The recent Charities Bill makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card that is not authorised by a Catholic bishop
THEY MAY be a mystery to the text and email generation but Mass cards are still a popular method of sending a message of support or sympathy. Until last month the business of Mass cards was unregulated. Now a new law turns some cards into illegal contraband and may put well-intentioned fundraisers on the wrong side of the law.
The Charities Bill, signed by President Mary McAleese last month, makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card that is not authorised by a Catholic bishop. Some observers believe the move is part of a turf war between the Catholic church and charity organisations outside its control. The measure was proposed as a way to stamp out the bogus Mass card business which, as one parish bulletin recently put it, is peddling in death and grief for profit.
“It is dreadful to think of old ladies in my area scraping their pennies together to purchase Mass cards which are sold by people who have no real spiritual interest and simply want to make money,” Senator David Norris said during the Seanad debate. “However, a sledgehammer is being used to crack a nut and it may well be unconstitutional.”
The signed Mass card moved out of the presbyteries and onto the newsagents’ shelves during recent cash-rich, time-poor times. The original system was a simple one, controlled by the local priests. People went to their priest, asked him to sign a card in return for an “offering” or an amount of cash, nowadays between €5 and €10. The name of the person for whom the Mass was offered was taken and the card was sent. At the start of the Mass the priest would read out the name of the individual. The cards were a comfort to grieving relatives and a source of revenue to priests and parishes.
Joe Tierney has been selling signed Mass cards at his Navan newsagent for over a decade. He sells an average of 2,000 signed cards a year. He charges €5 for the cards, each of which is signed by Father Seamus Murphy, an Irish priest from Cabra who is based in Australia.
Four euro from every card is sent to Father Murphy and Joe Tierney has visited his Australian parish to see how the €8,000 annual donation is spent. “We don’t have a sign up in the shop advertising signed Mass cards. We sell an unsigned card for a euro and we keep the signed cards behind the counter.” He keeps a list of the names of the dead and sends the list to Australia every six months.
“I can see where selling signed Mass cards has gotten a bad name. We were approached by a company last year and the pitch was you could sell the card for €5 and the card was costing you €2 in total. When I asked where the money would be going they couldn’t tell me exactly but mentioned some priest in Africa.”
Tierney will “have to investigate” his sale of signed Mass cards now, he says. “I presume he [Father Murphy] has to seek the permission of his Bishop.” He has not been approached by his local clergy about the sale of the cards.
Vincent Jennings, chief executive of the Convenience Store and Newsagents Association (CSNA), said the association had discussed the issue with the Bishops and said they had agreed that “the place for the Mass card was the presbytery”.
“My concern was to ensure that we sold something that was what it said on the packet.” He said a number of shopkeepers ran missionary-based cards. “I wouldn’t question their bona fides.” And the CSNA had agreed to sell a spiritual intention card for €7.50 which had the clearance of the Conference of Bishops.
These negotiations took place before the Charities Bill was being drafted as “we were nervous about some fly-by-nights”.
Longford brothers David and Brian Hughes set up their Mass card enterprise 12 years ago. A cerebral palsy sufferer, David found it impossible to get a job. “I wanted to do something to try and make a difference.” Through Brian’s father-in-law they made contact with a priest in the Philippines. “They had started a church but there was no floor and no walls. It was a shed.”
Thanks to the sale of their Mass cards in Ireland, signed by the priest in the Philippines, the church is now a substantial building, designed by an architect, with a Celtic cross on its roof. The brothers have completed a second church and are currently working on a third some 60 miles away. “To date we have sent out to the Philippines and India over €200,000,” Brian Hughes says.
The scheme has the authorisation of the local Bishop in the Philippines and the Hughes brothers had a petition with hundreds of local signatures and stamped letters from the Bishop’s office to support the continuation of the fundraising.
They sell their cards to over 200 shops for €1.50 each, with a recommended sale price of €3. Their advice is that the cards remain legal as they have the permission of the Catholic Bishop in the Phillipines. “But shops are nervous now because priests are going into them and saying that our cards are against the law,” Brian Hughes explains. “There are people out there that are only in it for the money and are bogus. I think the church know as well as we do who they are.” As a result of the Hughes brothers’ concerns the former Attorney General John Rogers has given legal advice that the section of the bill dealing with Mass cards may be unconstitutional.
Jesuit priest Father Barney McGuckian is based in St Francis Xavier’s Church in Dublin’s Gardiner St. Dozens of parishioners a week come for Mass cards. “There is a theological difference in the idea of making an offering for a Mass rather than paying for one,” he explains. “Early on people brought the bread and wine used in the Mass for sharing. It was brought up in the offertory procession and the extra went to the poor. Then, around the year 1000, unleavened bread was introduced and people didn’t know how to make it. So they brought coins instead of food.”
The priests are not “selling anything”, he insists. In his case the money is spent on the upkeep of the church and on missionary work. “We’re Jesuits who take a vow of poverty.” Some of the Mass card Masses are said in African mission parishes. “On a given day you could have people asking for 100 Masses and there are only 25 of us here.” Records of Masses offered are kept by the Father Provincial for inspection by the Bishop. The average donation for a Mass is €5, Father McGuckian says. “But if someone says, ‘I’ve no money’ I’d say, ‘Ah it doesn’t matter.’”
The Bill is expected to be enacted by Ministerial order in the coming months. In the meantime, one Donegal-based website is attempting to bridge the generation gap by sending religious condolences by text. For €2 inlovingmemory.ie will text a picture “Mass card” with the written message that the named donor has attended Mass on behalf of the bereaved person who receives the text.
