Mass Effect of Global Downturn

In 2004, news of a tiny Kerala church in India holding a Mass to pray for the renowned British soccer player David Beckham fascinated the global media. Although Beckham’s celebrity certainly contributed to the focus, “Mass intentions” – applying a Mass for a specific purpose – had been around long before the media took notice. What is perhaps new is outsourcing Mass intentions to India where fulfilling such requests costs $5 compared to as much as twelve times more in the US. The difference in cost, in addition to the shortage of priests in the west, is the main reason why churches in India have received the majority of Mass requests. Yet the economic recession has brought some surprising results. One would expect people to seek refuge in religion in hard times while taking advantage of the cheaper Indian option for prayer requests. Instead, Indian churches have experienced a 50 percent decline in Mass intention requests from the West. Furthermore, since western churches have not seen an increase in requests, there is no evidence to show that requested prayers have been diverted away from India either. Such a slow down in requests for “Mass intentions” has left senior priests in India baffled. – YaleGlobal