of the offering with the retailer and sent only a few cents to a priest in another country who would often be asked to offer a single Mass for hundreds of cards.<\/p>\n<p>This was challenged by Thomas McNally in a case that went <a href=\"https:\/\/amp.rte.ie\/amp\/125512\/\">all the way to the High Court case<\/a>.\u00a0 McNally claimed that \u201cunlawfully conferred a monopoly on the sale of Mass cards to clerics of the Catholic Church.\u201d\u00a0 It transpired that McNally was a major dealer of Mass cards and \u201csold 120,000 cards per year and had an agreement with a Polish priest based in the West Indies.\u201d\u00a0 McNally paid \u20ac3,600 annually to this priest for saying a few collective Masses a month, which was a small percentage of the \u20ac250,000 he made from the sale of Mass cards. The High Court challenge failed and most people think that the matter is now resolved.<\/p>\n<p>A few days ago I was in my local post office and I noticed a new spin on the controversy.\u00a0 A poster advertised \u201cPre-Signed Sympathy Cards On Sale Here.\u201d\u00a0 The poster also advertised various types of \u201cbouquets\u201d for different occasions.\u00a0 I looked at one of the cards and inside it stated that \u201cThe intention of the happy repose of the soul of \u2026. will be remembered in the prayers of [signature] Catholic priest.\u201d\u00a0 The poster clarified that the cards are not Mass cards, but this is a clear attempt to get around the law as the normal person would probably not notice the difference.<\/p>\n<p>I know that as a priest people often ask me to remember someone in my prayers.\u00a0 Honestly, I do not think my prayers are worth more than the person who asks me and while I agree to pray for the person in question, I usually tell the individual that their own prayer \u201ccounts\u201d as much as mine.\u00a0 Now the idea of a priest being paid to pray for generic intentions that will be sold through post offices, petrol stations and other shops, strikes me as wrong. Ultimately this lends weight to John Baldovin\u2019s case that the whole area of Mass offerings needs more reflection and catechesis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mass intentions are an area of sacramental theology that require more theological reflection (see the recent articles by John Baldovin here and here). In Ireland the practice of giving a Mass Card when you pay your respects at a funeral or a wake is still very common. Funerals are still a major social event here [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":57260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3119,12,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-devotions-and-sacramentals","category-mass"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pre-Signed Sympathy Cards On Sale Here - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/07\/pre-signed-sympathy-cards-on-sale-here\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pre-Signed Sympathy Cards On Sale Here - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mass intentions are an area of sacramental theology that require more theological reflection (see the recent articles by John Baldovin here and here). 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Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. 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