Dans ce JOURNAL je partage de temps en temps un aperçu de ma vie de chrétien catholique et de prêtre pour rejoindre d'autres qui désirent contribuer au bien commun et pour faire avancer l'ouverture personnelle à Dieu qui fait vivre toute l'humanité et veille sur nous. G.S.
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It is an interesting challenge to practice and live one's faith in a secular society and culture. The availability of Mass wine is a case in point. By common opinion, until World War II or, say, 1950, western societies were commonly seen and felt to be "Christian societies", the "descendants" of what was once called "Christendom", or the "merging" of the "City of God" with the "City of man", to employ St. Augustine's categories.
In much of the Province of Québec, until recently, and for many decades, Mass wines employed by parish churches, shrines, and other chapels were primarily obtained, sold, and distributed by "church supply" stores such as Desmarais & Robitaille or Bertrand, Foucher, Bélanger in Montreal. The former closed its doors a decade ago. In Québec City and the eastern portions of the province it has probably been La Procure Eddlésiastique, established since 1945. There were other locally grown "shops" in other large cities in the province.
Back in the 1960's there is evidence that these stores were licensed to sell Mass wine by the then Régie des Alcools du Québec. However, mysteriously (exact information is hard to find) some time in the past half century, these stores ceased to have or maintain licenses for their distribution of Mass wines; or else the governmental agencies ceased to be interested in providing them for whatever reason.
Then sometime in or before the Spring of 2021 there was report of an abuse in this "commerce" of wines for "religious purposes", and there was a raid by the Sureté du Québec somewhere outside of the large city centres. Here are links to coverage in French April 4, 2021 by La Presse and April 20th, 2021 by Présence Information Religieuse.
Some 8000 bottles of Mass wine were seized, while other church good stores were not touched; these apparently returned their stocks to their suppliers either in Canada or the U.S.A. or elsewhere. This number of bottles seems huge, but considering that in Québec at present there are still some 1,782 parishes, not to mention shrines and other chapels; it's no big deal. There really is not any obvious cause of scandal here.
So, why then, this sudden police action coming down so hard on church goods stores? Were there people purchasing "Mass wine" or "altar wine" for other uses? We know that in some religions or religious cultures, it is not the "priest" who consumes a mouthful of wine once a day at a religious service, but it may be a whole family or entire community that will consume this wine at a "family meal" or "community meal" deemed to be a religious act. It is conceivable that one or more cases of wine would be needed in such an instance, all depending on the number of participants. As a weekly occurrence, this could amount to a rather large transaction in "religious wine" annually, no doubt. I am only speculating here, but is this what actually happened to trigger the police raid on the main church shops?
However, in my 40 years of experience as a Roman Catholic priest, even in a busy parish where there are two celebrations of the Holy Mass during the week and up to four on Sunday, it is highly unlikely that a whole bottle of Mass wine would be used up each week. So, we're not talking about a huge wine bill here, and not much room for abuse either.
There were a few years some 20 years or more ago when in one parish we did offer the assembly Holy Communion under "both kinds", that is, to receive the wafer of bread - the Body of Christ - and a sip of the wine - the Blood of Christ. Very few parishes have ever done this, in the R. C. Church, and none that I know of still do it. However, even under these conditions, not more than a bottle and a half of wine, or at the very most two bottles, was used per week with an attendance of 100 people on weekdays and 1,500 on weekends. Most people passed by the chalice or would hold out their host for the Eucharisti Minister to dip it in the Blood of Christ and then deposit it on their tongue. People are content to receive Jesus in the Host alone. Jesus comes to them "whole and undivided" in his Risen Body and Blood. He is sufficient.
Eastern Rite and Orthodox Churches do give Holy Communion under both kinds, but the priests usually dip the consecrated bread in the consecrated wine before depositing it in the open mouth of the communicant. So, yes, they probably use a little more wine, but still, we're not talking about industrial quantities here. Nothing to cause scandal of any kind.
What about employing those wines for private use? One priest as spokesman for the Québec bishops was quoted in one of the above articles as saying that at his ordination some relatives teased him, saying that now he was going to paid to drink wine. So, one day, he brought home a bottle of Mass wine for them to taste. They never bothered him that way ever again. The point is that Mass wine does not draw attention to itself. A true Mass wine is quite forgettable as a table wine, but it eminently serves its purpose to refer one to Christ.
The question remains unanswered, then, why the Québec government unleashed the police services to seize the stocks of Mass wine in a number of church goods stores without publishing then or later any proof that these good will suppliers sold wine intended solely for religious purposes to individuals or groups who were not authorized to purchase them. In other words, where is the proof that huge quantities of Mass wine were sold to people who only intended to purchase them for "secular" or "private" consumption?
If there was and is proof of such abuse or abuses, then why have the culprits not been published or brought to court or fined? All that seems to hang in the air is that on the basis apparently of some unknown complaint, the authorities have seized Mass wine stocks from honest (until proven otherwise) church supply shop keepers, who for the most part are probably just managing to survive. One such shop which enjoyed an excellent reputation for decades, Desmarais & Robitaille, closed up shop a decade or so ago. These shops aren't able to make anyone wealthy; especially not now with most churches being poorly attended.
I've been shown a document that indicates these shops used to have licenses from the Régie des Alcools du Québec half a century or more ago. What happened since then to cause them to no longer have such a licence?
Local Church authorities have done their best to cooperate with the government to find a workable solution. What has that solution been? They have published a list of 7 organic wines recommended to pass the canonical requirements of the Church for Mass wine. All of the Mass wines previously distributed from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, or California or anywhere else have all been banned. The SAQ apparently has no intention or interest to import, warehouse, or distribute those wines specifically grown, bottled, and distributed for the celebration of Holy Mass. Nor does the government seem inclined to renew licences for the sale of Mass wines to the church goods shops.
What a strange situation. Who can understand it? You can find both wines and beers in the grungiest "dépanneur" store, no problem; even wines that are barely palatable. Even gas stations with convenience stores attached can sell both wines and beers, not to mention those toxic "caffein" drinks that have reportedly caused accidents and deaths. But can we have access once again to our familiar and well appreciated Mass wines? No way!
Perhaps priests with a "more refined palate" than I have may actually prefer one or more of those 7 wines on the new "Mass wine list" distributed on behalf of the SAQ. I have tried 4 of the 7 and I am very disappointed. They are no doubt fine wines for the table, to accompany foods of various kinds for various occasions, but they have far "too much character" to be appropriate for the altar in my view. When I celebrate Holy Mass, the proper Mass wine does not attract attention to itself, but is rather subtle and refers itself rather to the One who makes use of it to convey Himself to us, namely, Jesus Christ.
The wines we now have no choice but to use draw far too much attention to themselves, causing thoughts to arise such as "Where is the cheese to go with this?" or "Where is the main course called for by this wine?" Perhaps the priests who will only know these wines won't mind, because they won't know that they are missing. Those of us who were befriended by the "Mont des Oliviers" from Portugal or the various Cribari offerings from California, or the La Salle Vineyards know what we had, what we lost, and what we regret to think we will never be able to use again.
I understand full well that today, when the world and we in it continue to suffer in solidarity with the devastated people of Ukraine and the people of Russia who may be as troubled as we are; that in this world, the question I raise here about Mass wines is such a small and apparently insignificant matter, perhaps some might even think it scandalous to raise it. However, when the dust of war settles, life must go on. Is it not one of our rights in societies where the citizens enjoy fundamental human rights, that we can express our thoughts and feelings about not only the great but also the little concerns of life?
Since the SAQ prides itself on importing good wines from all over the world, what then could this sudden police action be really about? Could it be the latest nail in the coffin being designed by a secular state for any remaining vestiges of faith in the society and culture it so obsessively wants to be entirely and only secular? First, religious school commissions had to be dismantled - requiring nothing less than an amendment to the BNA (British North America) Act of the British Parliament, which founded Canada March 29, 1867. Then, crucifixes had to be removed from institutions under the responsibility of the government. A year ago, the elimination of all "Mass / altar / sacramental wines" from the province, treating the shop keepers as borderline criminals by seizing their stocks instead of requiring them to return them and get reimbursed.
What will be next, I wonder? If our civil state goes so far as to imitate the way of the U.S.A., we may not learn from their mistakes. Once they eliminated God and the Bible from the public school system, the vacuum they created was filled by guns, knives, drugs, and mass shootings. They still haven't learned their lesson from this. Is it likely that we will?
Dans ce JOURNAL je partage de temps en temps un aperçu de ma vie de chrétien catholique et de prêtre pour rejoindre d'autres qui désirent contribuer au bien commun et pour faire avancer l'ouverture personnelle à Dieu qui fait vivre toute l'humanité et veille sur nous. G.S.
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© 2004-2022 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
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