The Diocese of Las Vegas promotes novenas for All Souls Day, Mother's Day, and Father's Day (and in some parishes, Christmas and Easter), and accepts thousands of dollars for these Mass intentions. The faithful are given the opportunity to participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice and add to it a sacrifice of their own as a form of almsgiving while the fruits of the Mass benefit their intentions. The theology behind accepting financial offerings is sound. But there is a limit to the amounts that can be accepted.
According to a trusted inside source, in the Diocese of Las Vegas the money collected from these novenas do not go to the general parish finances. Instead, the funds from these novenas are divided up and given to the priests of the parish.
The parishes of the Diocese of Las Vegas are allowed to have two checking accounts:
- A main checking account into which all parish money is deposited (including the parish collections, fundraising, parish organization funds, etc.)
- A Mass stipend/offering account. This account is only for offerings made for the celebration of Mass. So for example, you go to the parish office and request a Mass be offered for your deceased grandmother and give $10.00. The money is deposited into this account. Then when the Mass is celebrated, the priest is paid $10 for the Mass celebrated. This is a legitimate part of the priest's support and income.
This second checking account is not required to be reported in the parish financial reports, and this is the account used for processing the money for the novenas. The pastor then cuts a check from this account and either writes it out directly to the priests
or writes this check out to payroll and the money is processed through payroll. Sometimes the money is handled as cash with no records and is not even deposited into the Mass offering checking account.
In our large Las Vegas parishes with populations often ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 families, this results in thousands of dollars being given to the priests beyond their usual salary at least three times a year (All Souls, Mother's Day, Father's Day). It is a serious matter of large sums of money precisely because of the large size of so many of the parishes in the Las Vegas Diocese.
This practice means that virtually all of our parishes are operating outside of the law of the Catholic Church in this respect. Canon law states that a priest is limited to accepting only one Mass offering per day. The amount of the Mass offering defined for the San Francisco province (which includes Nevada) is $10. Therefore, if a priest celebrates seven Masses in a week, he ordinarily receives $70. This is correct and is part of his income. For collective intentions, where various intentions are combined into a single Mass offered or into a series of nine Masses, the same basic principles apply. The priest may only keep the usual amount. So if he celebrates a novena of Masses, then he should receive $90. Not thousands of dollars.
The Congregation for the Clergy issued a decree
On Collective Mass Intentions in 1991, and canon law provides the limits on accepting Mass offerings. You can read more here:
Just about every parish in the Las Vegas Diocese seems to follow the practice of collecting and redistributing undocumented novena money. Most every priest and every bookkeeper in the diocese knows about the practice. There are probably some priests who in good conscience think that this practice is legitimate and are not aware that it goes directly against Church teaching. This is where the Bishop should be stepping in and putting a stop to this incorrect and at times dishonest practice.
Because the Bishop is not willing to step in, it is up to faithful parishioners to start asking questions, such as what happens to the money that is donated for novenas? Where is it recorded in the parish records? It may be difficult for some of us to address this with their priests because faithful Catholics love, trust and revere our priests. But if this practice is being conducted at our parishes, it must be corrected. And the best thing to correct problems is to have them brought to light.
Call to Prayer:
O Almighty, Eternal God, look upon the Face of your Son and for love of him, who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on your priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop's hands. Keep them close to you, lest the enemy prevails against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation. Amen.
~Richard James Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, 1895-1970
I just received an email that Fr. Peter Romeo passed away. He was the Pastor at Our Lady of Las Vegas. Let us keep him, as we keep all our priests and Bishop, in our prayers daily. May he come to his eternal rest in the Glory of God.
