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Celebrity Banishes Catholic Chaplains from Cruise Ships


Tamburlaine69

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I have heard from my pastor that on short notice Celebrity Cruise Lines canceled all the chaplain postings on Celebrity and Azamara ships for 2010, with the exception two days: Christmas and Easter Sunday. This left many priests holding nonrefundable airline tickets for which Celebrity refuses to compensate. These chaplains, mostly retired priests, have long provided inter-denominational services on Sundays, both daily and Sunday Masses for Catholic passengers and officers on board, and usually a service for the crew once a week or so. In addition, they also provide informal gratis counseling, wedding vow renewals, etc. For a time Celebrity also had Protestant Chaplains on board for one service a week.

 

Since Celebrity neither paid the chaplains or provided air fare as they often do with other "entertainers" on board, and since these chaplains spent money on board (including daily tips for room and wait staff and staff who helped set up services), its not clear why Celebrity took this step since all they provided was basic passage--a revenue point that is being deeply discounted wherever you look. Now only Hollard American provides this chaplain service among larger cruise lines.

 

In spite of daily Mass often being scheduled at impossible times, 30-40 passengers availed themselves of this daily religious renewal on a relaxing cruise. I have been on 16 cruises with this line and always found it a plus to be able to pray at sea. Depending on the size of the ship, and the timing of Sunday services (the 11th Commandment is that one must never compete with Bingo or Shore Shopping talks), often 200-400 people would come to church at sea on Sunday. No more. No More---perhaps Celebrity will have time now for yet another Diamonds International talk instead....

 

Passengers who enjoyed this religious "activity" on board Celebrity should let RCCL know that although they are cutting back in several passenger service areas, this is one they should keep. I do so hope the rumors about Celebrity going downhill in several areas prove to be untrue. President and CEO is Adam Goldstein at RCCL. Give him a jingle. Otherwise start at http://www.captainsclub@celebrity.com.

 

Sad.

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Celebrity Crusie Line Says No To Catholic Priests

 

I hope Catholics make their displeasure known.

 

While we do meet the needs of many guests onboard by supplying a priest, we have recently encountered a great deal of negative feedback pertaining to the "selective" support of one particular religion/faith. While Celebrity Cruises is unable to provide one minister/religious leader of every faith onboard every sailing, we have had to make areduction in the number of Roman Catholic Priests placements onboard.

 

Is anyone buying that? I mean are people really unhappy with the traditional arrangement of a Catholic Priesst and a generic sort Protestant Minister for the non Catholics?

from

http://opinionatedcatholic.blogspot.com/2009/12/celebrity-crusie-line-says-no-to.html

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I assume the cancellation was in compliance with whatever cancellation policy was in the contract between X and the chaplains.

 

As for X service levels, they have been going up significantly since the launch of Solstice and Equinox, the new Captain's Club perks, the new menu's, etc. X product is better today than it has been in years.

 

Obviously some people are going to miss the chaplains. If so, send X a letter. But don't assume everybody agrees with you. There are so many religions out there; why do all of us need to pay for free passage for representatives from only one or two religions? Why no Imam, brahmin (hindu priest), etc.? Best to have none. Just my opinion.

 

Something tells me this is going to be a topic with high moderator attention lol :)

 

Best Regards,

Floris

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While Celebrity Cruises is unable to provide one minister/religious leader of every faith onboard every sailing, we have had to make areduction in the number of Roman Catholic Priests placements onboard.

 

I rest my case. This is a very fair policy change.

 

Floris

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My understanding is that the presence of Catholic priests on Celebrity ships was a stipulation from the previous Greek owner of the predecessor of Celebrity. That requirement may have expired the first of the year.

 

If, in fact, some priests were left holding non-refundable airline tickets I would hope that Celebrity might do something to ease this transition.

 

I don't see anyone here so far who knows the whole story.

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

While we do meet the needs of many guests onboard by supplying a priest, we have recently encountered a great deal of negative feedback pertaining to the "selective" support of one particular religion/faith. While Celebrity Cruises is unable to provide one minister/religious leader of every faith onboard every sailing, we have had to make areduction in the number of Roman Catholic Priests placements onboard.

 

Yes I buy this,

I am sure every relgion represented by passengers and crew on board would like to have a religious leader of their faith on board. Celebrity cannot support only a Catholic Priest and ignoring ALL others.

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I am personally sad to hear this. On my recent Connie cruise, I was impressed at the number of Catholic Masses offered during the 14 days. It's not b/c it will personally affect me.

 

If Celebrity finds it "necessary" (obviously it's a business decision) to eliminate the Catholic priests, I wish they would've at least done it for future bookings but kept the ones in place whose services they had already invited to cruise with them.

 

However, perhaps they had already booked the Roman Catholic priests for all of 2010? As I've mentioned on another thread, a friend of mine was already booked to do the bridge teaching/directing for autumn of 2010 and he was just recently cancelled.

 

I know there were scheduling dilemmas space-wise on the Connie (esp., of course, on at-sea days) but I still disagree with this decision by Celebrity (or RCI).

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I am really surprised that Celebrity did this.

 

There are many Catholics who will not cruise unless they can attend a regular Sunday mass with a priest. If they are in port on a Sunday then they could go to mass in Town, but if Sunday falls on a Sea Day, they would not be able to attend.

 

My parents, forexample, never miss mass and will attend Mass in a foriegn language they do not understand like Spanish or German if that is the only Mass available. When they have cruised on Carnival from Sunday to Sunday they have attended the early mass before they cruise in Galveston, and then the late mass after they disembark before they drive home.

 

They also went on a HAL cruise last summer that was promoted in Catholic newspapers as offering Daily Mass. There were many people who took that cruise with the specifically for the Daily Mass offerings.

 

When I was a kid cruising with my parents there was always a Priest on board no matter what line.

 

Celebrity also has many Catholics on board in the crew from the Phillippines, Croatia, Italy, Goa India, and other places around the world, who really appreciate being able to attend mass on board.

 

I know they can't have a minister of every faith on board, but Mass is such and important event every week for many Catholics that they wouldn't want to miss.

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I am really surprised that Celebrity did this.

 

There are many Catholics who will not cruise unless they can attend a regular Sunday mass with a priest. If they are in port on a Sunday then they could go to mass in Town, but if Sunday falls on a Sea Day, they would not be able to attend.

 

My parents, forexample, never miss mass and will attend Mass in a foriegn language they do not understand like Spanish or German if that is the only Mass available. When they have cruised on Carnival from Sunday to Sunday they have attended the early mass before they cruise in Galveston, and then the late mass after they disembark before they drive home.

 

They also went on a HAL cruise last summer that was promoted in Catholic newspapers as offering Daily Mass. There were many people who took that cruise with the specifically for the Daily Mass offerings.

 

When I was a kid cruising with my parents there was always a Priest on board no matter what line.

 

Celebrity also has many Catholics on board in the crew from the Phillippines, Croatia, Italy, Goa India, and other places around the world, who really appreciate being able to attend mass on board.

 

I know they can't have a minister of every faith on board, but Mass is such and important event every week for many Catholics that they wouldn't want to miss.

They have 3 choices,stay home and attend mass,go on a cruise line that has mass,or just pray on their own in the privacy of their cabin.Too bad we don't have something multi-denominational that would suffice for all religions.We can only pray for that.
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Just curious. What has the Celebrity policy regarding rabbis been?

 

 

I don't remember ever seeing a Rabbi on a Celebrity Ship. However, we took a cruise on NCL Gem a few weeks ago, during Hanukkah, and there were Hanukkah services every night which were led by a Rabbi. Then after services there were latkes and champagne, provided by the cruise line, for everyone who had attended the service. My husband and I only attended services during one of those nights but were very impressed that the cruise director stopped by before services began to insure that the Rabbi had everything he needed and that there were enough latkes and champagne for all of us.

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They have 3 choices,stay home and attend mass,go on a cruise line that has mass,or just pray on their own in the privacy of their cabin.Too bad we don't have something multi-denominational that would suffice for all religions. We can only pray for that.

 

I agree. If anything religious is provided, it should be multi-denominational.

 

Jesus said: "The kingdom of God is within you." That being applicable to most religions, not just Catholic (and not just Christian), any faith should be able to survive without a weekly mass.

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Did a search on Celebrity website, on Google and others and only found the Blog that the OP is referencing. The Blog added it 19 Dec but doesn't list the actual source it got the info from except for a general reference to AOS-USA. As what occurs sometimes, as I type this, the actual Celebrity info may become available, but right now, this Blog the OP is 'quoting' is the only source I can find.

 

So before we all decide Celebrity is cutting Catholics lose, or is making a good decision, lets find out the real status. Not that I don't believe every Blog posting and start to nail the evildoers, I guess we should take a breath and see what occurs. I also went to the referenced source (AOS-USA) and there isn't anything there, at least for non-members.

 

Denny

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We had a wonderful priest, Father Eduardo on our 24 day cruise from Singapore to Athens. His masses were inter-denominational and were well attended by all religions. He also said mass very late at night for the officers and crew who were unable to attend during the day; these too were very well attended.

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Am glad to see this fair and balanced change of policy.

 

Now its a fair playing field for all guests.

 

If someone wants to have a service gathering they can get a group of similiar folks together and have some fellowship.

 

I have seen X posts on a bulletin board of any special group that wants to conduct a meeting or have a service.

 

I noticed on the last cruise that on friday night there was a Jewish Service conducted by a guest.

 

If other groups want to get together the ship will accomodate them.

 

Kudos to Celebrity on making things fair to all.

 

Spencer

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I just sailed on the Constellation, 14 nights from Dec. 20 to Jan. 3.

 

We had a daily Mass at 8:00 am, Christmas Mass and Vigil Mass.

 

I really liked it, last year we sailed with Disney Cruise and we could not have the Christmas Mass.

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I have heard from my pastor that on short notice Celebrity Cruise Lines canceled all the chaplain postings on Celebrity and Azamara ships for 2010, with the exception two days: Christmas and Easter Sunday. This left many priests holding nonrefundable airline tickets for which Celebrity refuses to compensate. These chaplains, mostly retired priests, have long provided inter-denominational services on Sundays, both daily and Sunday Masses for Catholic passengers and officers on board, and usually a service for the crew once a week or so. In addition, they also provide informal gratis counseling, wedding vow renewals, etc. For a time Celebrity also had Protestant Chaplains on board for one service a week.

 

Since Celebrity neither paid the chaplains or provided air fare as they often do with other "entertainers" on board, and since these chaplains spent money on board (including daily tips for room and wait staff and staff who helped set up services), its not clear why Celebrity took this step since all they provided was basic passage--a revenue point that is being deeply discounted wherever you look. Now only Hollard American provides this chaplain service among larger cruise lines.

 

In spite of daily Mass often being scheduled at impossible times, 30-40 passengers availed themselves of this daily religious renewal on a relaxing cruise. I have been on 16 cruises with this line and always found it a plus to be able to pray at sea. Depending on the size of the ship, and the timing of Sunday services (the 11th Commandment is that one must never compete with Bingo or Shore Shopping talks), often 200-400 people would come to church at sea on Sunday. No more. No More---perhaps Celebrity will have time now for yet another Diamonds International talk instead....

 

Passengers who enjoyed this religious "activity" on board Celebrity should let RCCL know that although they are cutting back in several passenger service areas, this is one they should keep. I do so hope the rumors about Celebrity going downhill in several areas prove to be untrue. President and CEO is Adam Goldstein at RCCL. Give him a jingle. Otherwise start at http://www.captainsclub@celebrity.com.

 

Sad.

 

 

Hello But i am sorry, Some of my family is Catholic, Anglican and others are Atheist, I do not feel this is a big deal. I agree on Holiday sailing' it makes sense, But on regular weeks I do not feel its that important esp when other faiths find ways to practice while on a cruise. Also some ports have churches so perhaps try that avenue?

 

 

I am sorry you are not happy with this choice, good luck with your efforts

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Can anyone inform me of another religion besides Roman Catholicism where weekly attendance at the service is an obligation?

 

Also, is there another religion where daily attendance of the service is available? Typically, Catholic churches provide daily Mass and even in larger parishes, Mass is said twice a day.

 

Providing Catholic Mass onboard has been a very,very significant reason why we have been cruising on Celebrity. Judging by the numbers that are present for Mass, we are not alone in that thinking.

 

Arriving in a port and having to scurry around looking for a Mass is often difficult. We might even miss out on some of the highlights of that port, but, that is the choice we make. My husband and I don't miss Mass. When we are travelling in another country, we still attend Mass even if is in another language.

 

I am very disappointed to hear this and wish that Celebrity would use this service as something different that they can offer their guests that other cruise lines are not providing.

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