www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Fulfilling Sunday Obligation at an Orthodox Liturgy

I have read the old post on this back from 2001 stating that there used to be a provision (in Roman Canon Law) that permitted Catholics to fulfill their Sunday Obligation at an Orthodox Divine Liturgy (even if there were Roman Catholic Masses available in the same town). I have also read this privilege has gone away after the 1970s. I have seen arguments that Eastern Canon law only states an Eastern Catholic must attend the Divine Liturgy on Sunday and doesn't specify if this must be exclusively at Catholic Churches, or if Orthodox Liturgies also count?

The reason I want to know is that I live 2 hours away from the nearest Byzantine Catholic Church and I have an Antiochian Orthodox parish half a block from our apartment. For the Sundays my family is not available to make it out of town to attend the Byzantine Liturgy, can we fulfill our obligation at the Orthodox Church? Or are we forced, in this circumstance, to attend a Roman Catholic Mass?

I ask this in the context of my family all being canonical Ruthenian Byzantine Catholics. Currently we are Roman Catholics and are not free from being bound to Roman Canon law but when, God willing, we make the switch, I want to know if this would work for us.

It is my hope in the next few years to move up to the town where the Byzantine Church is, but in the meantime it would be a tremendous comfort to know that we could fulfill our obligation at the Orthodox liturgy. As it is now, if we aren't able to make it to the Byzantine Church we just don't go anywhere. For reasons I don't wish to explain here, doing nothing on Sunday is preferable to attending the novus ordo churches near me, if we are unable to attend the Byzantine Church.

This article and the comments at the bottom (including one from a Ruthenian Byzantine challenging the authors conclusions on this very issue) seem to suggest that it is impossible for an Eastern Catholic to fulfill their obligation at an Orthodox liturgy. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/sunday-precept-and-the-orthodox-divine-liturgy-4717

Thoughts?

Christ is in our midst!!

Colin:

There have been permissions given in the past that are no longer in force because of the new Codes of Canon Law that came into effect in or around 1983. As you see from the article, no Catholic fulfills his obligation for Sunday Liturgy by attending an Orthodox Divine Liturgy in general:


In the situation where there are Catholic and Orthodox sharing for pastoral reasons, it is because both communities are small, either one or the other lacks a priest, and it is a necessity.

The bishops of the United States have spoken about these situations formally years ago and have stated that these circumstances do no apply here because a Catholic can go to another ritual Church. So if you become Ruthenian and cannot get to the DL, you always have your local Latin Catholic Church available.

Did you not read the article you linked? Your answer is there.

Bob

I was hoping that it was still in effect. I have avowed never to step foot in a novus ordo church again. I do not even recognize it as valid anymore. Especially the ones near me. I will just have to settle for taking on one mortal sin for intentionally skipping Mass on Sundays where we can't make it up to the Byzantine Church, rather than attend a novus ordo and leave with a multitude of sins for experiencing anger and hatred even towards the sacrilegious "mass", profanation of our Lord's Body via communion in the hand, etc. Personally I can not tolerate these abuses anymore. For my own spiritual health, I simply can not attend a novus ordo anymore. We will just have to do the best we can until we're able to move North (God willing). Failing that, I suppose the only real option left for me will be to join the Eastern Orthodox (despite struggling with some of their teachings). It's a real unfortunate position to be in, being held spiritually hostage by Rome.

Christ is in our midst!!

Colin:

I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry that your stubborn pride has blinded you to what a "mortal" sin really is. You have stated that you would rather trade your immortal soul and your eternity for your pride.

"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his immortal soul, or what can a man trade for his soul?"

This is not a game. In my family we have a saying: "This life is NOT a dress rehearsal; it's the real thing."

You remind me of the story told of Joseph Stalin. As he was dying, Stalin was in a semi-coma with all the politburo surrounding his bed. He lay without a motion. Suddenly he woke, wide-eyed and lifted off the bed, shaking his fist at the ceiling, before collapsing with his last breath. It was said to leave the men around him terror-stricken. They wondered what he had seen and what he was reacting to.

Go ahead and shake your fist at Christ. The Holy Spirit is at work in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Of that I firmly believe. Why things are working out as they are, I do not know; it is beyond my understanding. Some day the Lord may decide to reveal these things to me; maybe not. As one of the prayers I use each day reads, "I worship in silence Your Holy Will and Your inscrutable ways."

I will pray that your hatred be drained from you before you must meet Christ one-on-one. St. Ephraim the Syrian has some teachings that say "prayers that are not offered in love are not heard" and "do not let the sun set on your anger."

Bob

My feelings of anger and hate are at directed at the apathy at those parishes where people receive our Lord without discerning his Body. And while we can't know individually who is guilty or not, we can know that no small number is responsible. When you see the same 5-8 people at confession every sunday, yet the entire parish goes to receive every Sunday? That's not right. And our priests don't say anything. They simply don't care. When a priest thinks it's ok to chew gum through the Mass (even during communion)? People wrote Archbishop Gomez about that repeatedly and nothing ever came from it. And now he's the head of the USCCB (Heaven help us). Between that and his liturgical dancing and I could seriously go on and on and on and on. I love our Lord. I do not want to see him abused by people that claim they love him. How can I not feel anger? When nothing changes for so long, how can that anger not fester? Roman Catholicism is killing my faith. That's what prompted me going East in the first place. Byzantine Catholicism was the last net that stopped me from breaking with Rome completely and joining the Orthodox. I don't "want" to be bitter and angry. I want to completely let go of Roman Catholicism and Pope Francis and the Bishops in the United States and simply write them off as a "roman problem", pray for them (from a distance) and just focus on building up the Ruthenian community I hope to remain part of. So for me, I agree with the SSPX. The Sunday obligation doesn't necessarily apply to the novus ordo. For many people, myself included, the novus ordo is a near occasion of sin.

As it is I have so little faith left in the Catholic Church. I can't help but wonder sometimes if the current state of affairs is God's justice? Perhaps Vatican I and the notion of papal infallibility/universal jurisdiction was indeed a mistake and God is correcting it by humbling the Roman Church? While the EO have a litany of their own problems, it can be said to their credit that their leaders are not embracing in public acts of apostasy.