Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: A Service as a Substitute for Mass

ROME, JAN. 25, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

A reader from Grand Rapids, Michigan, sought some clarifications in pursuance to our reply regarding the legitimacy of organizing a Communion service as a substitute for the Saturday vigil Mass (see Jan. 11). In the case at hand, the pastor was apparently unable to find a priest to celebrate this Mass although the other Masses on Sunday were held. He did not inform ahead of time that there would only be a Communion service.

Our reader made the following comments:

"I believe the correspondent is questioning if: 1) Since there are ample opportunities in their area to attend a Vigil Mass, shouldn't their parish priest have canceled the liturgy that day rather than have a deacon celebrate a Communion service? 2) In any case, shouldn't the parishioners have had advance warning that the vigil Mass was not going to be a Mass but instead a Communion service (because the priest knew ahead of time that he did not have another priest available, and could have informed the parish), thus allowing them to attend an actual Vigil Mass at a neighboring parish, if they so chose.

"My question is: 1) Did they in fact fulfill their Sunday obligation by attending the Communion service, since they did not have advance warning? 2) Or should they have attempted to attend a Mass on Sunday, since they knew on Sunday that they had only attended a Communion service the afternoon/night before?

"My opinion is that to prevent just this sort of confusion, the pastor and/or bishop should cancel Mass at a particular parish and ask that parishioners attend Mass at another parish if [such Masses] are easily accessible. The faithful should not have to wonder if they have fulfilled their Sunday obligation."

In our original reply we clearly stated that organizing the Communion service was incorrect. Although this implies that the Mass should have been canceled and the people informed ahead of time, our reader is correct in pointing out that the point could have been brought out better in the original article.

With respect to his questions, I would say the following:

-- The Sunday obligation is to assist at Mass. A Communion service can never fulfill that obligation. In other words, if Mass is possible at another time, one is obliged to go to Mass. If Mass is unavailable, one does well to assist at a Communion service but has no obligation to do so.

-- In the concrete case of our original questioner: In good faith he attended what he believed would be a Mass with the intention of fulfilling his obligation, only to find that there was no Mass but a Communion service. If the reason for going to church on Saturday evening was due to some great difficulty in attending Mass on Sunday, then he could consider in good conscience that he had done all that was reasonably possible to fulfill the obligation. If, on the other hand, there was no great inconvenience in attending Mass on Sunday, he would be obliged to do so.