Rationale for removing Obligation from Jan 1

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THurifer2

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What or should I say “WHO” is behind the cause of a bishop declaring jan 1 NOT a holy day of obligation?

Is there any rationale behind the reason outside of the obvious.

Can anyone name one entity tht benefits from it NOT being a Holy Day of obligation?
 
THurifer2 said:
What or should I say “WHO” is behind the cause of a bishop declaring jan 1 NOT a holy day of obligation?

Is there any rationale behind the reason outside of the obvious.

Can anyone name one entity tht benefits from it NOT being a Holy Day of obligation?
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Well, the Bishop is “behind” it. My understanding is that it is often a pastoral concern and is done so that the many Catholics that miss Mass on the 1st are not in sin for that reason alone.
 
THurifer2 said:
What or should I say “WHO” is behind the cause of a bishop declaring jan 1 NOT a holy day of obligation?

Is there any rationale behind the reason outside of the obvious.

Can anyone name one entity tht benefits from it NOT being a Holy Day of obligation?
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I believe that the Bishops Conference sets the Holy days and the rules for them, it is not up to individual Bishops.
 
Yeah, the Bishop would be the one responsible, you answered your own question…

It was required in our diocese, so it isn’t like that everywhere. 🤷
 
THurifer2 said:
What or should I say “WHO” is behind the cause of a bishop declaring jan 1 NOT a holy day of obligation?
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Bishops have legitimate authority over their diocese as successors of the Apostles. They have the authority to bind and loose, and can dispense if they choose.
THurifer2 said:
Is there any rationale behind the reason outside of the obvious.
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What is obvious to you, clearly is not obvious to me,
THurifer2 said:
Can anyone name one entity tht benefits from it NOT being a Holy Day of obligation?
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Those who cannot attend Mass.
 
It is the same with Corpus Christi, which is a Day of Obligation everywhere in the world but not in America. I’ve heard the rationale is because America, being unique among capitalist countries for its unmitigated greed, prefers not to take any more days off of work than is absolutely necessary. Yes, the Pope allows us to miss mass so we can make that much more money. 🤷
 
1ke said:
Those who cannot attend Mass.
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Those who cannot attend are dispensed from the obligation.

So they are out of the equation.

Why would a bishop be inclined go against his national conference and act to remove the obligation? It is just a simple question.
 
CuriousInIL said:
Well, the Bishop is “behind” it. My understanding is that it is often a pastoral concern and is done so that the many Catholics that miss Mass on the 1st are not in sin for that reason alone.
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I don’t understand that rationale, at least within the constructs of the Catholic faith. It sounds a little like some of the newer protestant congregations that gear the rules around what the congregation wants. So if more of us would start missing Sunday Mass, maybe they would drop the obligation for that as well just so we are not in sin.

That said, just because it isn’t a Holy Day of Obligation does not mean that you can’t go on your own. Then just keep the faith that the Bishop has good reason for it (and is not just making it easier for us to not sin).
 
THurifer2 said:
Can anyone name one entity tht benefits from it NOT being a Holy Day of obligation?
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Helping Catholics to blend in with the general population, better enabling them to behave like pagans while putting God on the back-burner…

The devil benefits.

It is bad enough that so many feasts are transfered because they are no longer public holidays, but why on earth they would remove the obligation from a feast that occurs on a holiday is beyond me.

If it is, in fact, so that the people who don’t feel like going to Mass (as opposed to those people who actually can’t) won’t be in a state of mortal sin, then I think that the bishops have an odd idea of caring for their flocks.
 
rstegeman said:
So if more of us would start missing Sunday Mass, maybe they would drop the obligation for that as well just so we are not in sin.
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In fact, because many more people have January 1st off than have Sundays off, it would make perfect sense.

Nothing would surprise me anymore.
 
It was a holy day this year. Last year I don’t think it was because of the day it fell on.
 
It is the same with Corpus Christi, which is a Day of Obligation everywhere in the world but not in America. I’ve heard the rationale is because America, being unique among capitalist countries for its unmitigated greed, prefers not to take any more days off of work than is absolutely necessary. Yes, the Pope allows us to miss mass so we can make that much more money. 🤷
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Corpus Christi is NOT a holy day of obligation “everywhere in the world.” In some countries it is, while in others it is not. That has always been the case.
 
I believe the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe has recently declared a Holy Day of Obligation in Mexico. It could be that the Bishops of dioceses in the US, with high number of Mexicans, have changed the HDO from Jan 1, to the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was probably approved by the USCCB for those dioceses.

Jim
 
jfallaw said:
It is the same with Corpus Christi, which is a Day of Obligation everywhere in the world but not in America.
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You are incorrect.
jfallaw said:
I’ve heard the rationale is because America, being unique among capitalist countries for its unmitigated greed, prefers not to take any more days off of work than is absolutely necessary.
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Well, that may be what you “heard” but it is not based in fact.

And, Holy Days have not been civil holidays in most countries in several centuries if they ever were-- it varies greatly from country to country.
jfallaw said:
Yes, the Pope allows us to miss mass so we can make that much more money. 🤷
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Again, a statement not based in any fact.
 
rstegeman said:
I don’t understand that rationale, at least within the constructs of the Catholic faith. It sounds a little like some of the newer protestant congregations that gear the rules around what the congregation wants. So if more of us would start missing Sunday Mass, maybe they would drop the obligation for that as well just so we are not in sin.
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The dropping of holy days in different countries in the Church is a trend that has occurred over a number of years. It’s possible that this is all due to the nefarious influence of the Protestants, and it would be better for us to revert to ~50 non-Sunday holy days.
From the thirteenth to the eighteenth century there were dioceses in which the Holy Days and Sundays amounted to over one hundred, not counting the feasts of particular monasteries and churches.
Source
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Br.Rich_SFO said:
I believe that the Bishops Conference sets the Holy days and the rules for them, it is not up to individual Bishops.
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Br. Rich,

That’s what I thought! Some here apparently thing that it is not a HDO in the US, but that is incorrect. Here is the Decree by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Conference of Catholic Bishops
United States of America
Decree of Promulgation
On December 13, 1991 the members of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States of America made the following general decree concerning holy days of obligation for Latin rite Catholics:
In addition to Sunday, the days to be observed as holy days of obligation in the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America, in conformity with canon 1246, are as follows:
January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God;
Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter, the solemnity of the Ascension;
August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary;
November 1, the solemnity of All Saints;
December 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception;
December 25, the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, or August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption, or November 1, the solemnity of All Saints, falls on a Saturday or on a Monday, the precept to attend Mass is abrogated.
This decree of the Conference of Bishops was approved and confirmed by the Apostolic See by a decree of the Congregation for Bishops (Prot. N. 296/84)
Br. Rich, can you tell us what is the state of an individual bishop who defies the decree which has been confirmed by The Apostolic See?
 
JimR-OCDS said:
I believe the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe has recently declared a Holy Day of Obligation in Mexico. It could be that the Bishops of dioceses in the US, with high number of Mexicans, have changed the HDO from Jan 1, to the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was probably approved by the USCCB for those dioceses.

Jim
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Jim, I hope that you were being facetious. If not, that is perhaps the most oddball rationale I have ever heard. OLG and the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God are two entirely different things. The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God is the oldest feast dedicated to the Blessed Mother. As Pope Benedict said in his audience today:
The Holy Father recalled that “Theotokos” or “Mother of God” was “the title officially attributed to Mary in the fifth century, at the Council of Ephesus of 431”. On that occasion, solemn confirmation was given, “on the one hand, to the unity of the two natures (the divine and the human) in the person of the Son of God and, on the other, to the legitimacy of attributing to the Virgin the title of Theotokos” against those who, “in an attempt to safeguard the full humanity of Jesus”, suggested she be called “Christotokos” or “Mother of Christ”, the which represented “a threat to the doctrine of the full unity of divinity and humanity in Christ”.
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Following the Council of Ephesus, "Marian devotion underwent an enormous expansion, and many churches dedicated to the Mother of God were built. Outstanding among them was St. Mary Major here in Rome.
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“The doctrine concerning Mary, Mother of God, was again confirmed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451”, the Holy Father added, “and Vatican Council II included it in the eighth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ‘Lumen gentium’”.
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Furthermore, Jim, don’t make blanket statements without checking your facts regarding ethnic populations. My diocese is 99.9% Hispanic. Our bishop did not “move” the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God to the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Why? It makes no sense. Furthermore, it is not appropriate.

As for the Feast of Corpus Christ, many national episcopal conferences translated the day to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday. However, in Rome, they still mark it on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Just catch a Papal broadcast from EWTN on that Thursday.
 
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