Does a Mass celebrated by a suspended priest satisfy the Sunday obligation?

[God_saves]

A friend, a devout Catholic, is disillusioned with our bishop and the Novus Ordo Mass celebrated at our local parish. She now attends a Latin Mass celebrated by a suspended priest who has a close connection with Fr. Nicholas Gruner. I am convinced that this Mass, which is not approved by our local bishop, does not satisfy her Sunday obligation. She is equally convinced it does. Who is correct?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

God saves:

I am convinced that this Mass, which is not approved by our local bishop, does not satisfy her Sunday obligation. She is equally convinced it does. Who is correct?

You are. The consecration at the Mass your friend attends will be valid if the priest celebrating that Mass is validly ordained, but if his faculties to celebrate the sacraments have been suspended then the Mass itself is illicit. Theoretically speaking, a Catholic could go to such a Mass if there were no valid, licit Mass available, but in such a case the Sunday obligation is dispensed and so there is no need to try and satisfy the obligation at an illicit Mass.

Your friend’s problem is not that she is unable to find a valid, licit Mass; her problem is that she is allowing her sense of dissatisfaction with her parish and her bishop to get in the way of her duty to worship Christ at the valid, licit Masses her diocese offers. Rather than offering up her suffering over perceived abuses to Christ in union with Christ’s own suffering for the conversion of her bishop and her pastor, she is abandoning Christ in his suffering in order to find a Mass she likes better. My guess is that such an action would only compound Christ’s suffering, not alleviate it as she might hope.

Recommended reading:

A Crisis of Saints by Fr. Roger Landry
Problems in the Church by Jimmy Akin