This past Sunday we were vacationing on an Island on the Great Lakes and during the Homily a woman a few rows back passed out!
I heard some commotion and it caught the Deacon’s attention. He stopped and asked everyone to Pray a Hail Mary while other partitioners called EMS and a few others went to get her a cup of water and some towels to clean up some of the substances which happened while passed out.
Then the Priest left the Altar and went to console the woman as she was regaining consciousness.
This happened at another Parish my Wife and I attended long ago and the Priest did not stop the Mass (if I recall correctly, it was during the Consecration). The EMS came in with the gurney and wheeled the elderly man out the side isle.
I thought it was kind of odd to continue on, but at the same time, timing might have had something to do with it (in what part of the Sacred Liturgy was taking place).
Is there something in the GIRM that states the Mass must go on when an emergency is taking place or is this the call of the Priest?
That experience with the ailing woman would have been very unsettling. I hope she ended up being ok.
I seem to recall a priest mentioning something about such things during a homily and from what I recall he said barring an unsafe situation to the congregation, the Mass must continue and parishioners are there to hopefully assist the person.
I can’t forget a daily Mass in Catholic grade school when I was young. I think it was just prior to the Eucharistic Prayer. We had a stern Irish priest at the time and one of the boys in the pews (no pun intended) loudly passed gas, which caused a ripple of stifled giggles through other children. The priest stopped the prayer dead and very angrily denounced the act, reminding the children of the sanctity of Mass. So that was an instance where Mass was stopped by a priest.
As an aside, many years later as an adult, I was talking with my old Kindergarten teacher during coffee in the church basement after Mass. I hadn’t known as a child, but apparently she was a gossip and knew everything about everyone back then. The Irish priest was retired by then and living in a nursing home. Without even being on the subject, she told me something about that priest (did not have to do with children) that made me feel like I was punched in the stomach. One of those things that turns a whole part of your memories as a child upside down. I wish she hadn’t have told me.
I would generally trust the priest’s discretion as to whether to interrupt the Mass.
A few years ago at a parish in Virginia, the priest was recovering from pneumonia and was shaking while standing in the pulpit. I wished he would have given his sermon sitting down. I thought of going to the rectory and asking one of the other priests to come to the church in case the priest saying Mass could not finish it. At Communion, too, I wished the priest had just sat down and let the extraordinary ministers distribute Communion. This was an extraordinary situation.
If it were I who were Having the episode I wouldn’t want the Mass to stop for any reason other than It might Improve my chances of survival. I would Prefer the priest to act as Christ and do what Jesus would do. Interrupting the Mass even during the consecration of the Holy Eucharist to help save a life would always be the right thing to do. Receive what you are, be what you receive Saint Augustine.
With regret, I am not conversant in the rules and theories of when Mass can be interrupted. I probably should be. There is a book called De Defectibus, which (I would guess) would address some of these questions.
I would only say that to interrupt Mass at the consecration would be a very serious decision to make.
While I have experienced people fainting during Mass, I have never (thanks be to God) been offering the Eucharist when someone had such a serious medical situation as to require an ambulance.
Stop and help. Or has no-one read Scripture about the Good Samaritan? If someone needs help, even were the priest to be celebrating the Mass on his own as the prior consignment of daily duties, were someone choking outside the door then he is to stop and go and help and then return to what he was doing when he can. Obviously. However, he could pray about the sudden interruption in case there is someone around the corner who may be nudged to assist in place of him; in the unlikely event that such a useful person happens not to be around, though, then depart from the altar and help the choking individual he must.
(Should there be someone else present who can help then the Mass should continue without interruption).
Of course, in the county that I reside (in Communist Britain), I wouldn’t be surprised if someone was choking purposefully to put the clergy off in their providing of yet another inconsequential, ineffective and totally dry and uninspired (and largely heretical) sermon. In fact, I may personally try the practice out depending on which priest is presiding over whichever particular Mass…I just experienced another terrible sermon from someone nearby and it’s just the same old drivel. I am actually surprised there are any Catholics left in this diocese. Ghastly state of affairs. But yes, you don’t leave someone dying if you can help and that is across the board. Priests included.
…the priest of course could always politely suggest to the person they’ve just helped to maybe die in future at a more convenient time.
I guess it is kind of like when there is a situation on a plane. The pilot can’t leave the cockpit to assist, so they ask if there is a doctor or a nurse on the plane.
Though a Priest is like a doctor, but also like a pilot.
If even one person is present at the Mass, along with the priest, then they would have to be the person to help (unless two people are needed or the priest out of everyone is the only one who knows CPR (for instance). The Mass has to indeed go on, however it can. But yes, the priest can’t really allow the Mass to stop (as far as I know) - as you say, like a pilot. And in my response, I was giving the most extreme example to prove a point.
There is an account of a priest in the US who was celebrating Mass and this stranger turned up and didn’t have a seat, or some situation such as that, and no-one would budge over in their pews and everyone ignored the poor fellow. The priest sent everyone home. So…I think there must be degrees of seriousness. If the priest is blessing the bread and wine, for consubstantiation, then to halt the Mass for an extended duration (as opposed to a brief comment made by the priest to someone in the congregation) would make for a very urgent scenario.
I think it just comes down to common sense, in the end. Yes, Mass is the ultimate gathering while God won’t have someone needlessly die (and unwillingly) for it to continue.
I use the term ‘Communist Britain’ when blogging because it drives the point home. And when out and about. Socialism can quickly accelerate into a full-blown fascist or communist takeover. I’m watching a film about Nazi Germany at the moment and this fact is very apparent. Very realistic film. The thing about the ‘slow crawl of communism’ is that ‘the state’ gradually by degrees (graphic designers just love to throw inverted commas around everything ) carries out takeovers and this is so their manoeuvres are slipped under people’s noses and disguised from the rest of the world; but when you are here, in the midst of it, you can see it, you witness it and have experiences of it happening. It’s in the decisions that are made on a public level around you, the reactions and behaviours of the people in your community but also corporations and small businesses. I can see literal immorality in much legislation and people are complaining, e.g. a town near to us, police officers were getting run over by the general public who were using their cars as tanks! There are people who are annoyed, I hear comments, yet I don’t hear the correct background context for their complaints. They need to express and so maybe need to understand why they are discontented with the way things are, their annoyance from with the proper contextual framework and which I have laid out above.
I asked Magesterium AI this question and without providing the full answer here is the summary:
Once the Mass has begun, it should ordinarily be completed without arbitrary interruption; however, genuine necessity—such as a medical emergency—can justify a pause or other prudent response.
I then asked if this was true in the Latin tradition, Orthodox/Eastern tradition and if it was true pre-Vatican II and it confirmed it was true in all instances.
Magesterium AI used the following sources to derive the answer:
) carries out takeovers and this is so their manoeuvres are slipped under people’s noses and disguised from the rest of the world; but when you are here, in the midst of it, you can see it, you witness it and have experiences of it happening. It’s in the decisions that are made on a public level around you, the reactions and behaviours of the people in your community but also corporations and small businesses. I can see literal immorality in much legislation and people are complaining, e.g. a town near to us, police officers were getting run over by the general public who were using their cars as tanks! There are people who are annoyed, I hear comments, yet I don’t hear the correct background context for their complaints. They need to express and so maybe need to understand why they are discontented with the way things are, their annoyance from with the proper contextual framework and which I have laid out above.