Moving Holy Days of Obligation: for Catholic Answers

Mass for SS Peter & Paul in the Birmingham, also the occasion of the 
LMS AGM. Because the feast fell on a Saturday its celebration in the Novus Ordo
was moved to the Sunday. The same thing will happen in 2025 with All Saints.

My latest for Catholic Answers. It begins:

The Church’s Code of Canon Law lists ten holy days of obligation in addition to Sunday (1246.1): Christmas, Epiphany, the Ascension, Corpus Christi, January 1 (see below), the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, St. Joseph, Ss. Peter and Paul, and All Saints.

Readers may be surprised that there are so many, and some may be surprised that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the Church’s only Fast days, are not among them. However, bishops’ conferences can ask the Holy See to “abrogate” (remove) the obligation to attend Mass on some of these, and most countries have only five or six in practice: Christmas, plus a handful of others with special importance in the country in question.

A matter of recent controversy has been the question of what happens to the obligation, when not formally abrogated, when the feast falls on a Saturday or a Monday, perhaps because it has been transferred from Sunday to the following Monday. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has long taken the view that in these cases, the obligation is or can be lifted, but the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Interpretation of Legislative texts recently clarified that this is not so: the obligation cannot so easily be evaded, and the faithful must attend Mass on both the second Sunday in Advent and the Monday to which the Immaculate Conception has been transferred. 

Read the whole thing there.

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Armistice Day Requiem for the Catholic Military Association

On Monday the third annual Requiem for the Catholic Military Association, organised by the Latin Mass Society in Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, took place. It was well attended, included by current members of the armed services, and accompanied by the Southwell Consort, with a polyphonic requiem by the Portugese composer Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650).

For more on the Catholic Military Association of Our Lady of Victories, see their website.

The celebrant was the parish priest, Fr Alan Robinson. Photos by me: click through for more.

A particular treat was the Last Post, played by a military bugler in dress uniform, at the end of the Absolutions at the Catafalque. 

Annual Mass of Reparation for Abortion in Bedford: photos

The celebrant was Fr Gerard Byrne, assisted by Fr Michael Cullinane (deacon) and Fr Thomas Crean OP (subdeacon). It took place in The Holy Child and St Joseph, Bedford. Organised by the Latin Mass Society's Local Representative, Barbara Kay, Mass was a Votive of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in reparation for abortion. It was accompanied by the Southwell Consort.

All Souls: Annual Mass of Requiem for the Latin Mass Society

Last Saturday was the Commemoration of All Souls: a day when Masses are said for the dead. The Latin Mass Society has an annual Requiem Mass, and it was fitting that since All Souls fell on a Saturday, this was the day of our Requiem. The Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory very kindly celebrated their All Souls High Mass for the our intentions: that is, for the deceased members, staff, and benefactors of the Society.

On a heretical pope: reply to Dr John Lamont

The top of the newly-restored baldachino in St Peter's, Rome, on the occasion
of the traditionalist pilgrimage 'Ad Petri Sedem': to the See of Peter.

My latest on 1Peter5. It begins:

I am in debt to Dr John Lamont for his thorough discussion of the question of papal heresy. It is a problem that does not have a definitive explanation in magisterial texts, but as many important theologians and canonists of past centuries agree, it is one that has to be faced. Contrary to a naïve ultramontanism, it is not impossible for a pope to espouse heretical opinions, and indeed it has happened more than once in the past. The question is, what happens then?

This possibility is in itself not a challenge to the doctrine of papal infallibility. Papal infallibility has been very carefully defined at the First Vatican Council, and naturally it was defined very narrowly. The Pope’s public teaching on matters of faith and morals is guaranteed free from error (not, be it noted, inspired, like Scripture, only preserved from error) when he teaches the whole Church in the most solemn manner. Such teaching is not at issue here. A heretic is a heretic even if he never teaches anything solemnly. I might be a heretic even if I never express my heresy to another human being – although, in that case, no-one would know. The most likely case of papal heresy would be a pope harboring heretical opinions which are expressed in a private capacity, or at least in a less solemn mode of teaching, such as (on the usual historical reading) Pope John XXII teaching from the pulpit against the Particular Judgement in the 14th century.

Dr Lamont’s particular target is the much-followed view of Cajetan and John of St Thomas, that can be summarized rather simply as follows. They accept that a heretic cannot hold office in the Church, since the rejection of the Faith implies self-expulsion from the Church. (This is a theological notion of membership of the Church.) However, except in the most extreme emergencies, members of the Church should be able to rely on apparent office-holders wielding genuine authority, since this has implications for the salvation of souls. So bishops and others in the Church can continue to exercise their offices until such time as they are legally convicted of heresy: that is, denounced by their superiors, perhaps in the context of a canonical trial.

Read the whole thing there.

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