Expert: This is what the Vatican's new Mass stipends decree means
Vatican City - The Vatican has published a new decree on Mass stipends and Mass intentions, which will apply from Easter Sunday. What does this mean in practice? The Munich canon lawyer Martin Rehak categorises it.
Published on 14.04.2025 at 15:34 –A new decree on Mass stipends and Mass intentions from last Sunday is less a new regulation than a clarification, says Munich canon law expert Martin Rehak. In his view, the regulation is intended to prevent abuses. Rehak told the ecclesiastical internet portal "vaticannews.va" on Monday.
With so-called Mass stipends or Mass intentions, the faithful ask priests to celebrate a Mass for a special intention and donate a certain amount in return. The new decree of the Dicastery for the Clergy comes into force on Easter Sunday. It renews the regulations already formulated in 1991 in the "Mos iugiter" decree on combining several Mass intentions into a single Mass celebration.
Paying off surplus Mass stipends
"This possibility has now been recalled and confirmed by the new decree," emphasises Rehak. This is also linked to the "well-known clarification" that the celebrant may only ever keep one stipend and that the responsible committees of the bishops determine how the money from the other stipends should be used. Excess Mass stipends would have to be paid in any case - for example by passing them on "to the mission" or by collecting them in a diocesan fund.
In church services, certain people could continue to be remembered elsewhere. "But if this is not done in the context of the classic Mass intention, then no Mass stipend or other gift may be requested for it," explains Rehak. Otherwise this would be seen as an abuse of the Mass stipend.
Clarification has always been necessary in other areas, explains Rehak - but this has often not been done in practice: "You must not assume that a scholarship provider is in agreement with an accumulation - i.e. with a collective intention - but you must explicitly address this and the agreement must be explicit." Ultimately, the new decree will hardly change anything in daily practice. (KNA)
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