Two Recent Developements in Regards to Catholics Priests Serving on Cruise Ships
February 16, 2010 by Cruise Arizona
Filed under Features
In recent months, I have been monitoring two developments in the cruise industry in regard to the Catholic Priest that serve on cruise ships. In late December, Celebrity Cruise lines announced that they will no long have a Catholic priest on board to celebrate mass during all of of their voyages effective Jan 4th. This week, the Catholic Church issued guidelines for priest that serve as chaplains on cruise ships.
The December announcement from Celebrity has created quite a debate among those for or against having a priest on board to celebrate mass. Celebrity has long worked with the Apostleship of the Sea to provide Catholic priest who preside over daily mass, Sunday mass, a Sunday Non-Denominational service, other Holiday Celebrations, and minister to Catholics and non-Catholics in a variety of other ways through out a voyage. The AOS started the process of contracting on board priest in 2007 in order to insure that the Priest serving on cruise ships were still in good standing with the church and not priests who had been dismissed from pastoral duties. The priest participating in their program must have documentation that they are in good standing with the church.
In the late December announcement Celebrity stated that in order to provide “fairness” to all religions and not show preference of one above others, they would no longer be providing a priest on board for all voyages. In in later statement, they said that they would make every effort to have a local priest come aboard to celebrate mass on Saturdays or Sundays when the ships are in port. Celebrity, like a few of their competitors, had retained a priest for all of their voyages prior to this announcement. Now they will only have a Catholic Priest on board during Holidays like Lent, Easter, Advent, and Christmas. They will also have a priest on board for their “Holy Land” voyages. Many Catholics have been offended by this move stating that they are obligated by faith to attend Sunday mass, (They consider Every Sunday a “Major Holy Day”, or Holiday)
Unlike other faiths where a lay person can lead a regular Sunday or Sabbath service, only a Catholic Priest can consecrate the host for Holy Communion. One Catholic even canceled her cruise, as it was to be her Parents 50th anniversary cruise and she had expected the whole family to be able to Celebrate mass on board together. To Celebrity’s credit, they did give her a full refund even though she was in the “partial refund” window when she made the cancellation. To many people’s surprise, quite a few people spoke out on the message boards in favor of this move with reasons like “why should one faith get preferential treatment?”, or “Why should my cruise cost include paying for your priest”, or “people can pray in their own cabins if they want.”
The hardest information for me to come by has been which ships continue to have a Catholic priest on board on regular basis. In a 2007 document the AOS list contracts with Celebrity, Holland America and NCL. However, Celebrity has dropped priests from all but Holiday and Holy Land voyages, and I was unable to locate any information about on board mass from NCL. Currently the only line I can confirm to have a regular priest on board is Holland America. Last year, my parents cruised with them and they were surprised to see the the number of Catholics on board. Many of them had booked the cruise after seeing advertisements from travel agencies in their Catholic Newspaper with the line “Daily Catholic Mass” catching their eye. Perhaps Celebrity is missing a key demographic in not going after this market.
In a related story, they Catholic church has issued formal guidelines for priest serving on cruise ships. The item that may be surprising to many, is that Catholic Priest are not permitted to perform Catholic wedding services on board the ship. This reinforces the seriousness with which the Catholic church holds wedding vows and the Sacrament of Marriage. Generally, Catholics must complete marriage preparation classes and other guidelines designed to insure the seriousness of the couple entering into the marriage. Since an on board priest would have no way of knowing the couple’s back ground, the church has taken the stand that they should perform no marriage ceremonies. However, the new guidelines encourage blessings for newly weds and renewal of vows for previously married couples on occasions like anniversaries.
The new document, also encourages the Priest to minister not just to passengers but also to crew, officers and hotel staff. This ministry relates to the previously story about Celebrity dropping regular priests on board. Many of the crew of Celebrity ships are practicing Roman Catholics coming from Europe, Philippines, the Americas and even Goa India. The pictures on the Apostleship of the Sea website often show the packed crew masses celebrated by the Catholic chaplains. While passengers may be on board for a week or two, crew members have months long contracts, taking them away from their homes and family. While passengers may be able simply attend mass while in port, the crew have very little time off in order to be able to attend such a service. Having a mass on board for the crew will certainly be something that many of the crew will miss on a regular basis.
We invite our readers to share with us their insights into this subject. Have any of our readers been on a Celebrity cruise since they discontinued the regular priest program? Have they talked with any crew who expressed disappointment? Any one switching cruise lines because of the change? Any one have better information on the cruise lines still providing a regular Catholic Priest?
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Just wanted to let our Catholic readers know about the Catholic Answers cruise. No need to worry about whether or not the cruise line supplies a Priest, this group cruise provides one for their group members.
http://www.catholicanswerscruise.com/
Happy Cruising.
Well I am Executive Chef from Chile I been working on Cruise Shpis for almost 25 years and is a tradition for the Catholic Crew and Guest to have an a Catholic priest on board. I don’t undertand to Celebrity Cruise Lines I never
been there, but in many other like NCL, RCCL, Cunard, Carnival and many others but all with a Priest. What is doing Celebrity is a good idea
With all of the changes appening in the travel world it is hard to comprehned a travel site discussing a topic such as this.
How many people cruise to attend Mass?
Mike, many Catholics don’t necessarily cruise in order to attend mass, but rather they choose not to leave their religious beliefs behind when they go on vacation. Attendance of regular Sunday mass is an important part of their faith for many Catholics, and if a ship is at Sea, they do not have the option of attending mass in port.
On the other hand while some people might not choose to cruise to attend Mass, they may choose a cruise line that will allow them to attend mass. Many Catholics attend mass daily while at home, and they would like to be able to continue that practice while on vacation, and hence would choose a cruise line who offers daily mass over one that does not. I mentioned the example of those who booked the Holland America Alaska cruise specifically because of Daily mass, so it does happen.
Foolish me, when I read the headline, I thought the reason would have been the on-going Catholic priests pedophile scandal.
The Apostleship of the Sea seems to have been engaged to contract Priests in good standing in order to make sure that priest that had been dismissed for the reasons above were not still serving on Cruise ships.
Dear Cruise Arizona,
I’m glad that you were here to respond to Mike Webb and Edward A, who were so unaware of facts. I would like to add a few things. You stated, “Attendance [at] Sunday Mass is an important part of their faith for many Catholics.” It would have been even better and more accurate to say that attendance at Sunday Mass is obligatory, under pain of mortal sin, for ALL Catholics who lack a serious excuse (e.g., sickness)! Now, being on a ship that lacks a priest is a “serious excuse” for missing Sunday Mass, but cruise lines ought to be willing to prevent this from happening. I was on a Celebrity Alaska cruise in 2008, and I was thrilled to be able to attend Mass daily, because my relationship with God is the most important thing in my life. You mentioned the fact that some Catholics have liked to be able to continue their practice of attending Mass daily aboard Celebrity ships. What you didn’t think of mentioning, however, is that other Catholics who CANNOT attend Mass daily (due to going off to work) have loved to be able to attend Mass daily while on vacation on the ships! Now Celebrity is making a “politically correct” blunder of massive proportions. By kowtowing to a few anti-Catholic ne’er-do-wells, Celebrity is letting down countless people, left and right — and they will pay a heavy price by losing many passengers. I just heard about this change yesterday. In Autumn of 2009, I booked back-to-back cruises on a Celebrity ship (28 days total) for late in 2010. Now I have to decide whether or not to cancel my reservation! I was relieved to read your mention that a priest will be aboard for the Holy Land leg of my trip [and I hope that you are right about that]; but I am still worried about the second leg, which will be a transatlantic voyage that includes two Saturdays and one Sunday on the ocean (plus a second Sunday at an ocean island that may not have easy access to Mass). The troublemakers who pressured Celebrity to make a mistake are probably atheists, hate-filled radical feminists, or ignorant anti-Catholic bigots, who do not realize that the priests aboard have helped innumerable non-Catholics spiritually. It was sad to find that Edward is also virulently anti-Catholic, in that he failed to acknowledge these key facts: (1) the Catholic clergy scandal is not on-going in the U.S. nor in most nations of the world [although old facts are surfacing in some nations]; (2) there is no major “pedophile” scandal, but rather a “gay” clergy scandal; (3) the clergy scandal involves less than 5% of Catholic priests, which is an equal or lower percentage than is found in other religious communions’ clergy; (4) the low percentage of Catholic involvement compares favorably to the much higher percentage of [non-religious] abusers in other vocations having contact with minors (e.g., teachers, coaches, step-parents, etc.). About 90% of the guilty Catholic priests in America proved not to be “pedophiles” (a term that refers to men who prey on pre-puberty-age kids); instead, 60% of the guilty were homosexuals “acting out” on teenage boys, while 20% were heterosexuals fornicating with teenage girls. God bless you — and THANKS so much for the excellent info. PS: I know from personal experience that neither Norwegian nor Princess ships have priests on their cruises (except for priests who are vacationing themselves and are not necessarily willing to celebrate Mass for the crew and fellow passengers). I also know that Royal Caribbean tries to get priests only for their transatlantic voyages.
mmi,
Be sure to let Celebrity know how you feel about this. I do think that this decisions was not made for the reasons that Celebrity gave, but rather ignorance and bias. Many message boards were filled with hateful rhetoric on the subject.
You should be able to cancel your non-Holy Land cruise for the reason of not having a priest and receive a full refund. This was a service that was advertised as provided and now will no longer be available. If enough people make their voices heard perhaps Celebrity will reconsider this short sighted decision.
I know that I CAN cancel it, Cruise Arizona, but I surely don’t want to do so. I will be writing to the corporate HQ of Celebrity this week.
MMI,
Canceling a long planned cruise is not ever a fist choice, especially something like this that I’m sure you a re looking forward to. I mentioned the canceling because there was a lady on one of the forums who canceled for this reason and was able to get a full refund inside the cancellation window.
I too really hope that Celebrity changes this policy and goes back to having a priest on all cruises. There are always so many people who attend services, the decisions makes no sense.
I am so disappointed with Celebrity’s new policy…I booked a 14 day transatlantic cruise to Rome with my mother because they had priests onboard all the ships. We both are practicing Catholics who attend daily mass and not being able to celebrate the Eucharist (especially on a long voyage) made us cancel. It was supposed to be a very special cruise for us with ship excursions to Fatima and Monserrat. We have lost a lot of money including nonrefundable airfares and 50% of the cruise fare…not to mention the disappointment of losing our beautiful trip. We are very sad as the ship will sail without us April 19.
I think a lot of the people who complained leading to Celebrity’s decision to not have the priests onboard have neglected to even consider the crew of the ships. I read a report that said as many as approx 80% of the crew are Catholics on the ships…especially the Filipinos…they are away from their homes and families for months and work 7 days a week and can not always get off at every port and they work so hard to make sure you have a nice cruise experience. The priests offered Mass for them and provided spiritual council for their wellbeing…now they lose something so important and beautiful for the sake of political correctness.
Diane, you need to contact Celebrity and tell them the reason for your cancellation. Since Celebrity changed the contract by canceling the priest, you should receive a full refund not a partial refund. I would be insistent upon this. The air fare you would not be able to get back, but make sure you get back 100% of that cruise fare, and don’t take “no” for an answer. Others who have canceled for this reason did get all of their money back.
I am hoping that Celebrity will reconsider their decision.
Thank you, Diane. You have stated some of the same things that have been on my mind for the last month (especially the Filipinos aboard). When I recently wrote a very polite noncontentious letter to the corporate headquarters of Celebrity, I said that I would not rehash all the pros and cons of their decision, but that I predicted that they would eventually reverse the decision because of the major negative effect it would have on the crew. Cruise Arizona, as a result of my letter, I received a phone call from Celebrity, confirming your statement that they will have a priest aboard for cruises to the Holy Land. I was told that they will also be considering the possibility of having a priest aboard future transatlantic cruises — and their experiences with Diane (cancelling) and me (earnestly requesting this) may have had an influence. Let us pray for an outcome that would please God rather than a handful of bigots.
Thank you so much for your diligence mmi. I have always felt that if we make our concerns know to any company with which we have dealing, a good company will be responsive if it make business sense to them. Hopefully they will realize that the benefits of having a Catholic priest on board extend far beyond just Catholic passengers, and that they are important to Catholic passengers when selecting their cruise lines.
thank you so much for your kind posts, I have written several letters. And posted on Celebrity’s facebook page, but got no positive feedback from that either. (from the passengers) Celebrity only refunded half the fare so far so besides all the airfares and fees, (over $1000), we also lost $1099 to Celebrity. I hope they will respond soon…actually I still wish we could go and they would just have a priest onboard. Just got a confirmation from the vatican that we are to receive tickets to the Vatican excavations. (difficult tickets to obtain-now we wont be there to use them.)
I hope Catholic Answers will consider doing business with cruise ship companies that do provide priests for the passengers and crew (even though they are bringing their own). Why not do business with companies that do support the Catholics and state that is why they are doing business with them-instead of supporting RCCL, parent company of Celebrity. Holland America provides priests on all sailings (as far as I know-they still do!)
COsta cruise line not only has a preist on board, but a beautiful chapel, with a tabernacle, such a gift to be with jesus !
So glad to hear that about Costa. It does seem that Celebrity is starting to respond to customer complaints. I did hear that they are considering having a priest on board for Transatlantic Cruises, But how nice that Costa includes a dedicated chapel and a tabernacle. That would help to avoid the problem of running out of communion, which actually happened during a mass on board a ship once. The priest had to get more unconsecrated host and quickly repeat the Eucharist prayers in order to have enough for the over flow crowd.
Even more special is having the Blessed Sacrament on board Costa at all times.
I just finished a 14 day cruise with Celebrity to Alaska, not knowing that they didn’t have a priest onboard (all my cruising experience has been with Holland America). They were still publishing in their newsletter that they had a priest for Mass. When I went to guest services, they told me that they had just discontinued having a priest onboard. I go to daily Mass at home, so this news was devastating. We were in port one Sunday and a priest just happened to be in that port (and he only shows up at this little town once a month!)so we had Mass on one Sunday, thanks to one of the officers. The passengers were so grateful that we all applauded him at the end of Mass! For the other Sunday they had a non-denominational service, but it didn’t even come close as a substitute for Mass. I don’t think non-Catholics realize the difference between their services and a Catholic Mass.
As upsetting as this was to me, I kept thinking about how horrible for the crew not to have a priest. After all, I was only there 2 weeks; they had to put up with it for months at a time. No Mass, no communion, no confession… I loved the cruise, but I will never book with Celebrity again — having no Mass was just awful. I will only book cruises where I am certain that a priest is aboard. I did say this on my guest survey Celebrity asks you to fill out on the cruise. I guess I’m only going with Holland America or Costa from now on.
One could argue that not very many passengers would utilize the services of a priest onboard. But I also enjoy listening to the string quartet, which is composed of 4 people, and they only have a handful of people in their audience every night. The string quartet gets paid; a priest just gets his cruise compped. So why not a priest onboard? I just don’t understand it.
Anita, I keep hoping that we can convince Celebrity through our input to re-instate the priests on board. I hope that many people like you will let your feelings be known. There are so many people who benefit from their services and it does seem to be at a rather low cost.
Personally, I would find it pretty offensive and shocking that a cruise line would even consider wasting my cruise dollars on employing a fulltime priest onboard to spout his fairy tales and childish nonsense.
Cruise ships often have services and entertainment which does not appeal to all passengers. An atheist would have no need for a priest, and recovering alcoholic would have no need for a wine steward, a deaf person would have no need for a piano player, a person in a wheel chair has no need for a dance instructor, a person on a diet has no need for a pastry chef. Should a cruise line discontinue services that don’t benefit or appeal to all passengers?
A cruise ship is like miniature city with all kinds of people. Just because you don’t benefit from the services of a priest, doesn’t mean that a cruise ship should not consider having one if it would be of benefit enough of their passengers.
Priests are not employed but contracted guests a cruise line, they only receive free passage and meals, not a salary from the cruise line.
As a frequent cruiser on both Royal and Celebrity I was used to my daily mass on board. I was surprised when I didn’t see it on the activities schedule on my 7 Day W Carib cruise. I inquired at Guest Services and was informed of the policy change.
Luckily, I was told that a priest who happened to be on board had volunteered to do a Saturday night mass. When Saturday came, I was worried when I didn’t find it on the schedule. It was only posted on the “social” board along with the AA meetings. I guess that friends of Bill W and the friends of Jesus are looked at as just two types of addicts by Celebrity. I just don’t hope for recovery.
Anyway, the priest said that this was the 1st mass on board since Easter, over 4 months. Mass (daily or Sunday) was a key service that the lines offered, it should not be removed lightly.
In any case, if they are not willing to have priests cruise for free, I’m sure lots of clergy would do mass on a volunteer basis when they are cruising at their own cost or if they only got a discount! We all like the boats, but we want our masses!
Carlos, please also make your feelings know to the cruise lines. I suspect that they made the policy change once their obligation to have one for 10 years was fulfilled. Perhaps they had some people who actually complained about having Catholic Mass. I don’t really think they took into account how many people attended the services and would not cruise with out it. If we make our voices know perhaps they will bring a full time priest back to the cruise line.
We only cruise with Holland America now because there is always a priest on board. I don’t get to go to Daily Mass normally (getting the kids ready for school), but I really enjoy it when on a cruise. On our next cruise I’ll be sure to mention that on the survey they usually give you at the end, as one of the main reasons we cruise with them. Maybe it will encourage HAL to continue the practice!