Parish records of the Easter Duty

[Pug]

I recently found out that parishes used to keep records of the Easter Duty for each member of the parish. First, have I been told correctly? Secondly, how did the pastor get the info? In a modern parish, I don’t see how this could be done merely by watching the communicants. The pastor isn’t at each mass on the weekends, nor does he know everyone by name, I don’t think. How was this done? Thirdly, what happened to someone who ended up not being marked down in the register as not having made the Easter Duty that year? Did it mean you could not get your new infant baptized, did it mean you could not marry, did it mean you could not join the knights of columbus, or be a godparent or what? Did you have some right of appeal?

Thanks for any info on historical church practice! (I asked in the TC forum because I though you all might be more likely to know this older practice. Please move my thread if it is in the wrong forum.)

 

[Pug]

Anyone?

Maybe the morning coffee crowd has the answer :coffeeread:

 

[Joannm]

I have never heard of this and I asked the pastor at work and he said he never heard of it either. How would they keep those records? They would have had to ask each parishioner personally. We have parish record books dating back to the 1850’s and I have never seen a book that list such things.

 

[Yellow_Belle]

I recently found out that parishes used to keep records of the Easter Duty for each member of the parish. First, have I been told correctly? Secondly, how did the pastor get the info? In a modern parish, I don’t see how this could be done merely by watching the communicants. The pastor isn’t at each mass on the weekends, nor does he know everyone by name, I don’t think. How was this done? Thirdly, what happened to someone who ended up not being marked down in the register as not having made the Easter Duty that year? Did it mean you could not get your new infant baptized, did it mean you could not marry, did it mean you could not join the knights of columbus, or be a godparent or what? Did you have some right of appeal?

Thanks for any info on historical church practice! (I asked in the TC forum because I though you all might be more likely to know this older practice. Please move my thread if it is in the wrong forum.)

I don’t know how individualised the records were elsewhere, but here in Ireland (at least in my memory), the altar boys used to count the number of communicants at each Sunday Mass of the Easter season. Presumably, that gave the parish priest some idea of the percentages making their Easter duty. I don’t think there was a record kept of each individual though that may have happened in small rural parishes.

Don’t know what happened to someone not making their Easter duty but I’d imagine that, at the very least, one would get an unpleasant visit from the parish priest As for a right of appeal - I doubt it!

 

[bilop]

I recently found out that parishes used to keep records of the Easter Duty for each member of the parish. First, have I been told correctly? Secondly, how did the pastor get the info? In a modern parish, I don’t see how this could be done merely by watching the communicants. The pastor isn’t at each mass on the weekends, nor does he know everyone by name, I don’t think. How was this done? Thirdly, what happened to someone who ended up not being marked down in the register as not having made the Easter Duty that year? Did it mean you could not get your new infant baptized, did it mean you could not marry, did it mean you could not join the knights of columbus, or be a godparent or what? Did you have some right of appeal?

Thanks for any info on historical church practice! (I asked in the TC forum because I though you all might be more likely to know this older practice. Please move my thread if it is in the wrong forum.)

I’ve never heard of this in the Catholic Church.

I have heard that in the Eastern Ortodox Church, since parishes are much smaller, and generally have only one priest, the priest will deny communion if the person hasn’t been to confession recently. So, he must at least mentally keep track of his flock. It is possible, b/c they confess at the altar (not behind a screen). In the Latin tradition, with anonymous confession, this would not be possible.

I don’t know if any Eastern Catholics do this.

God Bless

 

[Pug]

Thanks for the replies! I agree that it seems like you could only do this in a small parish, but I figured that maybe all the parishes really used to be small enough or something. I dug up a cut from the (old) Catholic Encylopedia at CA so you all don’t think I’m crazy…(too late, I know :hypno

Lastly an official registration of all parishioners is kept, giving name, family, age, residence, whether they have made their First Communion, been confirmed, made their Easter duty, etc.

from the Parochial Registers entry, but it sounds like maybe no parishes actually did it, except as bilop mentioned possibly an Eastern rite.

The only reason I started wondering about this is because on on another thread a poster was referring to something from the fourth Lateran council, and I got curious. My question was off topic though, so I made the new thread. From council, emphasis added

1. ** On yearly confession to one’s own priest, yearly communion, the confessional seal **
   All the faithful of either sex, after they have reached the age of discernment, should individually confess all their sins in a faithful manner to their own priest at least once a year, and let them take care to do what they can to perform the penance imposed on them. Let them reverently receive the sacrament of the eucharist at least at Easter unless they think, for a good reason and on the advice of their own priest, that they should abstain from receiving it for a time. Otherwise they shall be barred from entering a church during their lifetime and they shall be denied a christian burial at death. Let this salutary decree be frequently published in churches, so that nobody may find the pretence of an excuse in the blindness of ignorance. If any persons wish, for good reasons, to confess their sins to another priest let them first ask and obtain the permission of their own priest; for otherwise the other priest will not have the power to absolve or to bind them. The priest shall be discerning and prudent, so that like a skilled doctor he may pour wine and oil over the wounds of the injured one. Let him carefully inquire about the circumstances of both the sinner and the sin, so that he may prudently discern what sort of advice he ought to give and what remedy to apply, using various means to heal the sick person. Let him take the utmost care, however, not to betray the sinner at all by word or sign or in any other way. If the priest needs wise advice, let him seek it cautiously without any mention of the person concerned. For if anyone presumes to reveal a sin disclosed to him in confession, we decree that he is not only to be deposed from his priestly office but also to be confined to a strict monastery to do perpetual penance.

 

[maryjk]

1. **On yearly confession to one’s own priest, **

So once a year when going to confession we should say, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned, it has been 2 months since my last Confession and this is Jane Doe.”
So much for the Priest not knowing who is going to confession.

 

[bilop]

So once a year when going to confession we should say, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned, it has been 2 months since my last Confession and this is Jane Doe.”
So much for the Priest not knowing who is going to confession.

Remember, confession was originally a public practice, in front of the whole congregation.

Even after it became private, for a long time you had to confess to your own pastor.

Only later were the Fransiscans and Dominicans allowed to hear confessions of anyone.

God Bless

 

[tonio5555]

I know that in the smaller towns in Italy the priest would literally go door to door before Easter and check on parishoners to see if they had fulfilled their duty.

 

[bilop]

I know that in the smaller towns in Italy the priest would literally go door to door before Easter and check on parishoners to see if they had fulfilled their duty.

This is an older model of the parish, still practiced by the Orthodox, that your pastor has a special role as your spiritual director, they would say spiritual father, in addition to offering the Sacraments. In this model, the pastor would be intimately aware of the spiritual life of all his congregation, as there is not anonymous confession, and you would be unlikely to seek the Sacraments from anyone but your pastor.

The Latin Church does not currently have this model.

God Bless

 

[AJV]

I recently found out that parishes used to keep records of the Easter Duty for each member of the parish. First, have I been told correctly? Secondly, how did the pastor get the info? In a modern parish, I don’t see how this could be done merely by watching the communicants. The pastor isn’t at each mass on the weekends, nor does he know everyone by name, I don’t think. How was this done? Thirdly, what happened to someone who ended up not being marked down in the register as not having made the Easter Duty that year? Did it mean you could not get your new infant baptized, did it mean you could not marry, did it mean you could not join the knights of columbus, or be a godparent or what? Did you have some right of appeal?

Thanks for any info on historical church practice! (I asked in the TC forum because I though you all might be more likely to know this older practice. Please move my thread if it is in the wrong forum.)

Yes, this had to be done. Before Pius X, the “Easter duty” had to be fulfilled in one’s own parish church. Pius X permitted the fulfillment in other churches and this was later incorporated into the 1917 Code of Canon Law which required such persons receiving in other churches to inform their parish priest. The 1983 Code dropped this requirement.

Also prior to Pius X, (around the time the Catholic Encyclopedia article was written) and even after, Communion was not received frequently and in fact, in many places, only once a year in order to comply with the Easter duty. Thus it was easier to keep such records.

 

[Pug]

I know that in the smaller towns in Italy the priest would literally go door to door before Easter and check on parishoners to see if they had fulfilled their duty.

I can see how this personal approach could help keep people practicing the faith. I mean that in a good way. It would be like a little nudge.

 

[Pug]

Also prior to Pius X, (around the time the Catholic Encyclopedia article was written) and even after, Communion was not received frequently and in fact, in many places, only once a year in order to comply with the Easter duty. Thus it was easier to keep such records.

Ah, yes. I was talking with a friend today and we had wondered if it was easier because of fewer communicants.

Was that because they felt unworthy, even though they went to confession? Or was it that they didn’t go to confession, so they didn’t go to communion?

 

[Pug]

So once a year when going to confession we should say, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned, it has been 2 months since my last Confession and this is Jane Doe.”
So much for the Priest not knowing who is going to confession.

It is hard to imagine , but confession didn’t used to be quite so anonymous as it is today. It is now days, though, don’t worry! You don’t have to say who you are. The part in the Lateran council quote about it being the parish priest was something that could be changed, and not a dogma.

 

[Kielbasi]

recently found out that parishes used to keep records of the Easter Duty for each member of the parish. First, have I been told correctly?

I think that may well be true.

I am aware that in Victorian England, Catholics (and other religious non conformists) were penalized for not attending/communing in the local Church of England parish. Those who violated the statutes were called “recusants”.

It would seem that some existing mechanism had to already been in place to enforce such regulations.

 

[Verbum_Caro]

Pug, bilop, AJV, et al,

My impression, also, was that those who failed in their Easter Duty back then (and didn’t repent of it) were to be denied a Catholic burial. Is it possibly I read that somewhere? Confirm, Deny?

VC

 

[Pug]

Pug, bilop, AJV, et al,

My impression, also, was that those who failed in their Easter Duty back then (and didn’t repent of it) were to be denied a Catholic burial. Is it possibly I read that somewhere? Confirm, Deny?

VC

VC, I can’t help, other than to point to that Lateran quote above, which does mention denial of Christian burial for not receiving during Easter. But that is ancient, uh, circa 1200 AD.