I’m angrier than a Catholic who has to deal with rude people in Mass of all places. Yes, I’m irate, because things keep distracting me, and likely others, each and every Mass. Yesterday, I bitched and moaned about a guy sitting behind me who just wouldn’t shut up. After making a sort of big production, I moved to another pew, hoping the mumbler got the point.
Now for another pet peeve: people who won’t silence their cell phones. I’m angry because I take the steps every time I go to Mass to keep my device silent. Every time, before I walk into the sanctuary, I put my Do Not Disturb function into action.
I do get phone calls and alerts all through Mass, but neither I nor anyone else knows, because my phone is silenced. Absolutely no one can get through, not even my wife. If there’s an emergency, there will still be an emergency after Mass. If someone’s dead, they’ll still be dead after Mass.
Every Mass, every single Mass, someone’s phone goes on. Sometimes, the person whose phone is going off makes no effort to silence the phone, meaning that the ringtone goes on and on for thirty seconds. This happens when the priest is saying priestly things. This happens during Communion. It just keeps happening.
The priests won’t even make a polite, gentle reminder. No, they just keep letting it happen. One time, a phone belonging to the person behind me rang, and the person didn’t do anything whatsoever to silence it. I turned around, grabbed the phone and then threw it across the sanctuary onto the pulpit. It was a perfect shot if I don’t say so myself.
The person’s eyes got real wide, and the lector dodged the phone, even though I aimed it so it would land behind him, not on him. The phone took quite the flight and it landed with a thud that echoed throughout the sanctuary. The phone ended up being fine, because it was in a protective case. Still, the person’s eyes got real wide. I whispered, “next time it gets dunked in holy water.”
I got a talking to after Mass, but the person’s phone has been put on silent during Mass ever since. I got the point across, I think.
This experience is not exclusive to the Catholic Church. I am certain that it happens in most any church, but I have experienced for myself the fact that people in the MORmON church do it, too. And no one ever says anything to them.
It takes no effort at all to silence one’s phone prior to entering a church building. It enrages me that I have the common courtesy to silence my phone, but so many others can’t be arsed to do the same.
If you’re the kind of asshole that I am talking about, do better. Take two seconds to silence your phone, or it will go flying if I’m around.