When Can a Catholic Church Charge Visitors an Entrance Fee?

Q:  During a visit to a city in Europe, we went to attend evening Mass at the city’s cathedral. During the day, it is visited by many tourists and has an entrance fee to support the maintenance of the building.

Upon entering the building we were stopped by an employee who asked why we were there as visiting hours were ending and tickets were not being sold. We said we wanted to attend Mass and were told Mass was in the downstairs chapel. Indeed, there was a Mass in English taking place in a lower chapel, at the same time as Mass in the upper church in the local language. We pointed to the website with the schedule but were told by multiple employees there was no Mass upstairs. While attending the Mass in English, we heard Mass taking place upstairs (bells and organ) and we later saw other people leaving the upstairs Mass.

We were dressed conservatively and my wife even had a mantilla. Looking at internet reviews of the basilica, it seems that tourists are often redirected away from Mass.  There were groups of non-English speakers at the Mass we attended, so it does not seem that the employees were simply trying to be helpful by directing us to Mass in English.

Does canon law provide for preventing certain groups from attending Mass?  Who would one contact if there is a violation taking place?  And, if I may ask another question, although this was not our issue: could a church have a required entrance fee during Mass? –Ryan

A:  There are a number of different issues being raised here, regarding a phenomenon that is pretty common in major cathedrals and other historic-but-functioning Catholic churches which are frequented by tourists.  On the one hand, these churches are still being used as churches, with daily Mass(es), confessions, and places for private/quiet prayer; but on the other, they are routinely crowded with Catholic, non-Catholic, and sometimes even anti-Catholic tourists who are primarily interested in the art, architecture, and/or historical significance of the place.  Understandably, there’s a balancing-act that must constantly be maintained between worship and sightseeing.  What are the parameters?

Let’s start with Ryan’s last question first: can a church charge for admission during Mass?  The answer is found in canon 1221, which declares that entry to a church is to be free and gratuitous during the time of sacred celebrations.  If someone wants to enter a church in order to attend Mass, or Vespers, or a Eucharistic holy hour, or a public recitation of the rosary, or to go to confession at the regularly scheduled time (etc.), those in charge of the church cannot charge an entrance fee for doing so.  But the wording of the canon indicates clearly that at other times of day, a fee may indeed be charged to visit a church.

Thanks be to God, the world is filled with Catholic churches of enormous cultural interest, and it’s important to remember that the diocese or religious institute which maintains such a church generally incurs equally enormous costs in maintaining it.  Thus there is nothing necessarily unseemly about requiring visitors to pay an entrance fee if they are not there to pray, attend Mass or receive the sacraments.

In “Why Can’t You Change the Name of a Church?” we ran into the Basilica of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.  One of the largest Catholic churches in the world, it is still unfinished, and so the hefty entrance fee of 26 Euros for tourists is used to defray ongoing construction costs, while attending Mass is free.  In Prague, the Basilica of St. George is over 1100 years old and contains the tombs of many of the medieval rulers of Bohemia. Since it’s located inside Prague Castle, it is a magnet for tourists—but not for the Catholic faithful, since Masses and the sacraments are routinely celebrated instead at the enormous Cathedral of Saint Vitus, which is literally right next door.  Thus it makes perfect sense for the Archdiocese of Prague to sell tickets to those wishing to visit St. George, while entry to the fully functioning cathedral is free.

That said, however, in many churches/cathedrals of historical significance, the clergy in charge often make a dual arrangement, whereby anyone wishing to enter the church for spiritual purposes can enter a side door into a chapel or crypt which is off-limits to ordinary tourists—while at the very same time, tourists and others who merely want to view the church’s art, architecture, tombs, etc. can continue to come through the main doors, and pay a fee for that purpose.  The architecturally stunning Matthias Church in Budapest, Hungary (shown here) is a good example of this: note that they regularly charge an entrance fee for visitors, but not for worshippers, who can enter a separate door to pray in a side chapel.  And in Florence, Italy, the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella contains some of the finest sacred art on the planet, which can only be viewed if you buy a ticket (imagine the costs of routine preservation and cleaning of the frescos, not to mention the insurance!).  Yet it’s always possible to enter a nondescript back door for free, and pray in a chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is kept.  All of these, and so many other famous Catholic churches worldwide, are careful to make a distinction between charging for sightseeing, and allowing the faithful to enter for free in order to pray.

Let’s move on to another of Ryan’s questions.  Can the staff at one of these historic churches “prevent certain groups from attending Mass?”  It may surprise readers that the answer to this question is more complicated than one might initially think.

As we have seen before in “Can You Be Refused Holy Communion if You Kneel?” and “Can a Priest Refuse to Hear My Confession?” (among others), the basic canonical rule-of-thumb is that Catholics have the right to receive the sacraments when they (a) opportunely ask for them, (b) are properly disposed, and (c) are not prohibited by law from receiving them (c. 843.1).  This includes attendance at Mass, where the faithful may receive Holy Communion.

But as was discussed in “Can a Pastor Ban a Parishioner From Coming to Mass?” the clergy and others who staff a church must also take care that Mass can be celebrated reverently, without disruption by people who have come to church for dramatically different reasons.  It would probably be impossible to find a major cathedral or basilica on earth, where ushers and/or security personnel have not had to deal with irreverent, disrespectful tourists; or with beggars who pester the faithful for money during Mass, or thieves who sneakily steal purses and cameras from those in prayer; or with mentally ill and even violent people, who would wantonly vandalize the place if they could!  Such people clearly cannot cite the abovementioned canon 843.1 and claim that their rights are being violated, if they are told to leave a church or prevented from entering it in the first place.  Regular Mass-goers in Rome, for example, can all tell horror-stories about the tourists who burst into Eucharistic adoration carrying their dripping ice-cream cones, or who tried to enter St. Peter’s Basilica with their dogs (“but he’s on a leash!”), or who lit a cigarette in church and couldn’t understand what the problem was.  Far more serious are the many, many non-Christian tourists who think that it’s “fun” to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion like everyone else does (see “Preventing Desecration of the Eucharist” for more on this topic), and who are genuinely outraged when asked to leave.

The problem is that more often than not, such people look like everyone else, and their scandalous behavior only becomes apparent after they’ve been permitted to enter the church and have joined the faithful for Mass.  It should be understandable that after a few years of dealing with these kinds of visitors every day, the staff at famous cathedrals are skeptical of any foreigner who claims to want to come inside “for the Mass” or “just to pray.”  The shocking misconduct of countless tourists has pretty much ruined it for the authentic pilgrims who unwittingly follow in their footsteps.

Let’s note that in Ryan’s case, he and his wife were not denied access to Mass altogether; instead, they were directed to a Mass celebrated in the lower church, instead of the Mass taking place upstairs.  We don’t know the reason for this, but there are quite a few possibilities!  It could be, for example, that a visiting bishop was celebrating the “regular” Mass in the main church that day, for a group of pilgrims travelling with him—and so perhaps the ushers were trying to give them an opportunity to pray together privately.  If this was the case, one could make the argument that strictly speaking, they shouldn’t have done this.  As we saw in “Can Priests Cancel Public Masses, and Say a Private Mass Instead?” every Mass is technically public: canon 837.1 tells us that liturgical actions are not private actions, and therefore they belong to the whole body of the Church.

Nevertheless, it’s also possible to argue that no rights were violated, since the visitors were not prevented from attending Mass altogether.  Rather, they were directed away from this Mass, and invited to attend that Mass.

In years gone by, I attended the funeral Mass of a Cardinal who had been a professor at my alma mater.  The Mass took place in St. Peter’s Basilica, and while it was celebrated by a fellow Cardinal, we knew that the Pope would be coming at the end of the Mass, to say a few words about the deceased and to pray with us, at least briefly.

This Mass was celebrated at the central altar on an ordinary weekday, and thus we were surrounded by thousands of curious tourists, who didn’t know what the Mass was for—and certainly had no idea that the Pope was about to walk in!  In contrast, of course, security personnel were well aware of what was going to happen, and they were determinedly preventing regular tourists from joining us funeral-Mass attendees.  Note that their intention was not to deprive the faithful of their rights (in other chapels there were Masses taking place which visitors were welcome to join), but to maintain security for the Holy Father, whose entry was shielded as much as possible by the guards surrounding him.  The moral of the story is, you don’t always know the full picture—and knowledge of the complete story might explain why the staff acted the way that they did.

That said, there tragically are occasions when legitimate Catholic visitors to a historic church have indeed been illegally prevented from receiving the sacraments.  It’s hard to forget (for example) the priest at the famous shrine of Czestochowa, Poland, who contemptuously and arbitrarily refused Holy Communion to a markedly devout group of young Poles—because in the crush of pilgrim-worshippers at the overcrowded Mass, there was some inadvertent pushing and shoving which annoyed him.  In sad cases like this one, when a genuine violation of canon 843.1 has taken (or continues to take) place, you could, if you wish, track down the rector of the cathedral or basilica (see “What’s the Difference Between a Cathedral Rector and a Parish Priest?” for more on what a rector is), or the abbot in charge of the monastery, and inform him of what happened and why.  The bishop of the diocese where the church is located ought logically to care about what’s going on there as well: even if the church isn’t his own cathedral, it is still within his territory, and thus he is responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of the faithful there, including those who are only visiting temporarily (see c. 383.1).

Now Ryan has the answers to his questions, or as many answers as can be hazarded when we don’t know the full back-story.  Yes, a Catholic church which is also a famous cultural site can charge money to enter in order to sightsee, but not for Mass and other liturgical events.  Yes, Catholic visitors do have the right to receive the sacraments in accord with canon 843.1, but security staff also have to be vigilant that visitors don’t disrupt the liturgy in some way, in which case they most certainly can be made to leave.  As we can see from Ryan’s own situation, the balancing-act that must take place often frustrates Catholic visitors; but sometimes there’s a good reason behind the staff’s actions.

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