Living aboard a sailboat, and Sunday Mass

[bill_fitzgerald]

I am sorry if this isn’t the right category for this post, but I haven’t been able to find a whole lot of resources on the question. Essentially… I have a dream of living aboard a sailboat, and travelling around. Some sailing voyages take longer than a week, making it impossible to attend mass EVERY Sunday. I have heard some say that missing even one Sunday mass (without extenuating circumstances such as illness, care for a child, hazardous weather contortions that would endanger life, etc…) is a mortal sin. My question is, would being at sea on a Sunday - and consequently, missing mass - while travelling (say, crossing the Atlantic) still be a mortal sin?

Edit: I just want to thank everybody for the replies! They came in WAY faster than I had expected, and shed a lot of insight on a topic I’m not too familiar with. Heaps of thanks, and love.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

In order to take on this life you’ll want to speak to a priest about getting a dispensation. The Church has provisions for this sort of thing, otherwise most explorers, traders, soldiers, and others who travel a lot would be committing mortal sin for their work. You’re still required to go to mass when you’re able, and I’m pretty sure you still have to do some religious observances each Sunday, but you will not incur the penalty of mortal sin for missing mass. Remember, it’s only a mortal sin if it’s reasonably possible and you simply chose not to.

 

[1ke]

I have heard some say that missing even one Sunday mass (without extenuating circumstances such as illness, care for a child, hazardous weather contortions that would endanger life, etc…) is a mortal sin.

But what you’ve “heard” and what the Church actually teaches are two different things. If there is no mass available you do not have an obligation . The Church does not expect you do to what is not possible. Traveling where no mass is available is not a sin.

My question is, would being at sea on a Sunday - and consequently, missing mass - while travelling (say, crossing the Atlantic) still be a mortal sin?

No.

In order to take on this life you’ll want to speak to a priest about getting a dispensation.

I disagree that a dispensation is required. The Church doesn’t require you to only travel to places that have mass available. The Church only requires a dispensation when you CAN attend mass but have a reason to ask not to. When you cannot attend mass because there is no mass, you do not have an obligation.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

The Church only requires a dispensation when you CAN attend mass but have a reason to ask not to. When you cannot attend mass because there is no mass, you do not have an obligation.

Really? Well, good to know. That being said, there’s no harm in seeking the dispensation if you know you’re going to be unable to reach mass.

 

[1ke]

Really? Well, good to know.

Yes, dispensation isn’t needed when you have a moral or physical impossibility.

For example, when I went to Egypt, i wasn’t able to attend Sunday mass-- no Catholic mass a reasonable distance, no ability to travel on my own, etc.

But when I was traveling domestically for work, i asked my pastor ahead of time for dispensation from All Saints. Woman, traveling alone, no car so relying on public transport or taxi/Uber; downtown with cathedral in sketchy area; not sure of my work schedule and obligations; only mass i could attend was at 7:30 at night in the dark, in a bad area… i had checked it all out ahead of time and felt that wasn’t really a good option for me even if I could physically get there. My pastor happily gave me a dispensation.

 

[tafan2]

Ha, I have had the same dream. I will never do it, but have dreamed none the less. And I do hope, one day to spend three or four months on a sailboat. So I have thought of this issue. Here is my take:
If coastal cruising, in most areas, despite needing to wait for weather windows at times, one can usually work around a Sunday mass schedule. Voyages longer than 2 or 3 days are the exception, not the norm.
Now, if doing a bluewater leg, it gets problematic. I would ask for a dispensation before planning the journey. Others will say if mass isn’t available, no problem. But I think if mass isn’t available due to my own decision, I need a dispensation from my pastor. Of course, that begs the question, if you are seriously living the cruising life, who is your pastor? Perhaps someone can fill in the answer to that question from Canon law, ie who is the pastor of an itinerant person?

 

[tafan2]

The Church only requires a dispensation when you CAN attend mass but have a reason to ask not to.

@1ke, I normally agree with your posts, but this does not make sense. What other reason. We know if sickness, or unable to travel to mass, etc not dispensation is required. Yet the law says a priest must have just cause to grant a dispensation. Based on your reasoning, there seems to never be a need for a dispensation. It seems to me, this us precisely why the Canon exists: ie I am choosing to do something that will make it impossible to attend Mass. If I am planning a vacation, normally I make sure it is planned around mass attendance. Once I made a trip that was going to precludes mass. I asked my pastor and he granted a dispensation. He acted like I did just the right thing, not something unnecessary.
If I am wrong, can you please give me a case where a dispensation is needed.

 

[tafan2]

@bill_fitzgerald

I have another thought which I wanted to share. The Eucharist is supposed to be the source and summit of our Christian lives. Be very careful about adopting a lifestyle that will make missing mass on Sunday a regular occurrence. The rule exists for a reason: it is part of the bare minimum we can do in order to grow in holiness.

 

[dochawk]

That being said, there’s no harm in seeking the dispensation if you know you’re going to be unable to reach mass.

In the same way that there’s no harm in seeking a dispensation for not tying my shoes since I always wear boots . . . there’s simply not anything to dispense from in either case . . .

 

[tafan2]

Could anyone give me an example when a dispensation is required?

 

[1ke]

Could anyone give me an example when a dispensation is required?

Sure. I gave one above. Holy day of obligation where I didn’t want to have to run around a city to try to attend, so I asked for a dispensation.

I’ve known priests to dispense a newlywed couple from Sunday mass at their wedding. And sometimes the attendees of the wedding as well.

A dispensation is a relaxation of the law.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I’ve known priests to dispense a newlywed couple from Sunday mass at their wedding. And sometimes the attendees of the wedding as well.

That’s a pretty poor way to start a marriage. And I know because we had a similar experience when we got married. Everybody had stayed up all night partying, when they should have gone home at a decent hour, precisely so they could go to Mass the next day. I said to myself “this isn’t getting our marriage off to a good start“. And I was right. Problems from day one.

Some cultures and nationalities prize all-night wedding receptions. They really need to rethink that.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

As regards not being able to go to Mass when you are living on a sailboat, I would have to question whether it is licit deliberately to re-organize one’s life, to get into a situation where one regularly cannot attend Sunday Mass. Not being judgmental, but nobody has to live on a sailboat. It is a lifestyle choice.

 

[1ke]

That’s a pretty poor way to start a marriage.

That’s your opinion.

tafan2 asked for an example, I gave one. It is within the priest’s discretion to give such a dispensation.

Some cultures and nationalities prize all-night wedding receptions. They really need to rethink that.

That was your experience. I said nothing of all night receptions or partying. Only that the priest dispensed the couple.

 

[tafan2]

I think you concern is well founded.

 

[1ke]

As regards not being able to go to Mass when you are living on a sailboat, I would have to question whether it is licit deliberately to re-organize one’s life, to get into a situation where one regularly cannot attend Sunday Mass. Not being judgmental, but nobody has to live on a sailboat. It is a lifestyle choice.

“Licit” isn’t really the right word here as it has nothing to do with the law.

And YES you can certainly do so, and you don’t sin by doing so.

The Church doesn’t require us to stay within X miles of a church. It is a lifestyle choice that a person can indeed make.

You can take a work assignment for a year in Saudi Arabia. You can sail on a sailboat. You can go on a scientific expedition to Antarctica. You can go on a rocket to the international space station.

There is nothing that stops you from doing this. It was common in the days of settling the US for a priest to make a circuit through territory doing baptisms and weddings and other sacraments periodically when there was no established parish. The Church didn’t prohibit settlers from going off into new territory sometimes for years without mass. Sometimes a priest would accompany an expedition, but certainly not always and not when settlers moved to new territory.

 

[tafan2]

tafan2 asked for an example, I gave one. It is within the priest’s discretion to give such a dispensation.

I could understand that example. The priest must have a just cause, it his up to his discretion, but he is bound by that clause. He cannot give them out like candy.

Also, I had thought it had to be one’s pastor, but the law only says parish priest. So I suppose a parochial vicar could also grant one.

 

[Willing_Spirit]

The Church might not require people to stay within a given radius to a church, but the Church does teach that God is to be the center of our lives. Choosing a lifetime at sea “just for fun” over regular access to Mass doesn’t seem much different than choosing to stay home and play video games. Our lives are supposed to be centered on God, and abandoning a community of brothers and sisters in Christ to live in isolation just for the sake of pleasure seems a little odd. I don’t know what the Church teaches on the matter, but I suspect the answer is a little more complicated.

 

[Vico]

…
Of course, that begs the question, if you are seriously living the cruising life, who is your pastor? Perhaps someone can fill in the answer to that question from Canon law, ie who is the pastor of an itinerant person?

CIC

Can. 100 A person is said to be:

• an incola, in the place where he or she has a domicile;
• an advena, in the place of quasi-domicile;
• a peregrinus, if away from the domicile or quasi-domicile which is still retained;
• a vagus, if the person has nowhere a domicile or quasi-domicile.

Can. 107 §1 Both through domicile and through quasi-domicile everyone acquires his or her own parish priest and Ordinary.
§2 The proper parish priest or Ordinary of a vagus is the parish priest or Ordinary of the place where the vagus is actually residing.
§3 The proper parish priest of one who has only a diocesan domicile or quasi-domicile is the parish priest of the place where that person is actually residing.

 

[1ke]

Choosing a lifetime at sea “just for fun” over regular access to Mass doesn’t seem much different than choosing to stay home and play video games.

Please note the question wasn’t about a “lifetime at sea” but rather that “sometimes” it might take longer than a week to go from A to B and would that be OK. Typically those on a sailboat are renting marina space, and may go from place to place but they don’t stay at sea.

No one is proposing a “lifetime at sea just for fun” not even the OP. That is a far fetched scenario that no one asked about.