Sunday obligation and cancelled mass

[carn]

If mass in local church is cancelled on sunday and through no deliberate fault one only realizes this when arriving at the church door, is one required to go to another church?

If one planned to attend church at that time and the only remaining alternative that sunday might due to travel time collides with family or other duties, does this change anything?

In raw hours, how much additional time is one expected to accept, in going elsewhere to mass that sunday?

As an example person wanted to visit mass on late sunday morning, its cancelled, therefore only evening mass and only some distance away, with 1.5 hours travel time, and for the evening some relatives are expected as guest at such time, that person might not be back from evening mass. Should he go to the inconvenient evening mass? Woult it be sufficient to spend time praying in church?

 

[maltmom]

Is it 45 mins there or an 1.5 hrs there. If it’s only 45 mins there and the weather is fine I’d go to the evening Mass. Explain the situation to your guests. You can gather a little later. If your duty was to go to work then I’d say you are alright missing Mass b/c it was through no fault of your own. You didn’t know Mass was cancelled. If you end up missing Mass I’d suggest speaking to your Priest about it and get his thoughts.

This is just my opinion b/c I don’t know if there’s an official rule as to time or distance if you miss Mass.

 

[Kathrin]

I have asked myself this too before… I wodner if there is an offocial guideline on this?
Is there a priest you could call up and ask? Then you can be at peace with the reply,
whatever it may be.

 

[1ke]

If mass in local church is cancelled on sunday and through no deliberate fault one only realizes this when arriving at the church door, is one required to go to another church?

If one is available, certainly.

If one planned to attend church at that time and the only remaining alternative that sunday might due to travel time collides with family or other duties, does this change anything?

In raw hours, how much additional time is one expected to accept, in going elsewhere to mass that sunday?

One is expected to form one’s conscience and act reasonably. The Church does not put out time and distance charts or rules.

As an example person wanted to visit mass on late sunday morning, its cancelled, therefore only evening mass and only some distance away, with 1.5 hours travel time, and for the evening some relatives are expected as guest at such time, that person might not be back from evening mass. Should he go to the inconvenient evening mass? Woult it be sufficient to spend time praying in church?

No one here can answer that. Call your priest and ask for his advice and or dispensation if you are troubled.

 

[thistle]

If mass in local church is cancelled on sunday and through no deliberate fault one only realizes this when arriving at the church door, is one required to go to another church?

If one planned to attend church at that time and the only remaining alternative that sunday might due to travel time collides with family or other duties, does this change anything?

In raw hours, how much additional time is one expected to accept, in going elsewhere to mass that sunday?

As an example person wanted to visit mass on late sunday morning, its cancelled, therefore only evening mass and only some distance away, with 1.5 hours travel time, and for the evening some relatives are expected as guest at such time, that person might not be back from evening mass. Should he go to the inconvenient evening mass? Woult it be sufficient to spend time praying in church?

If a Mass is available elsewhere then yes you would have to go.

 

[carn]

Thanks for the comments, but nobod seemed to adress the problem, that it would include breaking a promise.

E.g. Someone plans attending morning mass on sunday in a specific church. For the evening he has promised someone else to do something, e.g. opening the door, so the relative having travelled for 2 hours does not have to wait in the cold, taking care of some children for the evening, serving dinner to some guests, picking up somebody somwhere or bringing him there (e.g. from or to train/airport) or some other activity, which includes a promise to someone else to do something or be somewhere at a specific time. The morning mass does not take place as expected and evening mass would collide with the plans made for the evening.

Now, going to mass and telling the other person “You just have to wait for 45 mins in the cold after your 2 hour journey …”, “Sorry, no long sought romantic dinner with your husband today…”, “There is this ok chinese takeaway neaby with actually some chairs, you should go there …”, “Sorry, your travel time just increased by 1 hour…” “… because i am not available, as i have to go to mass” might leave the other person with the impression that those crazy catholics lack charity and are unrealiable.

On the other hand, holding ones promises to humans in higher esteem than God, which is at least implied by the action of upholding the promise and skipping mass, does not look like the optimal choice either.

So i cannot see a clear solution to this part of the issue.

 

[garn9173]

If a Mass is available elsewhere then yes you would have to go.

Around here, the only way Mass would be canceled is due to severe winter weather. Knowing my Priest, i’m sure he wouldn’t want anyone risking their well being to travel for Mass in the event he would have to cancel due to severe winter weather.

 

[bilop]

Thanks for the comments, but nobod seemed to adress the problem, that it would include breaking a promise.

E.g. Someone plans attending morning mass on sunday in a specific church. For the evening he has promised someone else to do something, e.g. opening the door, so the relative having travelled for 2 hours does not have to wait in the cold, taking care of some children for the evening, serving dinner to some guests, picking up somebody somwhere or bringing him there (e.g. from or to train/airport) or some other activity, which includes a promise to someone else to do something or be somewhere at a specific time. The morning mass does not take place as expected and evening mass would collide with the plans made for the evening.

Now, going to mass and telling the other person “You just have to wait for 45 mins in the cold after your 2 hour journey …”, “Sorry, no long sought romantic dinner with your husband today…”, “There is this ok chinese takeaway neaby with actually some chairs, you should go there …”, “Sorry, your travel time just increased by 1 hour…” “… because i am not available, as i have to go to mass” might leave the other person with the impression that those crazy catholics lack charity and are unrealiable.

On the other hand, holding ones promises to humans in higher esteem than God, which is at least implied by the action of upholding the promise and skipping mass, does not look like the optimal choice either.

So i cannot see a clear solution to this part of the issue.

If you had a serious obligation (e.g. caring for an infant or sick person), work, etc.) that can’t be moved, I would agree that you’re excused from the Sunday obligation.

But if it is merely a social engagement, then Mass must take precedent.

In your examples if you have guests coming, call and tell them to come 45 minutes later. If you have a romantic dinner planned, move it to later in the evening; a 5 PM Mass doesn’t preclude dinner plans. If someone’s coming from the airport, call them a cab.

God Bless

 

[garn9173]

.

E.g. Someone plans attending morning mass on sunday in a specific church. For the evening he has promised someone else to do something, e.g. opening the door, so the relative having travelled for 2 hours does not have to wait in the cold, taking care of some children for the evening, serving dinner to some guests, picking up somebody somwhere or bringing him there (e.g. from or to train/airport) or some other activity, which includes a promise to someone else to do something or be somewhere at a specific time. The morning mass does not take place as expected and evening mass would collide with the plans made for the evening.

Probably not going to be a popular opinion here, but IMO your previously scheduled commitments take priority especially if it involves people coming in from long distances.

 

[bilop]

Probably not going to be a popular opinion here, but IMO your previously scheduled commitments take priority especially if it involves people coming in from long distances.

Wouldn’t you think there’s a obligation to at least* try *and change the plans?

If you came down with the flu, you wouldn’t keep the plans.

God Bless

 

[garn9173]

Wouldn’t you think there’s a obligation to at least* try *and change the plans?

If you came down with the flu, you wouldn’t keep the plans.

God Bless

Flu is one thing, but personally myself, I would not tell people to alter their driving schedules, espcially if they are coming from out of town and will be driving in the dark just so that I could attend Mass.

Edited for an additional thought: Let they without sin cast the first stone if they have never, ever, in the course of one’s lifetime have missed a weekly Mass for any reason other than illness, work obligations, or taking care of a shut in

 

[bilop]

Flu is one thing, but personally myself, I would not tell people to alter their driving schedules, espcially if they are coming from out of town and will be driving in the dark just so that I could attend Mass.

Edited for an additional thought: Let they without sin cast the first stone if they have never, ever, in the course of one’s lifetime have missed a weekly Mass for any reason other than illness, work obligations, or taking care of a shut in

Who’s casting stones?!?! No one is saying anyone is damned for this, or even in mortal sin.

All I’m saying if the choice is call XYZ and tell them, “I can’t do dinner at 6, we need to make it 7” or missing Mass, I’m making the phone call every time. If they can’t do it, you reschedule.

How on earth is someone’s driving schedule more important than Mass?

God Bless

 

[carn]

Wouldn’t you think there’s a obligation to at least* try *and change the plans?

To avoid juggling around theoretical scenarios, my question is aimed at the situation, where the alteration of the plans and breaking ones promise would lead to relevant or even severe inconveniences for the third party.

I assume there must be some level, for which skipping mass would be acceptable, because for example a job is nothing but a promise to work at the scheduled times. If someone planning to attend mass in the morning promises his employer (assuming he works in a job, in which sunday work someties has to be done) to work in the evening, he would not be required to go to mass if the morning mass was cancelled. Yet, he could also break his promise to his employer and it would just cause some inconvenience for his employer (e.g. has to do more work himself) and inconvenience to himself (might lose his job) - nobody dies and one could always argue, that Jesus had to suffer more than that. But this would be legitimate reason to skip the evening mass.

Therefore my suspicion that for some sort of promises and in case the consequences of breaking are severe enough, the situation might be similar.

 

[bilop]

To avoid juggling around theoretical scenarios, my question is aimed at the situation, where the alteration of the plans and breaking ones promise would lead to relevant or even severe inconveniences for the third party.

I assume there must be some level, for which skipping mass would be acceptable, because for example a job is nothing but a promise to work at the scheduled times. If someone planning to attend mass in the morning promises his employer (assuming he works in a job, in which sunday work someties has to be done) to work in the evening, he would not be required to go to mass if the morning mass was cancelled. Yet, he could also break his promise to his employer and it would just cause some inconvenience for his employer (e.g. has to do more work himself) and inconvenience to himself (might lose his job) - nobody dies and one could always argue, that Jesus had to suffer more than that. But this would be legitimate reason to skip the evening mass.

Therefore my suspicion that for some sort of promises and in case the consequences of breaking are severe enough, the situation might be similar.

Agree completely. For some promises, you are excused from Mass: work, caring for small children or the sick, etc. But, it has to be something serious.

God Bless

 

[carn]

work, caring for small children or the sick, etc. But, it has to be something serious.

So if the potential excuse for Mass is not explicitely covered (e.g. work, caring for small children, sick), determining its validity as an excuse, especially if its serious enough, is left to the individual catholic and his/her well formed conscious. What about catholics lacking the latter?

And, a bit of topic, does that caring for children include having to care for children instead of going to Mass, because they are not well behaved enough to drag them along?

 

[bilop]

So if the potential excuse for Mass is not explicitely covered (e.g. work, caring for small children, sick), determining its validity as an excuse, especially if its serious enough, is left to the individual catholic and his/her well formed conscious. What about catholics lacking the latter?

And, a bit of topic, does that caring for children include having to care for children instead of going to Mass, because they are not well behaved enough to drag them along?

If the catholic has a question, they should ask their pastor. A pastor can dispense the Sunday obligation if there is good cause.

I’ve only heard it stated as “caring for young children”. I imagine that means children too young to take to Mass, for whatever reason. There has to be some limit though; you can’t not go to mass b/c your 9 y.o. is a brat that you can’t control.

God Bless

 

[maryjk]

If the catholic has a question, they should ask their pastor. A pastor can dispense the Sunday obligation if there is good cause.

I’ve only heard it stated as “caring for young children”. I imagine that means children too young to take to Mass, for whatever reason. There has to be some limit though; you can’t not go to mass b/c your 9 y.o. is a brat that you can’t control.

God Bless

Actually, if you need to stay home with your 9 year old, then you need to stay home with your 9 year old. The Church doesn’t put an age limit on it. She also doesn’t list every reason that you can miss Mass.

If my parents were flying in and needed a ride and I needed to miss Mass to get them, I would. (Assuming they were living and were able to fly.) They were both in need of help while traveling, but not “sick.” And sending a taxi to drive them the two hours to my home would have been outrageous. So, yes, if the Mass I had planned on attending had been cancelled and the only Mass now available would be when I would be driving to the airport, I would miss Mass.

 

[Kathrin]

So if the potential excuse for Mass is not explicitely covered (e.g. work, caring for small children, sick), determining its validity as an excuse, especially if its serious enough, is left to the individual catholic and his/her well formed conscious. What about catholics lacking the latter?

Maybe call up a priest?
(Or post in this forum but I really think in this case a priest is the better option, for I believe that he can actually give you advice that you can then follow with a clear conscience.)

 

[Kathrin]

(i apologize for the rolling smiley. It is not really a funny matter. Too late to edit.)