Q. I see our pastor on his phone while he is sitting in a pew in our church. Should he be doing that?
A. Thank you for asking. The short answer is, it depends. If he is using his phone or another device such as a tablet to assist in his prayer or in pursuing other devotions, that would be a praiseworthy use. If he is using it to surf the web or to check football scores, that would be a different story.
Priests are asked to pray what is called the Liturgy of the Hours five times a day: The Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Daytime Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer. These five “hours” consist largely of the Psalms of the Old Testament. They are the very songs that Jesus Himself prayed. The Liturgy of the Hours also augments and supplements the Mass – the ultimate prayer.
A new translation of the Liturgy of the Hours, the first in more than 50 years, will be available to priests soon. The Church also invites laypeople to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, as a means of organizing and structuring prayer within their day and life.
The Liturgy of the Hours is available as an app on phones as iBreviary. This way, a priest can take it with him wherever he goes and not worry about taking his books and possibly misplacing them. In addition, there are many noteworthy and excellent devotions, prayers and catechetical sites available on the internet, published by Catholic sources such as Bishop Barron’s Word on Fire, Father Michael Schmitz’s The Bible in a Year by Ascension Press, Hallow, EWTN, Spirit Catholic Radio in Nebraska and many others.
For those whose lives are busy, phones, tablets, iPads and other devices can be of great assistance to a life of faith. They can do the background work, collate and provide audio and video presentations at a finger’s touch. As we know, most of these devotions and prayer aids are available as apps which we can take with us when we walk, go running, drive or sit in our living room. Technology can be a great help for us to know and grow in our faith.
Thus, I would give your parish priest the benefit of the doubt. Most likely he is praying the Liturgy of the Hours or some other devotion on his phone.
Priests, too, can see laypeople on their phones during Mass. If they are following the readings, the prayers and the parts of the Mass on apps such as Word on Fire or the Magnificat, that is noble. If they are texting or surfing the web, that is wrong. There are some exceptions to this. I have seen medical professionals and members of law enforcement with a pager, beeper or other device that alerts them to an emergency. These people are either on call or are taking their lunch hour to attend Mass. They have the care of the public as their job, and I would allow this.
This question was answered by Father Kenneth Borowiak, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Friend.
Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
