Was missing Mass on January 1 a sin in my situation?

[AFCatholic]

My wife had planned a sleepover for my oldest daughter on New Year’s Eve; when we planned it we were unaware January 1 was a holy day of obligation. The girls didn’t leave the house until around noon, and there were no parishes in our area that offered an evening service. My wife and I watched the Mass on EWTN at St. Peter’s Basilica presided over by the Pope, but obviously that is not the same as going. Do my wife and I need to go to confession before receiving the Eucharist this weekend?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

If there was no intention to miss Mass on a holy day of obligation, then there was no sin. Indeed, if the obligation to attend Mass was dispensed in your diocese – as it was in some areas in the U.S. – there was no obligation to attend Mass.

I am curious though how you and your wife could have been totally unaware until the last minute that January 1 was a holy day of obligation. Did your parish not announce the obligation in the church bulletin and from the pulpit, as do many Catholic parishes? If it did not, then you may wish to suggest to your pastor that he do so next year. If it did, and if you simply decided not to adjust your daughter’s sleepover plans accordingly, then that action may be something you may wish to consider more carefully for gravity, knowledge, and consent in an examination of conscience.