Would you move somewhere where you couldn't go to Mass?

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Something that never occurred to me when living in the States was that there are places in the world where getting to a Mass may be very difficult or impossible. There are parts of Alaska, for example, where the priest flies around in a small plane to give the sacraments, but there aren’t any regular Masses. I know that for a long time in American history, there were Catholics out clearing the wilderness of Ohio and Indiana and they would maybe see a priest a couple of times during their lives. or maybe a couple of times a year. When some priests finally came to Cincinnati, they had a LOT of baptisms and confirmations to catch up on.

Here in the Western Highlands of Scotland, we are able to attend Mass - we have a choice of two Masses, actually - each about a twenty minute drive away. And, one of those is held in an Anglican church that is kind enough to let us use the space. But, we happen to be sitting in the center of the parish. Our parish includes the island of Jura, and I don’t think there is a ferry service on Sunday morning. If there is, the ferry is pretty expensive, doesn’t run frequently, and you still have a good hour’s drive to get to the parish Mass by 10:30 am. There are other, more remote islands than Jura and I’m not sure what the Catholics do there. I think they may have a prayer service every week and someone brings the Eucharist.

If you were offered a job on one of these islands, a good job in your industry, would access to Mass be a big factor in deciding if you’d take it?

Would you think it a sin to accept a job that would put you in the position of only being able to occassionally attend Mass?
 
No, I wouldn’t.
But at this point, I won’t even move away from my parish.
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
No, I wouldn’t.
But at this point, I won’t even move away from my parish.
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Same here, for now. We’re both happy living where we are. But, if God was truly calling us to move to the back of beyond for whatever reason, I hope I’d go. There are people living in the US now who only have a priest come say Mass once or twice a month, so this is a real concern. But, I can say, proximity to our church is a big plus to us, so I’d have to be really, really certain God wants us to move far away from a church to actually do it.
 
The only way I’d do that is if the job was the only one available that would allow my husband to support his family.
 
If I didn’t have family obligations, maybe.

It’s not like I actively want to flee the sacraments, but at the same time: It might give the Church more incentive to establish missions, or regularize missions as dioceses and parishes, if there are Catholics in the area needing the sacraments, no?

tee
 
At the moment, I can attend daily mass in the morning, noon and evening. There are 31 catholic churches in 697.2 square kilometre island and every church has 2-3 mass daily. On Sunday, there are about 5-6 masses in every church. I’ve been attending daily mass for about 9 months now.

If it’s in accordance to His will, I will go. I believe it’ll be very painful though. Who knows that God wants me to do something, with my experience, in the new place. 🙂
 
tee_eff_em said:
If I didn’t have family obligations, maybe.

It’s not like I actively want to flee the sacraments, but at the same time: It might give the Church more incentive to establish missions, or regularize missions as dioceses and parishes, if there are Catholics in the area needing the sacraments, no?

tee
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Actually there are places in this county (the U.S.) where there are no local churches, which is what Glenmary Home Missioners glenmary.org/ is all about.
 
gelsbern said:
Actually there are places in this county (the U.S.) where there are no local churches, which is what Glenmary Home Missioners glenmary.org/ is all about.
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Indeed.

I’m not even sure how far travel would have to be for me to classify it as “too far”? I was once acquainted with a (sadly) sedevacantist family, who made a 4 hour round trip weekly to attend services of their liking. I’ve occasionally wondered: If they (however misguided) could do so, how far would I be willing to go to receive the legitimate sacraments?

tee
 
For me, I wouldn’t move to a place where I wouldn’t have access to the traditional Latin Mass. In a pinch I have gone, and would still, to the new Mass on a Sundayor holyday to fulfill my obligation. It is very important to have access to Mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation.
 
katybird said:
Would you think it a sin to accept a job that would put you in the position of only being able to occassionally attend Mass?
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Given I have such a job, I hope not. I work long shifts every Saturday and Sunday, and either school or work again occupies the morning daily Mass time slot. No parishes near me (that I know of, anyway) offer an evening daily Mass.

While I’m sure it doesn’t count for much, I watch the daily Mass on EWTN every night at 11 p.m. before going to bed.

Fortunately, I graduate college in May. Hopefully, I’ll have a nice Monday-Friday 9-5 job with weekends off. After working weekends for the past 8 years, I probably won’t know what to do with myself.

Oh…wait a minute… I could go to Sunday Mass! 👍
 
If I had no choice…then I guess I’d have no choice.

Otherwise, no.
 
katybird said:
Here in the Western Highlands of Scotland, we are able to attend Mass - we have a choice of two Masses, actually - each about a twenty minute drive away. And, one of those is held in an Anglican church that is kind enough to let us use the space. But, we happen to be sitting in the center of the parish. Our parish includes the island of Jura, and I don’t think there is a ferry service on Sunday morning. If there is, the ferry is pretty expensive, doesn’t run frequently, and you still have a good hour’s drive to get to the parish Mass by 10:30 am. There are other, more remote islands than Jura and I’m not sure what the Catholics do there. I think they may have a prayer service every week and someone brings the Eucharist.

If you were offered a job on one of these islands, a good job in your industry, would access to Mass be a big factor in deciding if you’d take it?

Would you think it a sin to accept a job that would put you in the position of only being able to occassionally attend Mass?
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That’s so interesting - I spent a couple of days on Skye this past summer and thought it was so beautiful and peaceful, like a monastery deserved to set up shop there! The wishful dreamer in me even entertained the thought of helping make that happen. But yeah, where would one go to get the sacraments somewhere like there? Particularly in a rural, predominantly non-catholic area?
 
Would I move somewhere where I couldn’t go to Mass?

St. John Vianney said that if we knew the value of the Mass, we would die of joy.

Pope Paul VI said, “The Mass is the most perfect form of Prayer!”

The Mass of the Catholic Church should not be taken for granted. “Do this in remembrance of Me”.

My answer: Never.❤️
 
In the days before antibiotics and modern medical care, so many children died of infections. Children in the countryside fared much better.

My first instinct was no, but then on consideration, if my children were in danger physically or spiritually (through living in a corrupt area), I would go. But, I’d seek spiritual direction first. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to be a good Catholic without regular reception of the Sacraments.

:confused:
 
No, I wouldn’t. I have often thought about how nice and quiet it would be to move back to the farm…but living just 6 minutes away from Church is more important.

:heart:Blyss
 
I have thought about this before. I live in an area that is already somewhat remote, and as our priest shortage worsens, there might be limited ability to get to church. I’ve considered moving to a more populated area in order to have a larger and more vibrant faith community, and I considered moving to a more remote area that would have more limited access to the sacraments. This is a difficult question. If we lose our priest when our current priest retires, I will make the drive to a further church, but not everyweek. One can have private and family devotions as a substitute, which is what we do when my work schedule limits my ability to get to Mass.

Remember that this is not a new problem. Transportation was always a problem for people, and there are some parts of Latin America where they have limited access to priests. I have decided that I will not allow that factor to be the deciding one in where I live. If we lose our priest here, I will stay, unless something clearly impells me to leave.

I have a theory that this is one reason that the Protestants have been so dominant in this country in settling the West, in that they were more free to remain devout without the visable church in place. They just needed their Bibles and devotions. For example, if you read the Little House on the Prairie series, you’ll see that Ma and Pa were very strong Christians, but they didn not alway have the support of a church or pastor. They had circuit pastors. I think we Catholics can do the same.
 
St_John said:
I have a theory that this is one reason that the Protestants have been so dominant in this country in settling the West, in that they were more free to remain devout without the visable church in place. They just needed their Bibles and devotions. For example, if you read the Little House on the Prairie series, you’ll see that Ma and Pa were very strong Christians, but they didn not alway have the support of a church or pastor. They had circuit pastors. I think we Catholics can do the same.
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There were Catholic priests that did the circuit in frontier days in America as well, for those Catholics in remote areas. St. John Neumann was one such priest.

The real reason, as I see it, that Protestants were more dominent in settling the west, is that the folks who immigrated here from Catholic nations like Poland , Lithuania and Austria-Hungary were a lot more likely to be coming here to work in mining and manufacturing rather than rural life.
 
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