UPDATE!!
On December 29th, I posted the following:
January 1st Is A Holy Day
On December 29th, I posted the following:
January 1st Is A Holy Day
But it depends where you live
January 1st is, and has been, a holy day of obligation for centuries. For untold ages it was the Feast of the Circumcision (and still is in parishes using the traditional, or Extraordinary, Form). In churches under the New Order, or (plain ol’) Ordinary Form, the holy day is celebrated as the Feast of Mary, Mother of God.
Father Zuhlsdorf over at the What Does the Prayer Really Say blog reminds us:
1 January 2010 is a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States.
It is among the Holy Days of Obligation for the Universal Church.
“Universal” meaning the entire Catholic world, one would suppose. But, you’d suppose wrong. That’s right, the universal church does not include Southern California, because His Eminence Cardinal Roger the Dodger Mahoney has declared it is NOT a holy day of obligation this New Year.
I guess moving Ascension Thursday to the next Sunday wasn’t enough to weaken Catholic identity. No, in the land of fruits (including the ones Mahoney transferred from parish to parish) and nuts, it would be just too Catholic to go to Mass on Friday and then again on Sunday. Perish the thought!
Sheesh, it’s a national holiday, as well. It’s not like people are going to have to take time off of work. But that is of little concern to Mahoney, who continues do leave his Roman Protestant mark on the Left Coast in the few years he has remaining until mandatory retirement.
Then, today, I learned this (hat tip to California Catholic Daily News):
Then, today, I learned this (hat tip to California Catholic Daily News):
In December 1991, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a list of holy days of obligation in the United States. The list was accepted by the Vatican in the summer of 1992, and took effect on Jan. 1, 1993.
The decree, still in effect, lists the following holy days of obligation for Catholics in the United States: 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; and December 25, the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The decree provided for three exceptions: “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.”
But today is a Friday -- not a Saturday or a Monday – so why the exception in California? “It’s nothing really sinister,” a former priest of the Los Angeles archdiocese told California Catholic Daily. "It’s really pretty mundane – for the convenience of the lay people.”
No, I suggest it is a further attempt to dilute the Catholic identity of Catholics and turn them into Roman Protestants. And what about all the Catholics who listened to Mahoney and the other successors of Judas Iscariot and failed to fulfill their obligation today? Have they committed a sin? Is obedience to an unlawful order any excuse?
posted by Former Altar Boy at
3:46 PM
9 Comments:
I was really surprised when I heard about this. One of the ladies I work with in the office of the parish told me that she didn't think that the first was going to be a holy day of obligation, but I really thought she'd misheard. I checked in the bulletin (we would have gone anyway, but I was curious) and it didn't say anything.
This morning at Mass our priest asked everyone to raise their hands if they were there because it was a Holy Day of Obligation and a number of hands went up. He then explained that the diocese had said it wasn't required, but that he wanted people to show up so he didn't put it in the bulletin.
I definitely wouldn't have thought about not going to day, regardless of what the California bishops are saying. They seem to be full of disappointments lately. Or maybe it's just that I'm paying a lot more attention these days!
It was not a Holy Day in the Diocese of Boise...
We attended a FSSP chapel where it was a Holy Day.
CONVENIENCE?! Being an Orthodox Christian is very inconvenient! IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE!
Last year, on the Sunday before the first, the priest announced (San Bernardino Diocese) that Jan. 1st would not be a Holy Day of Obligation and - his words - football won. No announcement last Sunday, just noted in the bulletin.
I will be attending a 6pm TLM this evening in a San Diego parish.
Our parish has a 4pm vigil Mass on New Year's Eve. It was very well attended...mostly families with a lot of children or people from out of town. I hope that still counts!!
Well, because I naturally analyze everything, here goes.
Why have the California bishops dispensed Jan first from being a holy day?
Does it have to do with money?
Does it have to do with politics?
Does it have to do with sex scandals?
Does it have to do with the salvation of souls?
Is it an episcopal slight on feminism?
Is it a move to align Blessed Mary Ever Virgin with the feminist movement? I'll bet this is the motivation underlying their dispensation. It would include the issue of obedience; for, the obligation depends on the bishops, and is a way they can say a grave mortal sin has occurred or not occurred according as they dispense or not dispense.
So, the bishops are exercising the authority to condemn a soul to Hell.
Now, this opens up a can of worms also. It pits the whole concept of obedience to God through the hierarchy of the Church against those forces that rail against the hierarchy.
Feminism rails against hierarchy. Homosexuality rails against hierarchy. Etc.
What is at stake is obedience to God. How the bishops are playing this is difficult to call. Are they attacking hierarchical authority? Or are they trying to bolster it by showing their own positions in the hierarchy ... ie next to God first and then to the Pope? Will we see an organization define itself like the Orthodox Churches with valid Sacraments but with a hierarchy empass? Only this new thing rising up would not be conservative of much theology in the way the Orthodox Churches are.
There is a reason, which should be found out. The way it stands now, there is confusion, disunity, chaos among the episcopacy. Confusion is easy to spot and the clearest example to me is the failure of so many priests to preach "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God". Disunity stems from unworthy reception of the Eucharist by willful culpable mortal sinners such as abortionlings, homosexualings, contraceptivelings, and various and sundry otherlings. Chaos comes from lack of leadership ... weaken the hierarchy and chaos takes up its wail.
Maybe the bishops are trying to figure out how to prep the people so they can have the future Jan 1 Feast of Our Lady led by women, like they have parish administrators being women, chancellors being women, women being men ... Of course one cannot be the other, so I wonder what the charades and delusions will lead to in the end, before the ship is once again righted with right rites and not left with left rites.
You all think I'm drunk writing all this stuff, I can tell. Maybe it's better you do, that way I'll have an excuse.
3 things:
1. Put the Holy Days back on their rightful days ( Epiphany, Ascension
2. Get rid of the exception for Sat & Mon & restore the obligation
3. Make St. Joseph's feast on 19 March a Holy Day of obligation like it is in other parts of the world.
The disunity and disorganization and dissing of hierarchy makes the Church a hard target to hit.
Militarily, this is a defensive advantage, much like what the US military finds in fighting insurgency in the GWOT.
But, militarily, the disadvantage is offensive, in that it cannot lauch any effective advance. And that is the same as the gay agenda, which is hard to hit but not to difficult to defend against.
The profile of Church leadership is, therefore, similar to GWOT insurgency which hides behind women and children, and the gay agenda which is powerless to win any ground.
Will this all change when the gays are eventually kicked out of the hierarchy and the laity rolls off its feminist couch and walks out the door of the brothel it's been visiting for several decades?
I just had to leave one more comment here, because one (rather unpleasant) thought popped into my head when we were doing our parish's bookkeeping earlier this week. I am not sure if all the diocese in California operate in this way, but in the diocese of Sacramento the collections taken on Holy Days remain completely with the parish they are taken at. The diocese doesn't take their % as they usually do on Sundays or non-Holy Days when collections are taken. So any donations given on January 1st would be counted when % were taken by the diocese. I hope it doesn't have to do with money, but it did make me wonder if that's a motivating factor....
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