Fulfilling my Sunday obligation

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Cyclophile

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I had a conversation today that is making me question something.

I work on the weekends, 12 hour shifts on Saturday and on Sunday. My schedule is not flexible. There are no mass times locally that are conducive to me going on Saturday or Sunday before or after work.

As a result, I have been attending mass during the weekday to fulfill my obligation. The topic came up in a conversation I was having with a fellow parishioner and she asked me if I had spoken with the Fr about that.

I gave her a quizzical look but now I am wondering. … I guess I’ll be talking to him about it.
 
You can’t actually fulfill the Sunday mass obligation on a weekday but it is a praiseworthy thing to do if you are unable to attend mass on Sunday. It’s a good idea to talk to your priest about this.

Since the importance of Sunday mass can’t be overestimated, you may want to consider trying to adjust your work schedule sometime in the future and pray that God will make this possible. Times are hard economically right now but God may provide a way out for you to do this.
 
I take you at your word, however, to be sure:

Are there any Eastern Catholic churches near you that you can attend?
 
Cyclophile said:
I had a conversation today that is making me question something.

I work on the weekends, 12 hour shifts on Saturday and on Sunday. My schedule is not flexible. There are no mass times locally that are conducive to me going on Saturday or Sunday before or after work.

As a result, I have been attending mass during the weekday to fulfill my obligation. The topic came up in a conversation I was having with a fellow parishioner and she asked me if I had spoken with the Fr about that.

I gave her a quizzical look but now I am wondering. … I guess I’ll be talking to him about it.
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Your situation is incredulous! I admire you effort…but Sunday Mass obligation is not met by weekday Mass…it just ain’t.

Most importantly…your employer is simply breaking the federal law…literally and in the spirit of the law…you can’t be put in the position of not being given the time to worsdhip…practice your faith…especially with the flexibility to practice your faith anytime from Sunday Vigil (Saturday–sunset) to Sunday Evening (Sunday–sunset).

Even in the Marine Corps in combat…every effort must be made for Marines’ religious worship and practice…they even get the priests/ministers to you in combat…and unless it is literally in the heat of battle (“bullets down range”)…accomodations must be made…for all faiths.

I don’t know what you do or where you work…but your boss needs to wake up and “smell the roses”! State laws on this are probably even more stringent.

Below…some excerpts for your information with a link to website. I am not a lawyer…but this stuff is not “legal rocket science”…it is pretty clear in “letter and spirit”.

Pax Christi
**Religious Accommodation in the Workplace: **
Your Rights and Obligations
Overview of the Law
​
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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 (“Title VII”) prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment.** Title VII also requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of an employee or prospective employee, unless to do so would create an undue hardship upon the employer.** This means that:
  • Employers may not treat employees more or less favorably because of their religion.
  • Employees cannot be required to participate—or refrain from participating—in a religious activity as a condition of employment.
  • Employers must reasonably accommodate employees’ sincerely held religious practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer.
  • Employers must take steps to prevent religious harassment of their employees.
  • Employers may not retaliate against employees for asserting rights under Title VII.3
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What is a “reasonable accommodation”?
A reasonable accommodation is one that eliminates the employee’s conflict between his religious practices and work requirements and that does not cause an undue hardship for the employer.

Requested accommodations vary - an employee may need a particular day off each year for a religious holiday; or to refrain from work every week on his or her Sabbath; or to wear religious garb; or to have a place to pray. An employer must try to arrange to allow the employee to meet these religious obligations. Other examples of possible accommodations may include shift swaps between employees, voluntary assignment substitutions, flexible scheduling (allowing an employee to work on Sundays, Christmas or other national holiday in place of the day he or she needs off), lateral transfers to other positions in the company, and use of lunch time in exchange for early departure. An employer could allow an employee who is a Friday-night Sabbath observer to work longer hours on Monday through Thursday to enable the employee to leave early on Friday to be home for the Sabbath. An employer may require an employee to use their paid time off, such as personal or vacation days, to meet an employee’s required accommodation

An employer may not simply refuse to accommodate an employee. If the employer claims that accommodation is not feasible because it would result in an undue hardship (see below), **the employer must demonstrate the effect accommodation would have on the business; that is, the employer must prove the undue hardship. **
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Therefore employers are obligated to (1) try in good faith to resolve the conflict between the employee’s religious needs and job requirements; and, where an accommodation cannot be granted, (2) identify an actual monetary or administrative expense
adl.org/religious_freedom/resource_kit/religion_workplace.asp
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Lancer said:
Your situation is incredulous! I admire you effort…but Sunday Mass obligation is not met by weekday Mass…it just ain’t.

Most importantly…your employer is simply breaking the federal law…literally and in the spirit of the law…you can’t be put in the position of not being given the time to worsdhip…practice your faith…especially with the flexibility to practice your faith anytime from Sunday Vigil (Saturday–sunset) to Sunday Evening (Sunday–sunset).

Even in the Marine Corps in combat…every effort must be made for Marines’ religious worship and practice…they even get the priests/ministers to you in combat…and unless it is literally in the heat of battle (“bullets down range”)…accomodations must be made…for all faiths.

I don’t know what you do or where you work…but your boss needs to wake up and “smell the roses”! State laws on this are probably even more stringent.

Below…some excerpts for your information with a link to website. I am not a lawyer…but this stuff is not “legal rocket science”…it is pretty clear in “letter and spirit”.

Pax Christi
Click to expand...
Actually, that would depend on the contract (either written or verbal) between the employee and employer and whether or not the OP actually took the position with those specific hours. And if they did accept the position that offered those specific hours, then the employer does not have to let the employee off to take time off to worship. It is the employee’s responsibility, if they agreed in advance to work specific hours and specific days, to work the hours to which they committed.

I can tell you this: Where I work, there are different shifts and different days. There’s a 6am-6pm, and there are 6am to 6pm for each day of the week. There are also people hired specifically for Friday, Saturday AND Sunday from 6am to 6pm. If someone is hired specifically for the Fri/Sat/Sun 6am-6pm shift, there is no way the employer is required to let their employee off to go to Church. …this has nothing to do with restricting one’s ability to practice their religion. It has to do with being able to do the job and providing coverage where it is needed.
 
I don’t know your specific profession, but aren’t their exceptions for doctors, nurses, and any other vital services? I thought I once heard a priest say that.
 
In the current economy, I really do not wish to rock the boat. I am looking for other work like mad, have been since I was laid off from a really good job 2.5 years ago. I could make legal complaints but then I would find myself out of work and looking again for all my effort. …in spite of my being on the side of angels in my case. I really cannot support my family on what I would receive from unemployment.

That would not be a very good move for me in maintaining my household, supporting my daughter and all of that.

To ad to that… and this is part of what drew me closer to our faith is that 80-90% of the company appears to be j-w’s. I’m flying low to avoid triggering the radar.
 
Rence said:
I can tell you this: Where I work, there are different shifts and different days. There’s a 6am-6pm, and there are 6am to 6pm for each day of the week. There are also people hired specifically for Friday, Saturday AND Sunday from 6am to 6pm. If someone is hired specifically for the Fri/Sat/Sun 6am-6pm shift, there is no way the employer is required to let their employee off to go to Church. …this has nothing to do with restricting one’s ability to practice their religion. It has to do with being able to do the job and providing coverage where it is needed.
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This pretty much describes it… I work 0700-1900 three days a week. Sat, Sun, Mon.
 
Your pastor can dispense or transfer the sunday obligation. Talk to him.
 
Aramis said:
Your pastor can dispense or transfer the sunday obligation. Talk to him.
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Yes, now that I am aware that this is a problem, I’ll be doing that. When I had a similar conflict in my previous job, I was able to go on Saturday vigil at my old parish and I was told that was fine.

Thank you all,

pax
 
Go to your pastor, explain the situation and ask him what to do. He has the right to dispense you from the Sunday Mass obligation.
 
I assume you get some breaks during the day? Have you asked your employer to combine the breaks so that you can go to Mass? (I sympathise, I must work many Sundays also.)
 
My office is out in the boonies, the nearest place I could go is an Orthodox church and its quite a drive.

This is really bugging me now, so I’m definitely talking to Fr about this. He and I’ve been in a discussion on and off regarding other things, so this one is not so difficult to bring up.
 
Cyclophile said:
Yes, now that I am aware that this is a problem, I’ll be doing that. When I had a similar conflict in my previous job, I was able to go on Saturday vigil at my old parish and I was told that was fine.

Thank you all,

pax
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Saturday evening is always an acceptable time to fulfill the Sunday obligation and requires no special permission. The case in this thread is different and will require dispensation.
 
I agree with others here that you should talk to your pastor. Until then, try not to worry about it too much. The Church does not expect to Catholics to put themselves into a hardship situation in order to fulfill the Sunday obligation. If you have to work in order to support yourself and your family, then that is the first priority.

I work in retail. It’s really difficult to get Sundays off in this type of business, but I went to my boss and asked if I could have Sundays off in exchange for having an open schedule where I’d basically work any hours during the week, which she agreed to. But since you have a daughter, it may not be possible to change your schedule around (my children are grown, so I can work whenever).
 
I talked with one of the priests about it… I am making the request at work to adjust my hours slightly. There is a parish nearby that has a mass I can make it to if they adjust my schedule for Sunday so that I can get off a half hour earlier. It is a 30 mile drive down highway fifty from work to the home neighborhood but an hour is plenty of time to get from work to church. I might even be able to drop by the grandparents to pick up my daughter to go with.

Unfortunately, it is not “my” parish I’ll be going to but I can still attend weekday masses at my home parish.

This is all assuming they’re ok with it at work.
 
Good news, the company accomodated… it is such a small shift in time but I’m happy to be able to do this.

and now I can use my imissal app on my android more often… they don’t have a latin mass equivalent… heh.
 
Lancer said:
Your situation is incredulous! I admire you effort…but Sunday Mass obligation is not met by weekday Mass…it just ain’t.

Most importantly…your employer is simply breaking the federal law…literally and in the spirit of the law…you can’t be put in the position of not being given the time to worsdhip…practice your faith…especially with the flexibility to practice your faith anytime from Sunday Vigil (Saturday–sunset) to Sunday Evening (Sunday–sunset).

Even in the Marine Corps in combat…every effort must be made for Marines’ religious worship and practice…they even get the priests/ministers to you in combat…and unless it is literally in the heat of battle (“bullets down range”)…accomodations must be made…for all faiths.

Pax Christi

/INDENT]
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I have no idea where you got this information from, but it is not correct. Federal law does NOT require any employer to meet your desire to attend religious services. This is especially true with part-time employment.

And, in the military, while every attempt is made to provide for the religious needs of the troops, the sad truth is that there are no where near enough Catholic Chaplains to meet the need. They can’t get enough Priests to go into any branch of the service. They are even taking Chaplains in the late 50’s and 60’s, but can’t get enough of them The reality is that many Catholic troops don’t see a Chaplain for months on end. They get no communion, no reconciliation and no Masses.

The real question for the person originating this thread is: Why are you choosing to work those kind of shifts? You KNOW that you have an obligation, yet you choose to work during all of the time that Mass is available.

If this is for school, you can find other hours (I know, I worked my way through College, AND took my daughters to Mas every Sunday *). There are jobs out there that will allow you to attend Mass on Saturday evening, or sometime on Sunday.

It’s YOUR choice. You can meet your needs AND God’s needs, or you can choose to only meet YOUR needs.*
 
Actually, @The Old Medic Don’t be judgin’ There’s only one that can do that.

I did not “choose” my shift. I am working this job because I rather enjoy being able to feed/clothe/house my family and when the department I was moved into was created, it was a “take it or leave it” situation.

I would jump at the chance for another job… I have several times but since I was laid off two years ago, this place was the only taker and I signed on. Trust me, I am still looking.

Becoming aware that there was an issue regarding fulfilling the Sunday obligation, I investigated, asked and I’ve resolved my situation.

Incidentally, I am a convert and it has become obvious to me over the years that quite a few things were left out of my education through RCIA and I have been working on correcting that by reading, speaking with my priest and participating in this forum.

I gently suggest to you, sir, that you examine your post and your conscience before casting assumptions and judgments my way.

thankyouverymuchnowgooddaysir!
 
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