Ascension Thursday Sunday- what to do when your bishop transfers it?

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Here’s a scenario for you all: I live in a diocese where Ascension Thursday has been transferred to Sunday. I attend Mass in the extraordinary form every Sunday. Unfortunately, this EF particular parish is quite a distance from me and while the drive is easy on a Sunday morning, it is absolutely brutal with rush hour traffic. I work until 5PM and so I would never make the special 6PM High Mass that they are offering for Ascension Thursday. My only option is to go to my local Novus Ordo parish. Except, they are offering a Mass in honor of Our Lady of Fatima on that evening. Now I know this sounds silly, but would I be obligated to attend a Novus Ordo Mass this Sunday so that I fulfill the obligation of the Feast of the Ascension? Or would simply attending the NO Mass on Thursday fulfill the obligation, despite the fact that it technically is not the correct feast? Obviously, I love the Extraordinary form and would prefer to go to it this Sunday but then I fear committing a mortal sin. This is so confusing and utterly ridiculous. I can’t even believe that I need to ask such a question but there you have it. Not only is it a bad idea to transfer Ascension Thursday to Sunday, but it is absurd to replace it with another feast on the actual day. If they must transfer it to Sunday why not just offer the Mass both days and give people the option?
 
If your diocese has transferred the observance to Sunday, then you are not required to attend Mass on Thursday, but you are required to go on Sunday, which is always a holy day of obligation. That’s it, that’s the complete answer. 🙂

And on a day of obligation (Sunday or otherwise) it does not matter whether you go to a Mass “for” that day; assistance at any Mass, such as a wedding or funeral, fully satisfies the obligation.

Edited to add: if you’d like to read the relevant canons, they’re here. Hope this is helpful.
 
What sorts of penalties are associated with missing these days of obligation?
 
Reading your post again, it seems like the confusion is that you think the observance of Our Lady of Fatima makes that Thursday a day of obligation, even though the observance of the Ascension is transferred. You’re right that that would be stupid, but that’s not what they’re doing. When another observance (Sunday, Ascension) does not fall on May 13, it is observed either as an Easter weekday or the optional memorial of O.L. of Fatima. But neither of these is a feast day; and even if it were a feast day, the only feasts which are days of obligation are the ones mentioned in the canons I linked above.

Hopefully this is a better explanation!
 
So if you miss a holy day of obligation and do not confess and get it absolved, you are going to be eternally damned?
 
Alveus_Lacuna said:
So if you miss a holy day of obligation and do not confess and get it absolved, you are going to be eternally damned?
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The punishment is up to God. And, of course, if you are unable to make it to Mass that day, the degree of sin would be lessened or eliminated.

But the very short answer to your question is, yes, as far as we know, just like with any other mortal sin.
 
Alveus_Lacuna said:
Well no wonder he is so concerned!
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Right. I’m not an expert in degrees of sin or anything, but if you legitimately make an error (like, oops, I thought today was Saturday!) my understanding is that the Church would not recognize the omission as a moral sin. I’ve had the experience of attempting to go to an evening Mass on a holy day of obligation that was listed on the parish’s website, only to find no Mass and the doors locked, and no later Mass anywhere else in the city as far as I could tell.

To the OP, in case all my writing above obscured this: you must definitely, definitely go on Sunday, no matter what they’re calling it, no matter whether you went on Thursday. And you need not go on Thursday, unless you are in the metropolitan ecclesiastical province of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, or Omaha. If you live in one of those provinces, you must go on Thursday and Sunday.
 
How weird is that…what is the point? Does that happen alot in the USA…I hve never experienced it?
 
The U.S. Bishops have a lot of “play room”. Somehow they convinced Rome to OK the ability of each Diocese to transfer, or not, Holy Days of Obligation to the nearest Sunday.

But if you go to a Traditional parish, most of them have Masses on the Holy Day. Sticking to the old law. 😃
 
corsair said:
Sticking to the old law. 😃
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Not quite – just sticking to the old calendar. Even if an individual church chooses to say a Mass of the Ascension on Thursday, it does not become a day of obligation. A church cannot opt out of the current Code of Canon Law (except, of course, by schism).
 
THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD

DOUBLE, FIRST CLASS / WHITE
INTROIT Acts 1:11
Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? Alleluia! He shall come in the same way as you have seen him going up to heaven, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Ps. 46:2. O, clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with the voice of exultation.
V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
O Almighty God, we firmly believe that Your only-begotten Son, our Redeemer, ascended this day into heaven. May our minds dwell always on this heavenly home. Through Our Lord . . .

LESSON Acts 1:1-11
In 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. And eating together with them, he commanded them, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father, “which you have heard”(saith he) “by my mouth. For John indeed baptized with water: but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.”
They therefore who were come together, asked him, saying: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?” But he said to them: “It is not for you to know the time or moments, which the Father hath put in his own power: But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.”
And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments. Who also said: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven.”

Alleluia, alleluia! V. Ps. 46:6
God ascends His throne amid shouts of joy, the Lord is taken up with the sound of trumpets. Alleluia!
V. Ps. 67:18-19. The Lord is in Sinai, in the holy place; ascending on high, He has led captivity captive. Alleluia!

GOSPEL Mark 16:14-20
At that time, Jesus appeared to the eleven as they were at table: and he upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen him after he was risen again. And he said to them: “Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall he condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents: and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay their hand upon the sick: and they shall recover.”
And the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God. But they going forth preached every where: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed.

After the Gospel, the Paschal Candle is extinguished
OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 46:6
God ascends His throne amid shouts of joy, the Lord is taken up with the sound of trumpets, alleluia!

SECRET
Accept, O Lord, the gifts we offer to celebrate the glorious ascension of Your Son. May Your mercy free us from our present dangers and lead us to eternal life. Through Our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Ps. 67:33-34
Sing to the Lord, who ascends above the heaven of heavens to the East, alleluia!

POSTCOMMUNION
Almighty and merciful God, grant that this Sacrament, which we have received in this visible sacred Rite, may bring us Your invisible help. Through Our Lord . . .
 
corsair said:
The U.S. Bishops have a lot of “play room”. Somehow they convinced Rome to OK the ability of each Diocese to transfer, or not, Holy Days of Obligation to the nearest Sunday.

😃
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It has nothing to do with the U.S. Bishops but the universal Church. They did not “convince” Rome of anything. In the diocese of Rome, the feast has been transferred to the Sunday, although the Vatican still celebrates it on Thursday. In many other countries as well the feast is celebrated on Sunday
 
Joannm said:
It has nothing to do with the U.S. Bishops but the universal Church. They did not “convince” Rome of anything. In the diocese of Rome, the feast has been transferred to the Sunday, although the Vatican still celebrates it on Thursday. In many other countries as well the feast is celebrated on Sunday
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usccb.org/norms/1246.htm

SUBSEQUENT ACTION: Canon 1246§2
In accord with the provisions of canon 1246§2 of the Code of Canon Law, which states: “… the conference of bishops can abolish certain holy days of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday with prior approval of the Apostolic See,” the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States decrees that the Ecclesiastical Provinces of the United States may transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter to the Seventh Sunday of Easter according to the following procedure.

The decision of each Ecclesiastical Province to transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension is to be made by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the bishops of the respective Ecclesiastical Province. The decision of the Ecclesiastical Province should be communicated to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and to the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This decree was approved by His Holiness Pope John Paul II by a decree of the Congregation for Bishops signed by His Eminence Lucas Cardinal Moreira Neves, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and dated July 5, 1999.

As President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, I hereby decree that the effective date of this decree for all the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America will be September 8, 1999, Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary.

Given at the offices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC, August 6, 1999, Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

Most Reverend Joseph A. Fiorenza
Bishop of Galveston-Houston
President, NCCB
Reverend Monsignor Dennis M. Schnurr
General Secretary
 
bnapgh said:
usccb.org/norms/1246.htm

SUBSEQUENT ACTION: Canon 1246§2
In accord with the provisions of canon 1246§2 of the Code of Canon Law, which states: “… the conference of bishops can abolish certain holy days of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday with prior approval of the Apostolic See,” the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States decrees that the Ecclesiastical Provinces of the United States may transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter to the Seventh Sunday of Easter according to the following procedure.

The decision of each Ecclesiastical Province to transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension is to be made by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the bishops of the respective Ecclesiastical Province. The decision of the Ecclesiastical Province should be communicated to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and to the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This decree was approved by His Holiness Pope John Paul II by a decree of the Congregation for Bishops signed by His Eminence Lucas Cardinal Moreira Neves, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and dated July 5, 1999.

As President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, I hereby decree that the effective date of this decree for all the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America will be September 8, 1999, Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary.

Given at the offices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC, August 6, 1999, Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

Most Reverend Joseph A. Fiorenza
Bishop of Galveston-Houston
President, NCCB
Reverend Monsignor Dennis M. Schnurr
General Secretary
Click to expand...
Yes, the canon states that they can do it. They did not convince Rome of anything. Rome gave them the option and most of the bishops took it. I happen to be in one of the dioceses that has not taken the option as today we are celebrating Ascension Thursday as a Holy Day of Obligation.
 
Alveus_Lacuna said:
So if you miss a holy day of obligation and do not confess and get it absolved, you are going to be eternally damned?
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no only if, the same as missing Sunday Mass, you do it with deliberate intent, full knowledge, and full free will consent to commmit a mortal sin and die unrepentent. Having to work, being unable to get there, being ill and so forth, any valid reason to miss Mass applying your own prudential judgment, is not intent to commit a mortal sin, so there is no sin.
 
Mark,

Our FSSP parish is celebrating the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord tonight. Then this Sunday they are celebrating the Sunday After Ascension. Each of these Masses has different Introit, Collect, Epistle and Gospel.

FSSP is not celebrating Ascension on the 16th. This is because they and most other Traditional Societies have been permitted to use the old calendar.

Regular Diocesan parishes observe Sunday as Ascension. Of our six parish OF cluster only one is having a Mass today. And its a Mass for the priests of the world.

Because Sundays are always Holy Days of Obligation none of us Trads will be refraining from Mass just because we celebrate Ascension tonight (unless of course, we fail to attend on the 16th).
 
Corsair, right, you can use the old calendar for the TLM. However, as best I understand it, today is still not a day of obligation in your parish; that’s determined on a diocesan level. I’d be interested to hear if the understanding in your parish is different.
 
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