Sending Mass Intentions to the Missions

Why a Parish Sends Masses Away §

When a man died in March, his friends and neighbors brought his parish more than a hundred Mass requests for him, at the funeral home and at the door of the church. The parish has one priest, one Mass most weekdays, and a book already filling with other people’s anniversaries. However kindly meant, those requests can’t all be said there within a year.

Canon law sets the limit: no one may accept so many offerings for Masses to be applied by himself that he cannot satisfy them within a year (canon 953). It also gives the way through:

Si certis in ecclesiis aut oratoriis Missae petuntur celebrandae numero plures quam ut ibidem celebrari possint, earundem celebratio alibi fieri licet, nisi contrariam voluntatem oblatores expresse manifestaverint.

If more Masses are asked to be celebrated in particular churches or oratories than can be celebrated there, they may be celebrated elsewhere, unless the donors have expressly made a contrary wish known.

Canon 954. Latin · The Holy See’s English · Our translation.

In 1991 the Holy See told priests in exactly this position, whether at All Souls or in other special circumstances, not to refuse the offerings, which would frustrate the givers’ pious will, but to send them on to other priests or to their own Ordinary (Mos iugiter, Art. 5 §1, AAS 83 (1991) 446, in our words). So the office doesn’t turn Walter’s friends away. It accepts their requests and arranges for priests who can say the Masses.

What Canon Law Asks of Whoever Sends Them §

One canon governs the handing on:

§1. Qui celebrationem Missarum applicandarum aliis committere intendat, earum celebrationem quam primum sacerdotibus sibi acceptis committat, dummodo ipsi constet eos esse omni exceptione maiores; integram stipem receptam transmittere debet, nisi certo constet excessum supra summam in dioecesi debitam datum esse intuitu personae; obligatione etiam tenetur Missarum celebrationem curandi, donec tum susceptae obligationis tum receptae stipis testimonium acceperit.

§1. Whoever intends to entrust to others the celebration of Masses to be applied is to entrust it as soon as possible to priests acceptable to him, provided he is satisfied that they are beyond all question; he must pass on the whole offering received, unless it is certain that the amount beyond what is due in the diocese was given out of regard for the person; he also remains bound to see to the celebration of the Masses until he has received word both that the obligation was accepted and that the offering was received.

Canon 955 §1. Latin · The Holy See’s English · Our translation.

That’s four duties. Send them soon, as soon as you know they can’t be said at home, not at the year’s end. Send them to priests you’re satisfied are beyond question. Send the whole offering. And keep watch over them until word comes back that the obligation was accepted and the offering received.

The rest of the canon follows them on. The time for saying the Masses begins on the day the priest who will celebrate them received them, unless it is established otherwise (canon 955 §2). Those who entrust Masses to others are to write in a book, without delay, both the Masses they received and those they handed on, with the offerings (canon 955 §3), and every priest must note accurately the Masses he accepted and those he has satisfied (§4). Anything that has still not been said after a year goes to the Ordinary, in the manner he lays down (canon 956; what goes to the Ordinary).

Seeing that Mass obligations are carried out is the local Ordinary’s duty and right in the churches of the secular clergy, and the superiors’ in the churches of religious institutes and societies of apostolic life (canon 957). In 1991 the Holy See singled out the rectors of shrines and other places where pilgrims come and offerings flow in: they are bound, on their conscience, to see that the universal law on the matter, canons 954 to 956 above all, and the decree itself are kept exactly (Mos iugiter, Art. 4, AAS 83 (1991) 445, in our words).

The Whole Offering Goes With the Mass §

Suppose one of his neighbors gave $20 for a Mass, in a diocese where the offering the bishops have set is $10, as the bishops of the Province of Missouri set it in 2019.¹ When the parish sends that Mass on, the $20 goes with it. The only part the parish’s priest may keep back is what is “beyond what is due in the diocese,” and only when “it is certain” it was given out of regard for him personally (canon 955 §1). Without that certainty, the parish keeps none of it.

What happens at the other end is where sources differ. The Archdiocese of Washington’s Office of Missions, in the terms it sets for the mission dioceses and religious orders whose priests apply to receive Masses, says the Ordinary must see that each offering gets a separate Mass, and that “Every priest who celebrates Mass for the intentions of the donor should receive, if not agreed differently with the ordinary, the whole amount of the Mass stipend sent to the ordinary.” It also forbids combining its offerings into one “collective” Mass, and asks that the Masses be said within a year.² The Pontifical Mission Societies USA says that “100%” of its Mass offerings “go to the celebrant priests.”³

Fr. Edward McNamara, a professor of liturgy, wrote in 2013 that it is “probably legitimate for the bishop to retain for diocesan projects a part of stipends received from other countries, especially if he has actively sought this form of help,” while it “would be proper for him to transfer to the priest at least the amount corresponding to the established local stipend.”⁴ That is one priest’s opinion, not a ruling, and we found no Holy See document that settles the question. If it matters to your parish, ask the mission office you send through what it asks of the dioceses it sends to.

What the 2025 Decree Said About the Missions §

The Holy See’s decree of 13 April 2025 on Mass intentions mentions the missions twice. The first time is in its fifth article:

Art. 5 In vista dei valori anche soprannaturali connessi con la veneranda lodevole prassi di ricevere l’offerta elargita affinché applichi una Messa secondo una determinata intenzione (Cfr can. 948 CIC), per favorire altresì l’apprezzabile usanza di trasferire nei paesi di missione le intenzioni di Messe in esubero con le corrispondenti offerte, curino i Pastori di anime di incoraggiare opportunamente i fedeli a mantenerla, e laddove fosse indebolita, a rinvigorirla e promuoverla, anche attraverso l’opportuna catechesi sui novissimi e sulla communio sanctorum.

Art. 5. In view of the values, supernatural ones among them, bound up with the venerable and praiseworthy practice of receiving the offering given so that a Mass may be applied for a particular intention (cf. can. 948 CIC), and so as to encourage also the commendable custom of transferring to mission countries surplus Mass intentions with the corresponding offerings, pastors of souls are to take care to encourage the faithful, as is fitting, to keep it, and where it has weakened, to revive and promote it, also through suitable catechesis on the last things and on the communio sanctorum.

Art. 5. Italian · Our translation.

The article’s command is to pastors: encourage the faithful to keep giving an offering for a Mass for a particular intention. Part of its reason is the missions. The surplus intentions go “with the corresponding offerings,” the Masses still to be said and the offerings given for them, together (the decree, article by article). The decree doesn’t define “mission countries,” and it doesn’t name an office to send them through.

The second mention is a different thing. When a priest says more than one Mass in a day, he keeps the offering of only one, except on Christmas Day, and the rest go to the purposes the Ordinary lays down (canon 951). The decree has the offerings beyond the one a priest may keep go where canon 951 sends them, and adds that a diocesan bishop may, by particular law, send these offerings to parishes in need, in his own diocese or another, especially in mission countries (decree, Art. 3 §§2 and 3). Those offerings belong to Masses already said, so no Mass travels with them (which offerings a priest keeps). Keep the two apart in the book: a Mass sent away to be said is still owed until word comes back, and an offering sent on for a Mass already said is not.

The 1991 decree touched on the missions too. Warning against the spreading practice of gathering separate offerings into a single “collective” Mass, it said that among its harms, many particular Churches would lack the help they need for their apostolic work (Mos iugiter, preamble, AAS 83 (1991) 444, in our words). Where a province has made no decree on collective intentions, Mos iugiter still governs them (2025 decree, Art. 6).

Where Your Diocese Sends Them §

Canon law lets the one who entrusts the Masses choose the priests, but your diocese may already have said where surplus Masses go. Scranton’s guidelines say: “Excess Mass intentions are to be sent to the Diocesan Missions Office.”⁵ Jefferson City has them forwarded to the vicar general, and explains why: “These transferred Mass intentions are needed for priests without parish assignments, for other parishes that do not have enough Mass intentions, and for the missions.”¹ In Washington, the Office of Missions says the intentions and offerings it distributes “are sent directly to mission dioceses and religious communities around the world.”²

So before sending anything, ask the chancery whether it has a rule, and follow it. Where it has none, ask it where it would have you send them. Either way, canon 955 §1 asks for priests you’re satisfied are beyond question, the whole offering, and word back. When a diocesan office chooses the priests, the canon doesn’t say whether sending the Masses to that office meets the parish’s own duty to choose priests it is sure of, and we found no Church document that settles it. Ask your chancery.

Before You Send a Mass §

Look at each request first. A Mass the parishioner expressly asked to have said in your church can’t be sent elsewhere (canon 954). Nor do the mission offices we found promise a day: Washington’s sends intentions to mission priests “every three months so Masses cannot be celebrated on specific dates,”² and Cleveland’s says that “specific dates for Masses cannot be given.”⁶ So a request for an anniversary, a birthday or a certain church shouldn’t go without the parishioner’s word. If it can’t be said at home within the year, our suggestion is to call her and ask what she would like.

An intention accepted with no offering needs its own answer. Priests are earnestly urged to celebrate Mass for the intention of the faithful even when no offering has been received (canon 945 §2), but the mission offices we found ask for an offering with each Mass, so ask your chancery how it wants those intentions handled before sending them anywhere.

Then send them as soon as you know you can’t say them. The canon asks for “as soon as possible” (canon 955 §1), so there’s no reason to hold a Mass until the year is nearly out: every month it waits is a month longer before it’s said. The priest who receives it has his own year from the day he receives it, unless it is established otherwise (§2).

Writing It in the Book §

Write each Mass sent on in the book the day it goes (canon 955 §3): the intention as the parishioner gave it, the date it was received, the offering, any condition she set, the date it was sent, and to whom. When the acknowledgment comes back, write its date beside the line. Until then the Mass is still the parish’s to see to (canon 955 §1), so our suggestion is to ask the office you send through for written word that it accepted each intention and its offering, and to follow up any that hasn’t come back (each column of the book).

The book is the parish’s record of what it accepted, and the Ordinary examines it every year (canon 958).

Asking for a Mass Said by a Missionary §

A parishioner can ask for this directly. Washington’s Office of Missions writes that “For many mission priests, Mass offerings are a substantial means of daily support.”² The priest offers the Mass for the person you name, as your own parish would (what a Mass intention is).

Three kinds of places take these requests:

• Your diocese’s mission office. Cleveland’s “accepts and distributes Mass intentions to missionaries throughout the world.”⁶ St. Louis’s takes requests for Masses to be said by priests in mission dioceses.⁷ San Francisco’s asks for your name and address, the name of the intention and your offering, with “suggested amount $10.00 per intention.”⁸
• The Pontifical Mission Societies USA. Its page says: “Mass Offerings are forwarded by The Pontifical Mission Societies USA to priests in mission countries.”³
• A missionary community. Divine Word Missionaries, for one, write that “Submitted Mass intentions will be celebrated by our missionaries overseas.”⁹

Know what to expect before you ask. You won’t be given a date: the Pontifical Mission Societies say they “cannot arrange for Mass on a specific date or time,” though “Masses are celebrated as soon as possible after the offerings are received,” and that several Masses asked together “may be shared among several priests.”³ If you want the Mass on an anniversary, or want to be there, ask your own parish instead (how to ask your parish). Washington’s office suggests $10 a Mass;² Cleveland’s accepts “$10.00 or more,” and will send a Mass card on request for $1 more.⁶ What you give is an offering, a gift that helps support the priest who says it (how much people usually give).

It’s fair to ask any office or community who will say the Mass, roughly when, whether the whole offering goes to him, and whether you’ll be told when it has been said.