Br. Rich SFO:
Maybe I didn’t say it very well. January 1st 2005 was a Holy Day in the Universal Church Calandar. It was NOT a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States (it was in Canada) because the US Bishops decided that any Holy Day on Saturday or Monday (with certain exceptions, like Christmas) was NOT an obligation. Certain Feasts could be transfered to the nearst open Sunday if in Ordinary Time.
I was not aware of this rule, but when I looked at the Patron Saints calendar I got from my parish, the statement in the box for Jan 1 read , “Since the Solemnity of ‘Mary, Mother of God,’ falls on a Saturday this year, in accordance with the decision of the USCCB, it is not observed as a holy day of obligation.”
When I pried myself off of the ceiling, I sat for a while and thought about that statement.
While it’s true that, as Br. Rich SFO says, no one is prohibiting anyone from attending Mass on Saturday, the USCCB, the Catholic authority in the Diocese ot the United States, has said that we aren’t required to go to Mass. Read Milgram’s “Obedience to authority,” if you haven’t already done so.
It’s the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God for crying out loud. This Saturday/Monday rule is just another sign, like “Holy Thursday” being moved to Sunday, of the dumbing down of the
Church in the U.S. It’s as if the bishops are saying," We can’t expect Catholics to go Mass two days in a row," or, “Heck, they’re all going to go out Friday night and get soused, anyway. Nobody’s going to go to Mass hung over.”
It’s exactly the same thinking as saying, “Teenagers are going to have sex no matter what, so we might as well teach them to use condoms.”
I try so very hard and pray fervently to respect the bishops as the direct descendents, by the laying on of hands, of the Apostles, but decisions like this make it soooo hard.
Our parish treated Saturday as a holy day, and the 9:00 a.m. Mass was 80% full, not to mention the vigil the evening before.
Being a Catholic is not supposed to be easy; following Jesus is not suposed to be easy. Demand obedience, be orthodox (in the traditional sense) and the churches will be swollen, if not by seniors, then by young people looking for direction and discipine.
Pope John Paul II knows this. That’s why the Youth Days are so popular; he makes demands of the young people.
If the Church cannot require a member to get his butt out of bed on a Saturday or a Monday, why bother at all?
We have to tighten discipline up, both on the clergy, (Bishop Flynn, Richard McBrien?) and the laity (John Kerry, Ted Kennedy?) and demand a little, just a little effort from those in the pews.
We might be amazed at the resurgence. Talk about “renewal,” that’s the way to get it!
