Catholics schools with daily Mass attendance?

houston1 · #1 Jun 13, '12, 11:37 am

I was wondering if anyone has known of any Catholic schools which allow students to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion on a daily basis. At present, my son's school requires Mass attendance on Fridays and on Holy Days that occur during the week. I was thinking about talking to the principal about giving the students the opportnunity to attend Mass daily (at least as an option to students). What do you think? Are there any governmental rules that might would restrict this?

Thanks for your help.

houston1

KCT · #2 Jun 13, '12, 12:31 pm

If your school chaplain is able to offer daily Mass, perhaps he can do it before school starts. Ours used to; teachers and parents along w/ their kids could attend. (parents could not just drop kids off)

Another option is a lunch time Mass, but not all students have lunch at the same time.

If it means missing class time every day, I doubt a principal would go for it.

chaunceygardner · #3 Jun 13, '12, 12:41 pm

From what I observe and hear, the Catholic schools in our area have gone to weekly and holy day Mass attendance. The basic reason seems to be the lack of priests. Some churches don't have daily Mass every weekday anymore, or it rotates as one priest covers a couple of parishes. When there were two or more priests in a parish one could do the early morning daily Mass for parishioners while the other priest could cover the Mass for the school children (and get involved more directly in their religious education). In some cases, those Masses later were combined and the time changed so that the daily Mass published in the bulletin was also the school Mass.

We have had daily Masses cancelled if the pastor was not available.

The other concern would be that some Catholic schools have a lot of non-Catholic students, and that affects the logistics as well. So I think the reasons are multiple, and given the current situation, it is unlikely that we will see daily school Masses in our area in the foreseeable future.

**Joe 5859** · #4 Jun 13, '12, 12:41 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by houston1

I was wondering if anyone has known of any Catholic schools which allow students to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion on a daily basis. At present, my son's school requires Mass attendance on Fridays and on Holy Days that occur during the week. I was thinking about talking to the principal about giving the students the opportnunity to attend Mass daily (at least as an option to students). What do you think? Are there any governmental rules that might would restrict this?

Thanks for your help.

houston1

I can't think of what the government would have to say about it. It's not up to them.

Where it might come into play is simply the amount of classroom time that the school needs to fulfill in order to be accredited by the state. So the school might need to make some adjustments in their daily schedule to allow for this (e.g. starting the school day earlier). Depending on the circumstances, that can be easier said than done.

One of the main factors to consider is the availability of a priest. As far as I can recollect, the schools I know who have done this have had a parish either adjacent or adjoining and there is daily Mass going on there regardless of whether or not the kids are there. So it is not too difficult to incorporate it into the day. If a school was not near a parish that was already offering daily Mass at the time that would work with their schedule, then it becomes more difficult because you need a priest who is able to come celebrate Mass every day.

But it doesn't hurt to bring up the suggestion. The fact that your son's school is already doing that once a week is a positive sign (that's one more time a week than the Catholic schools I went to). Even if it's not something that can happen right away (for whatever reason), perhaps it can be made a goal to work towards. If a Catholic school wants to take its Catholic identity seriously (which they all should want to do, otherwise, what's the point of even having a Catholic school?), then this should be something every principal would want to do.

houston1 · #5 Jun 13, '12, 1:02 pm

Thanks to all of your replies. I am certain that the lack of priests is a key element. I will continue to pray on this and see where this idea goes from here. I should probably start attending the school board meetings this coming school year to become more familiar with the logistics of the school. I know that this idea is easier said than done.

Thanks again for all your help.

robwar · #6 Jun 13, '12, 1:13 pm

Austin Academy in New Haven Mi, run by the Augustian Fathers has daily mass for its students. It is a high school. I think most schools at least in the elementary level do try to have at least weekly/holy day masses. The HS my older boys go to has weekly mass.
but a number of HS do not.

Nicea325 · #7 Jun 13, '12, 1:15 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by houston1

I was wondering if anyone has known of any Catholic schools which allow students to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion on a daily basis. At present, my son's school requires Mass attendance on Fridays and on Holy Days that occur during the week. I was thinking about talking to the principal about giving the students the opportnunity to attend Mass daily (at least as an option to students). What do you think? Are there any governmental rules that might would restrict this?

Thanks for your help.

houston1

I think it is not a question if they are allowed to attend Mass daily;moreover, it is a question if the school/parish have available priests to conduct it daily? Our sister parish currently has one priest and I have been told he is around 70 years old and very tired.

robwar · #8 Jun 13, '12, 1:22 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by houston1

I was wondering if anyone has known of any Catholic schools which allow students to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion on a daily basis. At present, my son's school requires Mass attendance on Fridays and on Holy Days that occur during the week. I was thinking about talking to the principal about giving the students the opportnunity to attend Mass daily (at least as an option to students). What do you think? Are there any governmental rules that might would restrict this?

Thanks for your help.

houston1

Since Catholic schools are private there are no Government (which would be at the state level) rules that would restrict religious attendance. The state education department usually does not have too much say about the running of private schools except that they have certified teachers. At least that is the way in MI. The elementary school that my boys attended did have mass before school started. Very few parents brought themselves as well as their children to it maybe because it was early and the hassle and headache of getting everyone up and ready before hand. They did have a weekly mass on Friday which my husband and I attended. Again, there were very few parents like ourselves that were regular, This could be do to work schedules of parents. We were fortunate that we did not have that kind of conflict.

orionsbelt · #9 Jun 13, '12, 2:07 pm

Both of the schools that my children attend (6-12 all-Girls and 6-12 all-Boys) have daily mass. They each have a permament priest on staff. Their daily schedule includes a study/mass timeslot built-in.

My son attends fairly regularly. I am not sure how often my daughters attend.

YoungTradCath · #10 Jun 13, '12, 2:30 pm

The Catholic grade school here is literally a ten foot walk from our old Gothic structure, yet they only have a school Mass on Wednesdays and Holy Days.

If possible as regards schedule, I would want them to have it every single day.

melissa b · #11 Jun 13, '12, 3:20 pm

We have a private Catholic school nearby that our sons will attend when they're old enough. In previous years, they had Mass 3+ days each week, depending on volunteer priests being available, and the entire school (1-12) attended. This past year we had a new bishop in our diocese and since they weren't a diocesan school he wanted to evaluate the school to decide if they could continue referring to themselves as a Catholic school. As part of this, he trimmed the Masses to once a week with a priest that he preapproved. As of this last week, they've actually become a diocesan school at his request and approval so we'll have to see what the Mass schedule for next year looks like.

fin · #12 Jun 14, '12, 2:04 am

Back in high school, I remember there was daily Mass being said early in the morning in the audio visual room. The schedule does not interfere with classes. I don't know if the school still does it though.

Cat · #13 Jun 14, '12, 5:12 am

As another poster said, it probably has to do with having enough classroom time to remain accredited. Accreditation is very important in this day and age. I personally would never send children to a school that was not accredited.

We have a traditional Catholic school in our city. It is not affiliated with a parish, but the children in the school (kindergarten through 12 th grade) attend the Traditional Latin Mass once a week. So even these children from very traditional-leaning Catholic families don't attend Mass every day. I'm pretty certain this is so that the school can offer enough classroom hours to remain accredited, which is a major factor in why parents will choose a school.

Yes, of course a Catholic school can start their day earlier and/or run the day later. But this would mean longer hours for the teachers and other staff, which means a raise in salaries, which means an increase in tuition, which means that a number of families will not be able to afford the school, which means another increase in tuition for those students who remain in the school to make up for the loss of students...

Another thing to consider is that if the school day goes too long, the children have a more difficult time getting involved in various community activities, which are often scheduled to coincide with the area school schedules. E.g., our skating rink has a few after-school freestyles (practice sessions) for figure skaters. Many older children need to use both of these freestyles, the first of which begins at around 3:30 p.m. Most of the schools in our city end their day by 3:00 p.m. (The school that my children attended still ends the day at 3:15 p.m., which makes it a fast drive to the rink, but it's still possible). If a school day goes much later than 3:00 p.m., parents can't get their children to the freestyle. This could be reason enough for parents to switch schools.

The skating example is just one example. There are plenty of others, and not all have to do with sports. There are also various arts activities (music and dance), and other activities like scouting, community centers, etc. Children and their parents want to be involved with these activities, and schools have to be mindful of this when planning the schedule.

One thing to consider is that many schools offer after-school care for children with parents who work at jobs outside their home. The employees at this after-school care would lose some of their work hours if the school day were increased, and this might be a situation that would force them to resign and find another job where their hours would provide them with sufficient income.

You see, there are plenty of reasons why a daily Mass is difficult for schools.

At our parish, there are three daily Masses. One begins at 6:30 a.m., which means that parents who wish their children to attend daily Mass can bring them to this Mass, which ends by 7:00 a.m. The parish school doesn't start until 8:00 a.m., so the parent would have to find something to do with their children until the school day begins, but IMO, that wouldn't be such a bad deal! It would be ideal study time. The second daily Mass starts at 8:30 a.m., and this is the Mass that the school attends once a week. There is also a third daily Mass at 5:30 p.m., and this would be another option for parents who wish for their children to attend Daily Mass.

I'm wondering if perhaps the OP can find a parish in their city that has a daily Mass at a time that their family can attend that doesn't conflict with the parish school schedule.

**ProVobis** · #14 Jun 14, '12, 9:51 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by fin

Back in high school, I remember there was daily Mass being said early in the morning in the audio visual room. The schedule does not interfere with classes. I don't know if the school still does it though.

My, how times have changed. My Catholic high school (1962-1965) had a room set aside for confession before classes started. That was given importance as well, if not more so.

Cristiano · #15 Jun 14, '12, 9:57 am

My son's Catholic High school just lost the resident priest and so I am not sure that next year there will be a daily mass.

The shortage of priests is really affecting our diocese, thank God last Saturday a new group was ordained.