In 2006 the Bishops of England and Wales moved three Holy Days to 'the nearest Sunday': Epiphany, Corpus Christi, and the Ascension. For reasons which remain obscure, they left All Saints, SS Peter and Paul, and the Immaculate Conception where they were. (The Nativity of Our Lord is always safe from these schemes thank heavens.) This has proved to be the single most unpopular thing the bishops have done in recent years, uniting clergy and laity alike, the debate being aroused afresh every time one of these three dates comes round. They are currently reconsidering the question, and it is much to be hoped that common sense will prevail. Moving feast days to Sunday, or more simply removing the obligation to attend Mass in the week, symbolises so well the withdrawal of the Church from public life, into a little corner: Mass-going, it seems to say, is something strictly for the time left free by one's secular obligations. With variations, this has happened in many other countries as well.
 |
| Corpus Christi being celebrated on the Feast of Corpus Christi, SS Gregory & Augustine's, Oxford, 2011 |
A side-issue which arose at the time was what happened with celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass. The Latin Mass Society submitted a dubium to the PCED and receive the response (included as an appendix to this paper) that, essentially, we could carry on as usual. There is, of course, no provision in either the 1962 Ordo nor in the Breviary for the dates of major feast days suddenly becoming ferias. But it means that, with this Position Paper, we have to defend the practice found with the Extraordinary Form, and at the same time argue for a restoration of Holy Days across the board. Whatever seven or so of the ten canonical Holy Days are by custom observed as 'of obligation' in a country should be observed properly: on their proper days, with an obligation to attend Mass, and not moved to Sunday, either permanently or when they fall on Saturday or Monday.
Readers may be interested in Appendix C, which points out the negative legal consequences for Catholics if the obligation to attend Mass is abolished. In a nutshell, it is a lot harder to argue with an employer, a prison governor, or a school headmaster, that one should be allowed to attend Mass, if the Bishops are saying that to do so is not obligatory. I have more to say about this in my LMS Chairman blog posting simultaneously with this.
This paper brings the series to a baker's dozen: 13. We have more papers in preparation, but I'm going to take December off, and publish the next one on January 15th.
This paper can be downloaded as a pdf here. The full series can be seen here.
Comments can be sent to : positio AT fiuv.org
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FIUV Position Paper: Holy Days of Obligation
1.
Under the 1983 Code of Canon Law (Canon 1246) ten Holy
Days of Obligation are listed, in addition to Sundays.[1]
The Code goes on to say that, with the approval of the Holy See, Conferences of
Bishops may ‘suppress some of the holy days of obligation’ (that is, remove the
obligation to attend Mass on those days), ‘or transfer them to a Sunday’. The
typical result is:
a.
Some of these feasts are celebrated without an
obligation to attend Mass.
b.
Epiphany, Ascension, and Corpus Christi are celebrated
on the nearest Sunday.
c.
The remaining Holy Days of Obligation are themselves
moved to Sundays,[2] or
the obligation to attend Mass is removed,[3]
when they fall on a Saturday or a Monday.
The main exceptions are those cases in which the
traditional dates of feasts are marked by public holidays: the Nativity of Our
Lord, most obviously, and certain other feasts in Catholic countries or
regions.[4]
Notwithstanding this, the effect of each point (a) to (c) is to reduce the
number of non-Sundays in a typical year which require attendance at Mass.
2.
In celebrations of the Extraordinary Form the 1962
Calendar is used, but the days of obligatory attendance at Mass are set by each
Bishops’ Conference. The dates of the ten Holy Days are in fact the same in the
two calendars.[5]
3.
On this topic, not only does the practice of the
Extraordinary Form differ from that of the Ordinary Form, but changes to Canon
Law have altered the legal framework within which the Extraordinary Form exists,
as they have in relation to the Eucharistic Fast.[6]
Accordingly, in this paper we wish not merely to point out the value of the practice
of the Extraordinary Form, but also to suggest respectfully that the practice
of removing the obligation to attend Mass on so many of the canonical Holy Days
be discontinued for the whole Latin Rite.
The Significance of the Dates
4.
The first consideration in favour of celebrating the
feasts on their traditional dates, as is done in the Extraordinary Form, is
that these dates have great significance, historically, culturally, and above
all theologically. Most obviously, it is appropriate for the Ascension to be
celebrated forty days after Easter, since Scripture tells us that Our Lord
Ascended forty days after His Resurrection.[7]
The liturgical calendar does not always follow exactly the sequence of events
in Scripture, but in this case the forty days—symbolic of a period of waiting
and preparation, and mirroring the forty days of Lent—have long been observed
as a joyful period after Easter. Moreover, Ascension can be viewed as the
beginning of a Novena of preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost. The symbolic meaning of the period after, as well as before, the
feast of the Ascension is lost if the feast is moved to a Sunday. It is a
public holiday in France, being included in the Concordat of 1801.
5.
The celebration of Epiphany after ‘Twelfth Night’
following Christmas marks, in union with the Eastern Churches, the most ancient
day of the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord, kept in Gaul long before
its adoption in Rome,[8]
and the Twelve Days of Christmas are deeply embedded in European culture. It is
a public holiday in Spain, Poland, and parts of Austria and Germany.
6.
Corpus Christi was instituted following private
revelations to St Juliana of Liège;[9]
the use of a Thursday recalls the events of Holy Thursday, to which the feast
is closely related. The feast was established on the first Thursday after
Trinity Sunday, first locally, and then universally by Pope Urban IV in 1264
and Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne in 1311;[10]
the propers and Office of the feast were composed by St Thomas Aquinas.[11]
This was in fact the first creation of a feast of the Universal Church by a
Pope.[12]
The celebration of public processions on the day itself is a feature of a
number of countries where it is marked with a public holiday;[13]
elsewhere these take place on the following Sunday.
7.
Similar considerations can be adduced for the other
Holy Days, whose obligatory celebration is subject to removal when they fall on
Monday or Saturday: see Appendix B.
8.
Looking at the calendar as a whole, the timing of great
feasts, whether they are fixed to the Easter cycle or to a particular date, can
quickly become embedded in the consciousness of the Faithful, and indeed in
mass-produced diaries, as landmarks of the year. As noted with the Feast of the
Ascension, the distance of time between feasts, as well as their order, is
important.
9.
The ecumenical dimension should also be noted, since the
traditional dates are shared in a great many cases by non-Catholic ecclesial
communities, such as the Anglican Communion and in Lutheran communities, and by
the Oriental Churches.[14]
Calendrical disruption
10.
If, under Canon 1246, a feast is moved from one date to
another, it creates a disruption to the rhythm of liturgical life on both
dates. The original date either becomes a feria,[15]
which seems inappropriate, or the feast is celebrated without the obligation to
attend Mass.[16]
In the latter case the feast loses the honour which is its due, and which the
Church wishes to accord it, not only in terms of the obligation to attend Mass,
but in terms of the special efforts which would otherwise be made to celebrate
it with greater solemnity.
11.
On the new date, the Sunday, the original liturgy of
the day is displaced, and the sequence of Sundays is interrupted. It is worth
noting the long-term policy of trimming the number of feasts and Octaves which
would displace the Mass of a Sunday, particularly by Pope St Pius X and Pope Pius
XII, and indeed in the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council.
The very ancient Sunday cycle of the Extraordinary Form[17]
relates in a systematic and progressive way to the liturgical seasons, and the
greater appreciation of its richness was one of the Liturgical Movement’s most
notable achievements.[18]
Moving feasts onto Sundays is, from this point of view, a retrograde step.
12.
In certain contexts the celebration of an important
feast on the nearest Sunday can be beneficial, when the Faithful may find it
difficult to attend Mass, or a more solemn celebration of Mass, or other
appropriate devotions such as Corpus Christi processions, on the traditional
day, but this is already possible at the discretion of the pastor under the
rules of the 1962 Calendar.[19]
This allows practice to follow local needs precisely—a sparsely populated rural
parish may be in a different situation from a seminary, for example—and at the
same time serves to emphasise that the traditional date has not been abandoned.
Furthermore, where there is more than one Mass on a Sunday, all but one would
be Masses of the Sunday.
The Importance of the Obligation
13.
The duty to attend Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation is
not absolute, and those for whom attendance would involve grave inconvenience
are excused. Nevertheless, a formal obligation has important advantages.
14.
First, it gives parish priests and school chaplains the
opportunity to celebrate Mass in even only nominally Catholic schools. Since in
day schools, and even in many boarding schools, pupils spend Sundays with their
families, these celebrations are a precious opportunity for the school to
worship together. In the case of pupils coming from non-practising families, it
may be their only opportunity to experience the Church’s liturgy celebrated with
solemnity, or even at all.
15.
Secondly, in many places it will give Catholic employees,
students, and prisoners an important advantage in asking for special provision
to be made to enable them to attend Mass, since arguments based on official
religious obligations carry more weight than optional devotions: see Appendix C.
16.
Thirdly, the number of Holy Days of Obligation is today
so low in some places that there is a danger that the very notion of an
obligation to attend Mass on a weekday is being lost.[20]
The attempt to make the obligation less onerous can paradoxically make the
remaining obligation seem both arbitrary and harder to remember, and so harder
to keep.[21]
17.
Finally, the obligation to keep a feast does not undermine
the devotion with which a Catholic assists at Mass, but adds to it a conscious
act of obedience, emphasising one’s membership of and unity with the Church,
engaging in an act of worship alongside Catholics all over the diocese,
country, and indeed the world.
Conclusion
18.
The reduction of the number of days of obligation is
part of a widespread trend over many decades, of responding to falling Mass attendance
and other difficulties by trying to make the practice of the Faith easier.
While an understandable reaction, we believe this to be fundamentally
misguided. The Church does not command the respect, or stimulate the zeal, of
her children by asking less and less of them.[22]
In the case of the Holy Days of obligation, the Church has imposed the
obligation to attend Mass on certain days to emphasise the importance of some truth
of the Faith, an event in life of Our Lord, or of some of her saints. When the obligation
is removed the Church’s exhortation to the Faithful to embrace the spiritual
significance of these things is inevitably proclaimed with less urgency.
19.
The example of St Peter’s in Rome is of no small
significance here, in maintaining the celebration of Holy Days on their
traditional dates. Whereas there is certainly room for variation among local
calendars, it is fitting within the Latin Rite that Catholics be able to
celebrate these great feasts in union with the Universal Pastor, the Holy Father
in St Peter’s.
Appendix A: Clarification from the PCED on
Holy Days and the 1962 Calendar
Following
the submission of a dubium by the Latin Mass Society, Monsignor Camille Perl,
Vice President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, replied as follows,
in a letter dated 20th October 2008, Protocol N. 107/97.
‘1. The
legitimate use of the liturgical books in use in 1962 includes the right to the
use of the calendar intrinsic to those liturgical books.
‘2. While
in accordance with Canon 1246 §2 of the Code of Canon Law the Episcopal
Conference can legitimately transfer Holydays of obligation with the
approbation of the Holy See, it is also legitimate to celebrate the Mass and
Office of those feasts on the days prescribed in the calendar of the liturgical
books in use in 1962 with the clear understanding that, in accordance with the
legitimate decision of the Episcopal Conference, there is no obligation to
attend Mass on those days.
‘3. Thus,
in accordance with nn. 356-361 of the Rubricae Generales Missalis Romani
of 1962, it is appropriate to celebrate the external solemnity of Holy Days on
the Sunday to which they have been transferred by the Episcopal Conference, as
has been customary in many other countries hitherto.’
In addition to the three Holy Days commonly
transferred to Sunday (Epiphany, Corpus Christi, and the Ascension), discussed
in the body of the paper, and the Nativity of Our Lord, which is never
transferred, there are six other feasts listed by Canon 1246 as Holy Days of
Obligation, which are commonly either moved to Sunday, or celebrated without an
obligation, if they fall on Saturday or Monday, in those countries where they
are otherwise observed as Holy Days of Obligation, except in those happy cases
where they are marked by public holidays. (Which feasts are of obligation
varies for historical reasons between countries.)
The rationale for these practices is to avoid
Holy Days of Obligation falling on consecutive days. It is hard, however, to
see that the practical difficulties which this situation might imply are
serious enough to warrant either the suppression of the Sunday liturgy, or the suppression
of the obligation to attend Mass for an important feast the day before or
after.[23]
In any case, the practice of removing the obligation to attend Mass on Holy
Days which fall on a Saturday or Monday seems preferable to the practice of
moving the celebration of the feast entirely to Sunday, for the reasons already
outlined, although this still considerably reduces the number of times there is
an obligation to attend Mass other than on a Sunday. What we wish to stress is
that the significance of the traditional dates is obscured by moving them even
by a single day, particularly when they are linked to other feasts, or are
celebrated in other countries, or by the Holy Father in St Peter’s. Again, in
nearly every case the feasts are celebrated on the traditional date in the
Anglican Communion and among many, if not all, Lutherans; in many cases it is
also celebrated on that date among the Oriental Churches. This gives the use of
the traditional date considerable ecumenical importance.
The six Holy Days are as follows.
The Octave
Day of Christmas (renamed the Feast
of Holy Mary the Mother of God in the 1970 Calendar),[24]
1st January
Clearly an Octave cannot be celebrated on the
seventh or ninth day, and moving it by a single day takes it off the secular
New Year’s Day. It is celebrated as the Feast of the Circumcision by the
historic Anglican Book of Common Prayer,[25]
and as ‘The Naming and Circumcision of Jesus’ in the modern Anglican Common Worship; it is also celebrated as
the ‘Circumcision’ or the ‘Name of Jesus’ by some Lutherans.[26]
The Feast
of the Immaculate Conception, 8th December
This is exactly nine calendar months before the
Feast of the Birthday of Mary, 8th September, and has been celebrated
(formerly, as the Feast of the Conception of Our Lady) on this date in the West
since the 9th century; it was made universal by the Council of Basel
in 1439; a indulgence was granted in 1477 to those who adopted the feast and
its Octave by Pope St Pius V, and it was made a day of obligation by Pope Clement
XI in 1708. Pope Pius IX changed the name to ‘the Immaculate Conception’ in 1854.
The connection with the Birthday of Our Lady is obscured if it is moved to 7th
or 9th. The Feast of the ‘Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary’ is
kept on 8th December in the Anglican Communion.[27]
The Feast
of the Assumption of Our Lady, 15th August
This has been celebrated on that day since 6th
century in the East, whence it spread to the West, probably at the end of the 7th
century, under various names.[28]
It is a public holiday in France,[29]
Austria, many other European countries, and a number of countries in Latin
America and Africa. It is also observed in the Anglican Communion,[30]
and by some Lutherans.[31]
The Feast
of St Joseph (Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary), 19th March
This is seven days before the Feast of the
Annunciation (25th March); this connection is obscured if it is
moved to the 18th or 20th. The custom of celebrating St
Joseph’s feast on this day dates back to the 10th century; it was
adopted by Rome in 1479 and was made a Holy Day of Obligation in 1621. It is
observed in the Anglican Communion,[32]
and among some Lutherans.[33]
The Feast
of SS Peter & Paul, 29th June
This has particular significance for the Orthodox
Churches, who celebrate it on this day, and a number of times it was the
occasion for Bl. Pope John Paul II to officiate at services with the Patriarch
of Constantinople. It is, according to tradition,[34]
the day of the translation of the relics of these Apostles at Rome in the year
258, and was formerly celebrated in Rome with a splendour to rival Easter. In
the 1962 Calendar it is preceded by a Vigil and followed by the Commemoration
of St Paul. It is celebrated on this date in the Anglican Communion[35]
and by many Lutherans.[36]
The Feast
of All Saints, 1st November
The celebration of a feast of All Saints on 1st
November is attested from around the year 800. The commemoration of the
Faithful Departed on the following day was initiated by Abbot Odilo of Cluny
(d.1049). In 2010 1st November fell on a Monday, and so in many
places All Saints was celebrated, in the Ordinary Form, on 31st
October. Not only did this obscure the connection with All Souls’ Day, but it
meant that it was celebrated on the popularly recognised date of ‘Halloween’
(All Hallows’ Eve). This is particularly unfortunate given the way Halloween
has been widely adopted by neo-pagans. The triumph of the Saints over the
spirits of Halloween was thus entirely obscured. All Saints is celebrated on 1st
November in the Anglican Communion[37]
and by many Lutheran communities.[38]
It was one of the four feasts made public holidays in the French Concordat of
1801.
Appendix C: Holy Days and Rights Legislation
The right of religious freedom enshrined in
international law, treaties, and national constitutions, typically creates a
non-absolute right of religious believers to follow the teachings of their
religion, most obviously in relation to worship. Since for practical purposes
this right has often to be balanced against the convenience of others, it is
natural for courts and others to give greater weight to the religious
observances which are most important to the believer, and to look to official
religious bodies for guidance as which observances are really important. We
will illustrate the point briefly with regard to two important jurisdictions:
the United States of America, and England and Wales, subject as it is to the
European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights.
In the Constitution of the United States of
America, the First Amendment is as follows:
Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government
for a redress of grievances.
Since 1947 this obligation has been extended to
the States, as well as the Federal Government.[39]
A relevant precedent was set in 1963, that a Seventh Day Adventist should not
be deprived of unemployment benefit on account of refusing to work on Sundays.[40]
Under a Federal statute,[41]
the Federal Government must justify actions which ‘unduly burden acts of
religion’ by a ‘compelling interest’, even if the action in question does not
target religious practice.
In the European Convention on Human Rights,
Article 9 reads as follows:
1.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this
right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either
alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
2.
Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such
limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society
in the interests of public safety, for
the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the
rights and freedoms of others.
This applies not only to government bodies but
private persons, such as employers. In applying this article, courts
distinguish obligatory and non-obligatory ‘manifestations’ of a religion.
Thus, the English Courts have ruled that Sikhs
have the right to wear the ‘Kara’, a bracelet,[42]
and female Muslims a Hijab,[43]
at school. In the latter case the Courts ruled explicitly that the Hijab can be
considered as a ‘requirement’ of the Muslim faith. By contrast, a Christian who
wished to wear a cross with her uniform lost her case against her employer.[44]
The Courts based their decision, in part, on the fact that ‘there is no
mandatory requirement of the Christian Faith that a Christian should wear a
Crucifix.’[45] Again, in finding against a Marriage
Registrar who refused to register same sex Civil Partnerships, the Court of
Appeal based its decision in part on their finding that ‘her view of marriage,
...was not a core part of her religion.’[46]
Though the factual basis of these findings can be questioned, the fact remains
that Courts do take into account whether any particular practice of religion is
a ‘requirement’ of the religion or is merely a personal religious practice.
For both the United States and England and Wales,
and other jurisdictions with similar legal principles, it follows both from
these legal considerations, and also from the more general culture which they
foster, that attempts by the Church to make life easier for Catholics by
minimising their obligations, or by making them more flexible, can have the
paradoxical result that Catholics will find it harder to observe the practices
in question. Furthermore, since the strongest obligations have the most chance
of making a difference to the practices of large employers, schools,
universities, and prisons, the less demanding the Church becomes, the less
impact she can expect to have on public culture. For bishops’ conferences to decide that a
Holy Day of Obligation is no longer a day of obligation has secular legal
implications for the Civil rights of Catholics, as well as arguably reducing
the spiritual benefits of Holy Days, and their important role in stimulating
and defending a distinctive and strong Catholic Culture.
[1] Can. 1246 §1. ‘Sunday,
on which by apostolic tradition the paschal mystery is celebrated, must be
observed in the universal Church as the primordial holy day of obligation. The
following days must also be observed: the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Epiphany, the Ascension, the Body and Blood of Christ, Holy Mary the Mother
of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, Saint Joseph, Saint Peter
and Saint Paul the Apostles, and All Saints.’
§2. ‘With the prior approval of the Apostolic See, however, the
conference of bishops can suppress some of the holy days of obligation or
transfer them to a Sunday.’
(Ԥ 1. Dies dominica in qua mysterium paschale celebratur, ex apostolica
traditione, in universa Ecclesia uti primordialis dies festus de praecepto servanda
est. Itemque servari debent dies Nativitatis Domini Nostri Iesu Christi,
Epiphaniae, Ascensionis et sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Christi, Sanctae
Genetricis Mariae, eiusdem Immaculatae Conceptionis et Assumptionis, sancti
Ioseph, sanctorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum, omnium denique Sanctorum.
§ 2. Episcoporum conferentia tamen potest, praevia Apostolicae Sedis
approbatione, quosdam ex diebus festis de praecepto abolere vel ad diem
dominicam transferre.’)
[2] As, for example, in England and
Wales.
[3] As, for example, in the United
States of America.
[4] Many examples will be noted in
the course of this paper.
[5] Notwithstanding that the Octave
of the Nativity of Our Lord (1st January) is renamed the Feast of
Holy Mary Mother of God in the 1970 Calendar. (The Octave of the Nativity in
the Extraordinary Form has an Office of Our Lady. The connection between the
themes of the Motherhood of Our Lady and the Circumcision, which was the name
of the feast prior to 1962, and which influenced the change in 1970, is argued
by Bl. Ildefonso Schuster ‘The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum): Historical
and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal’ (English edition: London: Burns Oates
and Washbourne, 1924) Vol. I p396.)
[6] See Positio 10: The Eucharistic
Fast
[7] Acts 1.1-3: ‘The former treatise I made, O Theophilus,
of all things which Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day on which, giving
commandments by the Holy Ghost to the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken
up. To whom also he shewed
himself alive after his passion, by many proofs, for forty days appearing to
them, and speaking of the kingdom of God.’
[8] Epiphany, ‘the Birthday of the
Saviour’, was attended by the Emperor Julian (‘the Apostate’) at Vienne in the
year 360: see Zonaras, Epitoma Historiarum 13.11.6 (ed.
Theodor Büttner-Wobst, tomus III pp 54-55, in the series Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Bonn 1897). In the
translation and commentary by Thomas M. Banchich and Eugene N. Lane, ‘The
History of Zonaras’ (London, Routledge, 2009) p170, the commentary gives the
parallel in Ammianus: Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae 21.2.5. Epiphany was adopted in Rome, in addition to
Christmas, by at least the reign of Pope Leo the Great (d.461). Christmas,
which had been celebrated in Rome since at least 336, became the principal
celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord throughout the West due to Roman
example.
[9] St Juliana was the subject of
Pope Benedict XVI’s General Audience of 17th November 2010.
[10] Pope Urban IV composed the Bull Transiturus de hoc mundo (1264), but
died before the Bull could be distributed; it was reissued by Pope Clement V,
with a brief introduction of his own, in 1311.
[11] Doubts about the historicity of
Aquinas’ involvement have been set aside by recent scholarship: see Uwe Michael
Lang The Voice of the Church at Prayer:
Reflections on liturgy and language (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2012) p149
and note 33.
[12] The surprisingly complicated
history of the adoption of the feast is recounted by Lauren Pristas ‘The
calendar and Corpus Christi’ in The
Genius of the Roman Rite: Historical, theological, and pastoral perspectives on
Catholic liturgy ed. Fr Uwe Michael Lang (Chicago, IL: Hillenbrand Books,
2010) pp159-178, pp170-172
[13] In parts of Spain and Austria.
[14] The celebration of the Ascension
and Epiphany, on the traditional dates, is common to Anglicans, Lutherans, and
the Oriental Churches (although some Lutherans, such as in Norway, have in
recent times moved the celebration of Ascension to the following Sunday). The
Feast of Corpus Christi can at least optionally be celebrated on its
traditional date in the modern Anglican ‘Book of Common Worship’ (published in
2000). For the other feasts, see Appendix B.
[15] As when feasts are moved to the
nearest Sunday in the Ordinary Form.
[16] As in the Extraordinary Form, or
in the Ordinary Form when the obligation to attend Mass on a feast is
suppressed, either always or because it falls on a Saturday or Monday.
[17] The Sunday Gospels of the 1962
Missal largely correspond to the subjects of Pope St Gregory the Great’s forty
homilies on the Gospels, preached at Rome between 590 and 604. The collection
indicates the dates of each sermon.
[18] Pius Parsch gives an example,
which we do not necessarily endorse, of the attitude of members of the
Liturgical Movement: ‘Pope Benedict XV placed the feast of the Holy Family on
the Sunday within the octave [sc. of Epiphany], necessitating the transfer of
the older and more meaningful Mass of the Sunday to a weekday. These various
infringements on liturgical order and propriety may still be remedied as
scholars and ecclesiastics become more familiar with and sympathetic to matters
liturgical.’ ‘The Church’s Year of Grace’ (English Edition: Collegeville,
Minnesota, 1962) Vol. I p199.
[19] An important feast can be
celebrated as an ‘External Solemnity’ on a Sunday which is free, in the sense
that no other more important feast falls on that day, and that Sunday is not
itself a feast of greater importance. Corpus Christi processions have usually
taken place on the Sunday following the Feast, except when the feast is a
public holiday.
[20] For example, in 2009 the feast
of SS Peter & Paul (29th June) fell on a Monday; the feast of
the Immaculate Conception (15th August) fell on a Saturday, and the
feast of All Saints (1st November) fell on a Sunday. Since the
Epiphany, Ascension, and Corpus Christi, are typically moved to Sundays
whenever they fall, the result is that in some countries, such as England and
Wales, the Faithful were obliged to attend Mass on only one day in the year
other than on Sundays, namely the Nativity of Our Lord (25th
December). Anecdotal evidence suggests that, in England and Wales, attendance
at the remaining Holy Days of Obligation has fallen since Epiphany, the
Ascension, and Corpus Christi were moved to Sundays in 2006, and Holy Days of
Obligation are no longer always announced as such in parish newsletters.
[21] A parallel case, with the
Eucharistic Fast, is discussed in Positio 10: The Eucharistic Fast, see
paragraph 16.
[22] As we noted in the paper on Positio 10, ‘The Eucharistic
Fast’, it has been observed in sociological research that less demanding
religions do not necessarily attract or retain more followers: see PP10 footnote
33, which refers and quotes Mark van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja ‘Selected: Why some people lead, why others
follow, and why it matters’ (London: High Profile Books, 2010) p85.
[23] A side issue is whether, since
under Canon 1248 of the 1983 Code Masses on the evening before a Holy Day of
Obligation fulfil the obligation to attend Mass on the following day, the
Faithful could fulfil the obligation to attend Mass on two consecutive days by
attending Mass on the evening of the first of the two. Canon 1248 does not
appear to anticipate this problem, and authoritative clarification would be welcome.
[24] See note 4 above.
[25] The Book of Common Prayer remains in optional use among Anglicans. The
1662 Edition is the official one; a 1928 revision is also sometimes used, but
its calendar is unchanged as far as the ten Holy Days are concerned.
[26] It is the ‘Circumcision’ in, for
example, the Norwegian Lutheran church, and ‘The Name of Jesus’ in the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America.
[27] In the Book of Common Prayer and in Common
Worship.
[28] Such as the ‘Dormitio’,
‘Pausatio’, or ‘Natale’ (as in heavenly nativity).
[29] It is one of the four feasts
established as public holidays in the Concordat of 1801.
[30] Not in the Book of Common Prayer, but in Common
Worship, under the name ‘Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary’.
[31] By the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of America, it is celebrated as ‘Mary, Mother of Our Lord’.
[32] Again, in Common Worship, though not in the Book of Common Prayer.
[33] For example, in the USA the Evangelical
Lutheran Church celebrates ‘Joseph, Guardian of Jesus’ on the traditional day.
[34] See Schuster op. cit., Volume V,
p290. He adds that, far from wishing to celebrate it at a more convenient time,
Pope St Leo the Great negotiated a suspension of the Vandals’ fourteen-day sack
of Rome in 455, to make its proper celebration possible. The currency of this
story itself bears testimony to the veneration accorded to the feast.
[35] As ‘St Peter the Apostle’ in the
Book of Common Prayer, and ‘St Peter
and St Paul’ in Common Worship.
[36] It is celebrated as ‘Peter and
Paul, Apostles’ by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. It is celebrated
on a Sunday in the Norwegian Lutheran church.
[37] In both the Book of Common Prayer and Common
Worship.
[38] Thus, in the Lutheran Church of
America, though they can optionally celebrate it on the nearest Sunday, as is
done by the Lutherans of Norway.
[39] The precedent was set by the
case Everson v. Board of Education in
1947.
[40] Sherbert v. Verner, 1962
[41] The Religious Freedom
Restoration Act, 1993
[42] The dispute between a Sikh
schoolgirl, Sarika Singh, and Aberdare Girls’ School in South Wales: Watkins-Singh, R (on the application of) v
Aberdare Girls’ High School & An or [2008] EWHC 1865(Admin) (29 July 2008)
[43] Begum v Denbigh High School
[2006] UKHL 15
[44] Nadia Eweida, who was sacked by British
Airways for wearing a cross on her uniform in 2006, lost her Employment Tribunal and subsequent Appeal case, where she alleged
Religious Discrimination and breach of Human Rights: Eweida v British Airways
Plc [2010] EWCA Civ 80
(12 February 2010).
[45] Chaplin v Devon &
Exeter NHS Trust, ET Case No: 1702886/2009, and Eweida v British
Airways [2010] EWCA Civ 80
[46] Ladele v London Borough of
Islington [2009] EWCA Civ 1357
