MENLO PARK, Calif. — Father Bill Nicholas was offering Mass as a nervous new priest. He was a few bars into singing the preface to the Eucharistic prayer when a phone rang out in the assembly, echoing through the parish.

“It was really just kind of funny, in a way, because I was so caught off guard by it that it threw me off pitch. It was quite apparent to everyone that this had thrown me off,” said Father Nicholas, parochial vicar at Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park — smack in the middle of California's cellphone-abundant Silicon Valley.

Added the priest, “I'm not the kind of priest who stops the Mass and admonishes someone, and it wasn't necessary in this case because it was so obviously distracting. Hopefully the person with this phone learned from it.”

It's an event playing out with alarming frequency in parishes around the globe, as even teenagers and children in their Sunday-school years possess cellphones. And increasingly, parishes are banning the phones from Mass and even asking parishioners to check them at the door.

Stories of cellphone abuse are frequently exchanged in Internet chat rooms, including outrage over ringing phones and conversations that take place during funerals. Katrina Boguski was attending Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral, in Vancouver, British Columbia, when phones began to ring. It disrupted her focus on the presence of the Lord.

“The word ring does not quite capture the essence of the moment, nor the essence of the sound; it was more like a movement than a ring,” Boguski said of the experience.

Unfortunately, polite requests that phones be turned off, checked or left in the car, often don't work. At Church of the Nativity, a sign, a bulletin notice and the church Web site tell parishioners in no uncertain terms that cellphones in Mass, on or off, are unacceptable.

“Please check it, even if you're sure it's off,” the notice reads. And still, a phone occasionally rings in the church, followed by whispered conversation.

Acoustics Count

Often during Mass, the whispered conversation following a cellphone ring is amplified, unbeknown to users, by the sophisticated acoustical nature of traditional Catholic church and cathedral architecture.

“They think they're whispering, but everyone in the parish can hear it,” said Mary Reneau, who recently endured cellphone abuse during a friend's child's baptism in Colorado. “The phone rang, drawing attention away from the child and the priest. Then the phone was answered, and a conversation ensued. It was a quick, hushed conversation, but distracting and unfortunate nevertheless. Now my friends, whenever talking about the baptism, always talk about the cellphone call right before the water was poured over their baby's head.”

Although he was interrupted while saying Mass, Father Nicholas said he more frequently finds himself annoyed by loud phone conversations at Silicon Valley stores and movie theaters.

“I was trying to watch a movie recently, and right in front of me this man's cellphone rang, and he carried on a conversation,” he said. “Then it rang again and he talked. I decided that if it rang a third time I'd ask him to turn it off.

“Just today I was at Costco, and someone was on the phone asking ‘should I rent this video, or that video?’ ‘And what kind of onions should I get?’ These are the types of important conversations people seem unable to resist when they're speaking loudly on a cellphone in public.”

At Holy Rosary Cathedral, Boguski suspected the person interrupting Mass was also talking about onions.

“Whose profession or lifestyle is so important that it is given precedence over the Eucharist?” Boguski asked in a letter to the parish newsletter. “What was it that could not have waited until after the Mass had ended? I could not help but think perhaps the person on the other end needed help with a question about onions!”

Jamming Priest

Cellphone distraction became such an issue at the Church of the Defenseless in Moraira, Spain, that Father Francisco Llopis took dramatic action and installed an electronic jammer to block cellphone signals.

“I ensure that the religious service is celebrated within the parameters of prayer,” Father Llopis explained.

Don't count on pastors in the United States to follow suit. Some priests have resisted requests from annoyed parishioners to have cellphones checked at the door, or left in cars, or electronically jammed.

“I have had many complaints about cellphones in church,” said a Colorado priest who asked to remain unnamed. “But I don't want to be responsible for someone not getting an emergency call at Mass. It becomes an issue of potential liability for the parish and the diocese.”

Besides, the signal jamming device that has restored peace and reverence to the Church of the Defenseless is illegal in the United States, leaving Father Llopis' American colleagues somewhat defenseless themselves.

Cellphone proponents counter that the answer to inappropriate phone ringing and conversation lies in public education about proper etiquette, not in signal jamming. But to Boguski, a phone conversation during Mass clearly flies in the face of proper etiquette.

“When the right to worship is taken away by cellular interruptions, things have gone too far,” Boguski said. “Reflect for a moment on how many valiant martyrs gave their lives in order to be counted among the faithful. How sad they and Christ himself must be to witness the contempt with which too many of us treat Mass. As Catholics, we should be focused on Communion at Mass, not mass communications and cellular technology.”

Proper Focus

Father Nicholas agrees, but he's also sympathetic to the plight of, say, an on-call surgeon who can attend Mass at certain times only if the cellphone is on. He encourages worshippers not to become too dependent upon pastoral regulations to protect them from distractions.

“Our focus should be on God, or on the word of Christ, depending on which part of the Mass we are in,” Father Nicholas said. “Cellphones detract from our ability to focus. But there are many other elements that can do that. The moment we say ‘turn the cellphone off,’ a firetruck drives past with sirens wailing. So it's important that we learn to focus, and not be distracted, no matter what may be going on around us.”

Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.