See you at the 2:30 Mass? (That’s a.m.)
There is no church tradition that cannot be saved, or at least a brave Pittsburgh priest who is resurrecting the “Printers Mass” hopes that is the case. Via The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of two dailies left (barely) in the Steel City, which once had seven:
At parishioners’ suggestion, Father [Carmen] D’Amico is going to offer a pre-dawn liturgy at 2:30 a.m. Sunday to see what kind of crowd the special service draws. The church, at Centre Avenue and Washington Place, stands in front of the new Consol Energy Center.
First celebrated on April 30, 1905, the printers’ Mass attracted employees from seven daily newspapers who opened the church doors and lit the candles. Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph workers wanted to take Communion after finishing their shift at 2 a.m. Pittsburgh Press truck drivers often served on the altar, then began delivering papers at 3 a.m.
With two main daily papers left today, there are far fewer printers, but Father D’Amico hopes to attract local college students who are up late and looking for a quiet alternative to the raucous night life on weekends in some parts of the city. As the administrator of three parishes — St. Mary of Mercy, Downtown; St. Benedict the Moor, Hill District; and Epiphany — the priest already ministers to many people.
But he’s eager to help a few more, so fliers about the liturgy have been distributed to local colleges.
If enough students turn up, the weekly printers’ Mass may be revived. The priest also hopes young people will be interested in organizing an informal coffeehouse before the Mass.
Get ‘em to read newspapers while they’re at it, says I.
H/T to the indispensable RNS daily roundup
“St. Benedict the Moor, Hill District”
The Moor? I don’t know if there is anything offensive about that archaic appelation, but it does harken back to another time – another age, really. Which, one theory says, would appeal to college students? I dunno, though …. it reminds me of the bio of St. Peter Claver in my breviary, in which we learn that St. Peter Claver “was canonized by Leo XIII in 1888. In 1896 the same Pontiff declared him the special heavenly patron of all missions to the black peoples.”
Anyway, I love the thinking-outside-the-rigid-mass-schedule approach of this pastor. Nothing would be cooler than a church stuffed with the night hawks, insomniacs and riff raff out and about at 2:30 am on a Sunday morning.
If printers would practice Caritas in Veritate, perhaps their newspapers could be resurrected. It might even get ‘em to read newspapers, while they’re at it.
Jim P, I agree. But how transferrable are these things from one generation to another. The printers were such a regular, core group. Are night owls and hungover college kids going to be as reliable?
Speaking of Benedict and moors, the Pope has one on his shield:
Dearest Nancy, you are losing me…
I hope that the people in attendance are reverent and not drunk or in a “Let’s just get it over with.” disposition.
Also, the article makes me wonder how many priests thought about, even if just for a second, scheduling an Ash Wednesday Mass at midnight while many people are out for Mardi Gras festivities, but that would make a joke out of it.
My mother’s hometown was a small mining and railroad town. It had a “third shift Mass” as big cities had. It was popular, too, because of the old rules about fasting after midnight.
St. Cecelia’s here used to have a Sunday 4:00 a.m. Mass, “the fishermen’s Mass”. Quite popular.
Dearest David, if you are lost, it is not because of me. (see A Rogues Gallery)
St. Benedict the Moor parish in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, is an almost completely Africian-American congregation. It is a lively and dynamic congregation, with some fabulous parish programs, and their choir is second to none.
In Chicago, we have a St. Benedict parish on the South Side, in an African American neighborhood. But ours is called St. Benedict the African.
When I was a lowly student at Marquette (many, many, MANY years ago), there was always a 1 AM Sunday mass @ the Church of the Gesu. It was affectionately/realistically known as the “drunkard’s mass.” So long as you went, your obligation ticket had been punched and you got your “get out of hell free” card for another week.
When I was young (before fire and the wheel), we had 5:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday–it was called the “golfers” Mass. God help the poor altar boy who stumbled over the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar because Father would catch the devil from the plaid-clad if Mass went more the twenty minutes–early tee times could not be missed. Don’t you hanker after the mystery and reverence of the pre-Vatican II celebrations!
Hello All,
I lived in Pittsburgh for a number of years when I was working at Carnegie Mellon. I never did get to visit St. Benedict the Moor, but Pittsburgh is filled with fascinating old churches, both Catholic and Protestant, and equally fascinating synagogues.
While CMU is a private secular university, it is quite a friendly environment for people who practice the Jewish and Catholic faiths. As an instructor I was directed by the provost not to assign exams on Yom Kippur or Good Friday in order to allow some of my Jewish and Catholic students to take time off for religious services. There was a small community of Oratorian priests nearby who celebrated daily and Sunday Masses at CMU and the University of Pittsburgh (which is right next to CMU). On Sunday evening one could attend what was known as the MacDonald’s Mass – this was celebrated in a large science lecture hall where one had to sit in a desk, and there were no “frills” such as music because the students wanted to get Mass over with as quickly as possible so they could go back to their studies. I did go to the MacDonald’s Mass several times because it was admittedly very convenient for a hard working philosophy professor. But I disliked the apathetic attitude of nearly everyone there sufficiently to stop attending Mass on campus and switch to the much nicer atmosphere in Sacred Heart Church in Shadyside.
Gee, wasn’t it fulfilling the old obligation back before the dawn of time? Nostalgic for it? Not at all!!!
Hello Jimmy (and All),
“Nostalgic for it? Not at all!!!”
Me, neither. But officially, the obligation remains. I suspect that in practice, most Catholics in this country are only dimly aware of what the Catechism says regarding our obligations to participate in Mass on Sundays and other holy days of obligation, and that many of us don’t really believe it’s a grave sin to miss Mass on a Sunday or a Holy Day. (If I’m right, that might be part of an explanation for the drop in attendance at Mass in recent decades.) I’m not sure that’s so bad. In my better moments I hope I’m participating at Mass on Sundays and the other holy days only because I really want to.
My imagination has been captured by the “McDonalds Mass”–sitting at desks in a science hall, no less.
Don’t you have to have a consecrated altar for these things?
Did they keep the ciborium, patens, etc. locked up in the science room? Or did the priest have to tote this in?
Did people work in there after hours and have to be kicked out for Mass? Can you still go there and see it? We sometimes get to the P’burgh area–or, really, I would drive out there to see this.
More about how this worked, please!
Hello Jean (and All),
Whew! Finally a chance to take a breather from grading political philosophy exams.
At the Carnegie Mellon McDonald’s Mass, the celebrant would use a table at the front of the room for the altar and use a lectern to deliver his homily. Some students would help him dress the table before mass and remove the cloths and cross afterwards.
Patens were not necessary at the CMU Mass. During communion, the celebrant would distribute the consecrated Body himself to students (and the occasional professor like me) and leave the chalice containing the consecrated Blood on the table/altar. Those who wished to receive in both species could take from the chalice themselves after receiving the Body. There were no Eucharistic lay ministers, perhaps because that might have lengthened the Mass. Also, there may have been no students who had the time to take the necessary training.
Students would read the first two Scripture readings. I don’t know how they were selected, but it may have been done quite informally. (At a different university I once got asked on the spot to read the narrator portion of the passion reading for Good Friday, and I’m pretty sure I got drafted because I was the oldest member of this particular congregation.)
CMU has a small chapel that is used each weekday for Roman Catholic Mass at noon. (Other faith traditions use this chapel at different times.) This chapel can hold only about a maximum of twenty people and so is too small for Sunday Masses, but I think the Oratorian priests may have kept a chalice, vestments and/or the cloths and cross they used for the altar there, both for use on Sunday in the science hall and for the week. The alternative would have been to bring these items from their residence, which was roughly a mile from CMU’s campus.
I’m certainly no expert on liturgical questions but I don’t think it is mandatory to use a consecrated altar or any altar at all. I have attended a number of Masses in homes and outdoors where the celebrant used no altar. When I was an undergraduate at Loyola Marymount University, my dorm counselor was a Jesuit priest and he would celebrate an evening Mass late Wednesday night in his room in the dorm. He and we would remain seated throughout this evening Mass, which would have about half a dozen participants. (Given how upset some Catholics I know get when they learn of a Catholic church with no kneelers in the pews, for all I know I may have been breaking some canon laws I didn’t know about in college!) Fr. Jim would use the table in his living room as the “altar” and wore no vestments, only a stole. I think it’s only strictly necessary that the celebrant wear a stole, but Father Imbelli and Father Komonchak can surely set me straight if I am wrong.
Jean –
I’ve been at many Masses from the 60′s on in which the sacred vessels were made of pottery, nice ones made for that purpose. I don’t know if they were strictly legal, but I’d be surprised if they weren’t.
Hello Ann (and All),
I, too, have participated in a number of liturgies where the vessels were made of pottery. I have also participated in liturgies where the celebrant used particularly beautiful vessels made of crystal. I have heard that the vessels are supposed to be made of noble metals such as silver and gold, but I don’t know if that is true and this is one of those questions I don’t want to investigate. I would be quite saddened to learn that it’s not legal to use vessels made from pottery or crystal. After all, I’ll bet good money that Jesus used a pottery cup at the supper the night before He died, and shouldn’t we follow His example at least some of the time? In any event, while I admit I am no expert in my own (worthless?) opinion the composition of the vessels used at a Mass should be up to the celebrant.
Ah, Peter – ’tis true. Gold chalice insides are a definite MUST! The blood of Jesus cringes at the idea of crystal and/or pottery. Or so we are lead to believe. And, besides, it’s the rules, don’t you know?
Rules, glorious rules!
What wouldn’t we give for
That extra bit more –
That’s all that we live for
Why should we be fated to
Do nothing but brood
On rules,
Magical rules,
Wonderful rules,
Marvelous rules,
Fabulous rules.
Jim Pauwels, apropos Moors. Every once in a while somebody official asks out loud if maybe all the towns in Mexico named Matamoros could be renamed something more diplomatic. The name was originally intended to honor St. James, the “Slayer of Moors,” who is a very big enchilada in Spain. (Patron of Spain?) But it also means “Kill the Moors!” Right now, nobody really cares, but as more Moroccans move to Spain, it could become an issue over there.
Somebody else told me that in the a lot of modern theater companies, Othello (the “Moor of Venice”) is the one role a black actor is probably not going to be cast in. This is a reaction to all the centuries past when it was virtually the only role a black actor could hope for. (Somewhere in the early ’70′s they got the idea that Guildenstern may have been an African exchange student at U. Wittenberg.)
Peter V+ says “I’m certainly no expert on liturgical questions but I don’t think it is mandatory to use a consecrated altar or any altar at all.”
I’m certainly no expert on liturgy, but isn’t it mandatory to have a martyr’s relic in the altar? Or something that is believed to be a martyr’s relic?
(Erasmus said that if you gathered all the pieces of the Holy Cross from all the reliquaries in Holland you’d have enough wood to build a fleet of ships.)
Hello Felapton (and All),
I heard from one of my former students that the altar is supposed to have a martyr’s relic. (According to her, once upon a time she and some friends stole into their church and tried to dismantle parts of the altar in hopes of finding the relic. They were not successful.) If this really is a requirement, perhaps it applies only to altars in Catholic churches built on ground blessed in a certain manner. Mass may be celebrated in homes, classrooms and even outdoors. Maybe the rules differ for a Mass celebrated outside a “regular” church.
During my time in Pittsburgh I learned that it is possible to “decommission” a Catholic church built upon blessed ground. There is a restaurant in Pittsburgh that was a Catholic church, and it’s clear that the owners of this restaurant have a sense of humor. They retained the stained glass windows, but not surprisingly the replaced the pews with tables for diners. It’s a beer brew pub restaurant. The kettles where the home grown beer ferments are on the raised platform where the altar once stood.
Hello Jimmy (and All),
Thanks for the response. I’m sure you are right about the regulation regarding the composition of the chalice. I’m a little disappointed, but I won’t worry about it. As I said in my earlier post I think this is a matter that should be left up to the celebrant. If I happen upon a Mass where crystal, pottery or perhaps wood vessels are used I certainly won’t complain, and so far as I know even if it is a breach of canon law to use vessels made out of the wrong materials this breach in no way invalidates the Sacrament.
If I read you correctly I think you and I agree that on certain liturgical matters there is no read need to nitpick.
About European feelings about Moors and the Europeans always being seen as the heavy guys, as a descendant of French and Spanish I feel compelled to defend at least some of my ancestors. In fact, the Muslims had conquored all of North Africa by force, then conquored the Iberian peninsula, and even penetrated up into northern France by the force of arms. The Muslims were finally stopped in the Battle of Tours in the year 732 A.D. Says Wikipedia,
The Battle of Tours (October 10, 732),[3] also called the Battle of Poitiers and in Arabic: معركة بلاط الشهداء (ma‘arakat Balâṭ ash-Shuhadâ) Battle of Court of the Martyrs,[4] was fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, located in north-central France, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Poitiers. The location of the battle was close to the border between the Frankish realm and then-independent Aquitaine. The battle pitted Frankish and Burgundian[5][6] forces under Austrasian Mayor of the Palace, Charles Martel, against an army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus. The Franks were victorious, ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi was killed, and Charles subsequently extended his authority in the south.”
Since the 1960s it has been fashionable to always present the West as the oppressor or attempted oppressor. Not fair.
Ann,
Good Heavens, I certainly didn’t mean to accuse the Christians of anything that was done in the reconquista. (Half of) my ancestors are Mexican; some fraction of their DNA is from Spain. My aunt is a great devotee of the Niño de Atocha. I’m sure she prefers talking to him to talking to my uncle.
The Christians treated the Albigensians approximately the same way they treated the Muslims, so it was clearly not a matter of nationalism. The Middle Ages were a grim time to live, and nobody who survived them long enough to propagate the species should be criticized for the way they did it. (IMHO)
Peter V,
Yes, that sounds right, about the relic. Those tiny little mass-in-a-bag things Army chaplains use to say mass in the field can’t possibly hold an altar, to say nothing of an altar with a relic embedded in it.
(Erasmus said a lot of the relics were probably just something the dog dragged in anyway. Erasmus was a funny guy.)