BABIES AT MASS

Is it okay to bring noisy, loud and restless babies/toddlers to Mass?

Last Sunday in a church in England, where I am as I write this, I told the people about the time when I was not yet three when I was ordered out of the church along with my pregnant mother. It was during a weekday Mass after Christmas and I shouted ‘Ba-ba’ at the infant in the crib. I’m sure the priest had ‘got out of bed on the wrong side’ that morning, as we say in Ireland.  I told the people on Sunday that what happened especially to my mother – it was a traumatic experience for her – has always reminded me to be patient with noisy children in church. Later during my homily a baby of one year began to cry and I said ‘He must have been listening to my story’. Everyone laughed and the baby stopped crying.

This issue is one on which people have different opinions, nearly all for good reasons. I cannot remember not going to Mass. My brother is three years younger than me and when he was an infant my father took me to Mass while my mother went to a later one. It was always my father who took me, not my mother, and I’m grateful for his example. He went to Mass everyday right up to the day he died twenty years ago.

I think it’s a matter of common sense. I’ve often seen two parents at Mass with a young child. If the child gets noisy for whatever reason one will often take the infant outside for a while. I think that’s a good thing to do. Some churches in the USA and in England have ‘crying rooms’ that are soundproof but where parents can participate fully in the Mass, seeing the altar clearly and hearing everything. But the people outside don’t hear the children crying. I haven’t come across ‘crying rooms’ in the Philippines.

If a child is very noisy and screaming, for example, I think that one of the parents, or the adult accompanying the child, should take him outside. If the child always causes a disturbance at Mass maybe the best thing is to not bring him until he’s gone through that stage. It doesn’t last forever!

Something I’ve noticed often enough in the Philippines is that the adult in charge of a child is too embarrassed and/or too lenient with a child who’s running around. On occasion I’ve had to gently ask the adult in charge to take the child in hand. In some barrio chapels I used to be really distracted by small children dropping coins on the concrete floor. I think that adults with small children who allow them to run around and make noise are not being particularly helpful to the rest of the congregation.

However, basically I think that babies in arms and toddlers should be brought to Mass every Sunday by their parents. This is one very powerful way of nurturing their faith. If they become troublesome they can simply be brought outside.