Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Mortal Sins?? Message-ID: Date: 17 Nov 89 08:48:38 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA Lines: 56 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article jhpb@lancia.garage.att.com writes: >Missing Mass is serious [sin] because the Church made Mass attendance >a serious obligation. >The source of some of these things is the code of canon law. If anyone >has a copy handy, please look it up. Mass attendance is probably in there. Anybody who discusses things regularly with JHPB should always carry a copy of canon law with them. I do; I wouldn't walk up to my workstation without it. "The Code of Canon Law: Text and Commentary, Study Edition", edited by Coriden, Green and Heintschel, Paulist Press, 1985 is an amazingly readable tome. I recommend it to anyone, Catholic or not, who would like to get the definitive lowdown on Church practices. Of course, this is not primarily a source of Catholic belief; rather it specifies the juridical aspects of western Catholicism: obligations of the clergy and laity, the proper form for the sacraments, and so forth. The pontifical commission with the responsibility for the revision of the Code explicitly stated that it is not for canon law to determine which sins are grave or not grave. This is properly outside the scope of the Code. I am quoting from the 1983 revision of Canon Law. I believe that JHPB would agree that it replaces the 1917 codex. Canon 1247 -- On Sundays and other holy days, the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass; they are also to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord's Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body. Canon 1248 -- 1. The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day. 2. If because of a lack of a sacred minister or for other grave cause, participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible, it is specifically recommended that the faithful take part in the liturgy of the word if it is celebrated in the parish church or another sacred place according to the prescriptions of the diocesan bishop, or engage in prayer for an appropriate amount of time personally, or in a family or, as occasion offers, in groups of families. I think very few confessors would presume that missing Mass on Sunday was, on the face of it, a mortal sin, though it is not a matter to dismiss lightly. The Church makes clear, both here and in the documents of Vatican II, that this is a serious obligation. As David said, if this were habitual and willful, it would indicate a problem with one's faith and in one's relationship with the Catholic community. -- Steve Dyer dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer dyer@arktouros.mit.edu, dyer@hstbme.mit.edu