What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

A truly sad situation in the Archdiocese of Leeds.

Six parishes were to be suppressed, but now they are simply to be "closed".

The local ordinary now forbids Mass to be offered in them.

This includes the church where the TLM was celebrated.

Ugly business to be sure.

One can understand the distress of the lay people.

One can understand if no one is paying the bills at those parishes too.

There is often a great deal under the surface that doesn’t get out in media reports, but this remains a real puzzle… a sad puzzle.

I received a question by e-mail:

Dear Father Z,

It’s commonly accepted that shut-ins and invalids who are unable to go to church can fulfill their Sunday obligation by watching a live Mass on TV. It’s that "live" part that is the reason for my writing.

My problem concerns traveling (in my case, required business travel which I’m doing as I write this) and not being able to get to Mass due to scheduling conflicts with airlines, etc. Nor being able to understand the local language anyway since the universal language is no longer used. In those cases, rather than miss it altogether (an "excused absence"?) do you think watching a prerecorded Mass on a TV or PC could count as an honest effort and be just as valid as the live Mass for the invalids? I would use an EF recording, of course, and substitute the correct Propers from my missal for the ones on the video.

First, I appreciate your desire to fulfill your obligations regarding Mass on the necessary days.

However, I need to disabuse you, and everyone else reading this, about a what you say is "commonly accepted".

 

People do not fulfill their Sunday or Holy Day Obligations to attend Mass by watching a recording or transmission of a Mass, regardless if they are shut-ins or not.

If people are impeded from attending Holy Mass for a serious reason, for example they are invalids or they are ill, or even if they are terrified of slipping and falling on the ice during winter, they are excused their obligation.

God does not ask of us what is not possible.

So, watching Mass on TV, etc., can be a holy and pious thing to do, but it does not fulfill the obligation strictly speaking.

As far as traveling is concerned, there are certainly those situations when, for example, you are in a strange place and finding a Mass in the narrow period of time allowed would be a serious difficulty.  In those cases, you are excused your obligation. 

Of course God cannot be fooled.  If you have 8 hours and the church is next to your hotel, and there are three Masses scheduled during that time, you might not have a very good excuse.  I suppose if the Mass is being celebrated in Swahili, and you are psychologically terrified of hearing the Swahili language for some reason, that could be a mitigating factor.  So would the sure knowledge that the dopey priest and his weird staff have scheduled liturgical abuses sure to infuriate you to the point of near occasion of mortal sin.   But I digress.

If people are seriously impeded from attending Mass, their obligation is mitigated.  It is good to want to watch something, and I applaud that.  But let’s understand what is happening.  Language like "just as valid" doesn’t apply.

Vatican Radio has issued a 4 CD set of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI reciting the Rosary.

In Latin.

I don’t have any practical ordering information yet.

When H.E. Most Rev. Raymond Burke was shifted from the Archdiocese of St. Louis to be Prefect of the Apostolic Segnatura, many people asked me if this was a matter of promoveatur ut amoveatur, that is, to get him out of the way before the November elections in the USA.

I said "No.".

This is in from CNA:

Catholics who support abortion should not receive Communion, says Archbishop Burke

Archbishop Raymond Burke

Rome, Aug 19, 2008 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The prefect of the Apostolic Signature, Archbishop Raymond Burke, said this week that Catholics, especially politicians who publically defend abortion, should not receive Communion, and that ministers of Communion should be responsibly charitable in denying it to them if they ask for it, “until they have reformed their lives.”

In an interview with the magazine, Radici Christiane, Archbishop Burke pointed out that there is often a lack of reverence at Mass when receiving Communion.  “Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is a sacrilege,” he warned.  “If it is done deliberately in mortal sin it is a sacrilege.”  [When is the last time you heard a bishop speak publicly of sacrilege?]

To illustrate his point, he referred to “public officials who, with knowledge and consent, uphold actions that are against the Divine and Eternal moral law. For example, if they support abortion, which entails the taking of innocent and defenseless human lives.  A person who commits sin in this way should be publicly admonished in such a way as to not receive Communion until he or she has reformed his life,” the archbishop said.

“If a person who has been admonished persists in public mortal sin and attempts to receive Communion, the minister of the Eucharist has the obligation to deny it to him. Why? Above all, for the salvation of that person, preventing him from committing a sacrilege,” he added.

“We must avoid giving people the impression that one can be in a state of mortal sin and receive the Eucharist,” the archbishop continued.  “Secondly, there could be another form of scandal, [This is a very important point.] consisting of leading people to think that the public act that this person is doing, which until now everyone believed was a serious sin, is really not that serious -  if the Church allows him or her to receive Communion.”

“If we have a public figure who is openly and deliberately uphold