What if there was no Sunday Obligation?

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As to whether it is obligation or not, in reality depends on the relationship of the priest to their parishioners or to the community.
 
Stylites said:
A better question would be:

**What if no one could see anyone else in the Church except God? Would attendance increase or decrease? **

No more would there be any reason to go and fume over the Mass, or nitpick at what the priest does or doesn’t do, or glare at what other people are wearing, or judge the worthiness of who is handing them Holy Communion, or what physical building features are present or missing.
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I have a corollary to that. As long as we are fantasizing, if God would grant me anything in an ecclesiastical sense it would be the means and authority to celebrate the Mass and Divine Liturgy myself, for myself in a worthy little chapel in my backyard.

Mass or DL anytime I wanted it. No more being subjected to extremists (neither “liberal” nor “conservative”). Such a wonderful dream…
 
Dhugz said:
Why not?
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That’s on you to answer…

ALL Sundays are holy days of obligation. Unless there is some serious impediment (illness, no transportation, no church, etc.) we are obliged to attend a Catholic sacrificial liturgy every Sunday.
 
Exorcist said:
That’s on you to answer…

ALL Sundays are holy days of obligation. Unless there is some serious impediment (illness, no transportation, no church, etc.) we are obliged to attend a Catholic sacrificial liturgy every Sunday.
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No problem brother, i agree with that we must observe the Sunday Obligation as required by the Law and Tradition of the Church, I am just answering the question raised by the OP. But sometimes it is really depends on the relationship of the Priest to the community, if the priest is very friendly, then we expect a lot of parishioners who will support him and his parish, and also on how they deliver their homilies. In our country, a bishop asking the Priests to evolve their homilies into more interesting and do it in an evangelical way, this is due to the survey that many catholics bored to the homilies. That is why, the role of the Priests is to promote and intensify the spiritual life of the parishioners, it is not up to officiate a Mass it is more than. Specially most of our brethen in our country dont aware of the so Called Catholic Catechism, for them they will go to the Church when needed, they will go to mass if they think they made mortal sins, sometimes they dont know what do they believe. Just my sharing, and I hope in the future there will be no ignorant catholics.
 
Exorcist said:
I have a corollary to that. As long as we are fantasizing, if God would grant me anything in an ecclesiastical sense it would be the means and authority to celebrate the Mass and Divine Liturgy myself, for myself in a worthy little chapel in my backyard.

Mass or DL anytime I wanted it. No more being subjected to extremists (neither “liberal” nor “conservative”). Such a wonderful dream…
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Interesting. Of course, you don’t need to celebrate your own personal backyard Mass in order to offer perfect and solitary adoration to God. No authority required, just a heart full of love.
 
Dhugz said:
No problem brother, i agree with that we must observe the Sunday Obligation as required by the Law and Tradition of the Church, I am just answering the question raised by the OP. But sometimes it is really depends on the relationship of the Priest to the community, if the priest is very friendly, then we expect a lot of parishioners who will support him and his parish, and also on how they deliver their homilies. In our country, a bishop asking the Priests to evolve their homilies into more interesting and do it in an evangelical way, this is due to the survey that many catholics bored to the homilies. That is why, the role of the Priests is to promote and intensify the spiritual life of the parishioners, it is not up to officiate a Mass it is more than.
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The role of the pastor IS far more than simply providing a means for the faithful to have their Sunday obligation tickets validated. However even in those parishes (and there are a huge number) whose reason for existence is little more than acting a ticket validators, Catholic still have an obligation to attend Mass.
 
Exorcist said:
The role of the pastor IS far more than simply providing a means for the faithful to have their Sunday obligation tickets validated. However even in those parishes (and there are a huge number) whose reason for existence is little more than acting a ticket validators, Catholic still have an obligation to attend Mass.
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Yes Catholics still have an obligation to attend Mass, but in reality in the Philippines, most of the Catholics are not really aware of it. Thay is why one of our Bishop here, asking the Priests to make their Homilies alive as what the Evangelical doing. As what i have said in the other threads, there is no such things as RCIA in our country.
 
Dhugz said:
Yes Catholics still have an obligation to attend Mass, but in reality in the Philippines, most of the Catholics are not really aware of it. Thay is why one of our Bishop here, asking the Priests to make their Homilies alive as what the Evangelical doing. As what i have said in the other threads, there is no such things as RCIA in our country.
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Isn’t that because everybody is already Catholic, or former Catholic? RCIA is to prepare and receive converts to the Catholic faith. Is the faith taught by the church in a systematic way, outside of Mass? Classes for the kids or adults?
 
babochka said:
Isn’t that because everybody is already Catholic, or former Catholic? RCIA is to prepare and receive converts to the Catholic faith. Is the faith taught by the church in a systematic way, outside of Mass? Classes for the kids or adults?
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Majority of us are catholics, but we simply convert and baptize non- Catholic Children as long as their parents permit or allowing their kids to embrace the Catholic Faith, and before they receive the first communion. For adult converts, the priest baptize them or sometime the other priest required them to attend mass only before they will be baptize. But sad to say there are lot communities in the Philippines which do not receive First communion, due to the lack of catechist, and non participation of the catholic parents. Simple to say, most of us here are passive members of the Church. It only trigger once there are miracles happened. Only pupils and students of the Catholic Schools are properly catechized. But anyway, though most of the filipino catholics are not properly catechized we can say that almost have the deeper faith in the Catholic Church.
 
Dhugz said:
Yes Catholics still have an obligation to attend Mass, but in reality in the Philippines, most of the Catholics are not really aware of it. Thay is why one of our Bishop here, asking the Priests to make their Homilies alive as what the Evangelical doing. As what i have said in the other threads, there is no such things as RCIA in our country.
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I’m not sure what you’re saying. If they are not aware that missing a holy day of obligation is a mortal sin then they pastor had better catechize them – like yesterday. That’s serious stuff. On the other hand if they are still attending Mass without knowing it’s an obligation, then that’s a good thing.

I’ll say this much. If Catholics in a certain parish/diocese/province/country aren’t aware we are to attend Mass on holy days of obligation, then things are very broken and need to be fixed.
 
Exorcist said:
What do you think would be the impact to your parish if there were no more holy days of obligation?
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I agree with many of the other posters here. Initially, the drop wouldn’t likely be more than 10% or so. However, I do think that without the obligation to attend, the attendance ratio would likely be similar to that of protestant churches (where there is not attendance obligation). I used to work at a protestant church and the percentage of those in attendance each week was often around 1/3 of those on membership roles. Many times it was more like 1/4.
 
Journey322 said:
I agree with many of the other posters here. Initially, the drop wouldn’t likely be more than 10% or so. However, I do think that without the obligation to attend, the attendance ratio would likely be similar to that of protestant churches (where there is not attendance obligation). I used to work at a protestant church and the percentage of those in attendance each week was often around 1/3 of those on membership roles. Many times it was more like 1/4.
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That’s an interesting analogy. It seems like there already is a 25% attendance among Catholics so apparently the matter of obligation doesn’t move a lot of people.

I chose a 90% drop without thinking much about it, but much of that has already occurred, leaving only those who stay for very little of the Mass (arriving way late and leaving after communion) at risk for further attendance deterioration, IMO.
 
Stylites said:
A better question would be:

**What if no one could see anyone else in the Church except God? Would attendance increase or decrease? **

No more would there be any reason to go and fume over the Mass, or nitpick at what the priest does or doesn’t do, or glare at what other people are wearing, or judge the worthiness of who is handing them Holy Communion, or what physical building features are present or missing.
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nothing left to moan at do you mean :eek:

once you been going 20 + years all that type of moan has gone anyway and you learn to let whatever happens happens. Not saying you don’t have concerns or worries just that its only the priest that hears them - or from me this pries hears them as long ago given up moaning about suchlike 👍
 
JRKH said:
Agree with the above posters…However I would expect to see a small decrease only because, without the “obligation” aspect, there would be less concern among the faithful about missing mass when there is some sort of serious scheduling conflict. And what might be considered “serous” in people’s minds might be more loosely defined…🤷
So I voted - down by up to 10%…

Peace
James
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Same here.
 
The folks in my parish are pretty devout and a lot attend mass daily, so I wouldn’t expect any change.
 
I would expect that attendance would decrease. I would fully expect that people would probably skip a Sunday for vacation, or because they felt mildly ill (or even tired), or the football game started at the same time as Mass.

You may see the same people attend, but probably not every Sunday/Saturday night.
 
I wouldent be suprised to see people go more on other days so they could keep the weekend free, go away etc. Parishes would have to adapt of course and attendence would depend on how well the parish adapted.
 
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