Every Catholic parish that accepts Mass offerings keeps a register of them. In most parish offices it’s a bound book on a shelf, filled in by hand. It’s one of the few records the office keeps because church law requires it, and it’s easy to get wrong when the diary, the cash and the book are three separate things.
This post explains what the register is for and how Pewbook keeps it for you. It isn’t canonical advice: your diocese’s norms come first, which is why Pewbook’s rules are settings rather than fixed.
What canon law asks
The rules on Mass offerings are in the Code of Canon Law, canons 945 to 958. The ones that shape the register are these.
- One offering, one Mass. A priest normally applies a separate Mass for each offering he accepts (canon 948). That’s why most parishes take one intention per Mass.
- Collective intentions combine several intentions and offerings at one Mass. They’re allowed only when the people giving the offerings have been told beforehand and freely agree, and dioceses set their own limits.
- A priest who celebrates more than once in a day keeps only one offering. The others go where the bishop directs (canon 951).
- The register. A parish priest or rector must keep a book recording the Masses to be celebrated, the intention, the offering given and when each Mass was celebrated (canon 958).
So a good register answers four questions for every intention: which Mass, for whom, what was offered, and has it been said?
How Pewbook keeps it
In Pewbook, the register isn’t something you fill in separately. It’s built as you go.
When the office confirms a request (because the offering has arrived), the intention goes into the register with the Mass, the intention, the amount, how it was given and when it was received. The same happens when you add an intention for someone who rang or called in, and when you set a standing intention like “People of the Parish”, which is marked Standing intention instead of an offering.
To see it, go to Mass register, choose the dates and, if you have more than one church, the church. You can Print it on A4 landscape, or download it for a spreadsheet, for your own files or the diocese.
Never silently changed
A paper register is trustworthy partly because you can see when it’s been altered. Crossings-out are visible. Pewbook has the same rule: a confirmed entry is never quietly changed or deleted.
- Moving an intention to another Mass is recorded, and the parishioner is emailed.
- Cancelling a confirmed intention needs a reason. The entry stays in the register, crossed out, with the reason next to it. Tick Show cancelled intentions to see them.
- Every confirm, move, decline and cancel is logged with who did it and when. If someone asks in six months why their Mass moved, the answer is there.
That’s also why there’s no delete button for confirmed intentions. A register with gaps in it isn’t much of a register.
When a Mass is full
Some parishes receive more requests for a date than they have Masses, and pass the extra intentions to another priest or a religious community to be offered there. If your parish does this, you can let parishioners still ask for a full Mass. The form explains that their intention may be offered elsewhere, in your own words. When the office confirms one, they note where it was passed, and the register shows it as “offered elsewhere”.
Collective intentions
Pewbook keeps collective intentions off unless your parish turns them on. If you do, you set how many intentions a Mass can take, and every parishioner must tick to say they understand their intention will share the Mass before they can send the request. When the office enters an intention on someone’s behalf, there’s a matching box to tick only if the donor said yes. So the consent canon law asks for is part of every request, not an assumption.
What happens to personal details
The register keeps the intention and the Mass for as long as the parish needs them, because church law asks it to. The requester’s contact details are a different matter. Their email address and phone number are deleted 12 months after the Mass. The record stays complete, and you don’t keep personal details for longer than you need. There’s more in Mass intentions and UK GDPR.
Moving from a paper register
You don’t need to type up old books. Most parishes start with Pewbook from a date and keep the paper register for everything before it. For intentions already booked in the book for future Masses, use Add an intention for someone to enter each one with its offering, so the newsletter and the register are complete from the start.
If you’re new to taking requests online, read How to take Mass intention requests online first.