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St. Joseph Catholic Church

1875 S C R 700 W
North Vernon, IN 47265

Rev. Jonathan P. Meyer, Administrator

Office Hours:

Monday Office closed
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 8:30 AM till 12:30 PM

St. Joseph Rectory Phone: 812-346-4783
Fax: 812-352-9033

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Can you address the issue of Holy Days of Obligation being made "non-obligatory" if they fall on a Saturday or Monday, which happened with All Saints Day this year, and will happen with January 1st next year as well.

Most Catholics usually assume the decision to allow people out of their obligation to attend a Holy Day Mass is just the Church being more reasonable, flexible, and realistic in realizing Catholics just aren't going to attend to Mass two days in a row (Holy Day and Sunday Obligation). However, there is more than just the Church accommodating laziness. The Church desires to allow celebrations to last as long as possible, thus solemnities can be observed from 4PM the night before up through midnight the next day. This, in fact, is what happens every Sunday (every Sunday being a solemnity); Saturday evening Mass are allowed because the celebration of Sunday has already officially begun. This tradition in our Church is a nod to Judaism, which teaches that the Sabbath begins at sundown the day before. Since the Second Vatican Council began allowing the celebration of Masses the evening before Solemnities, our country has grown to almost prefer those Masses to the Masses celebrated on the actual day of the solemnity (Think of attendance at Christmas Eve Masses compared to Christmas Day Masses). Let's now look at an example. Let's say Aug. 15 falls on a Saturday. The Church will say that the Solemnity of the Assumption, in this case, is NOT a Holy Day of Obligation. Why? Well, the custom is to have Saturday anticipation Masses for Sunday, which would now be held while the celebration of the Assumption is still going on until midnight on the 15th. Plus, we have the issue in the U.S. that most parishes have one priest (if they aren't sharing a priest with other parishes) and a priest should only celebrate three (3) Masses a day. That is another consideration that surely led to the bishops' decision. If we say that a Monday Holy Day of Obligation MUST be observed, there will be some who will be unable to get to Church on Monday, but the priest can't celebrate MORE Masses on Sunday night as an anticipation for the next day's Holy Day because of all the Masses he said Sunday morning. All this being said, there are GOOD and JUST reasons that Monday and Saturday are NOT Holy Days of Obligation. However, you can always go to Mass on those days even if you are not required; Masses are normally said even if they are not obligatory. Something relating to this will take place at Christmas. Due to Christmas being on a Saturday, and it not being suppressed as an Holy Day of Obligation, Saturday Anticipation Masses are NOT ALLOWED on the 25th for the Sunday on the 26th. It is not Liturgically possible to celebrate anticipation Masses for the 1st Sunday after Christmas on Christmas Night; not to mention that I will have just completed saying 6 Christmas Masses and could not then say more Masses Saturday night. So, the Schedule for December 26th will be as follows: Holy Family Mass Schedule-Sun Dec 26 7:30AM St. Mary’s 8AM St. Joseph (Note time and date-Thank you Fr. Joe Sheets) 9AM St. Mary’s 10:45AM St. Ann ~NO Anticipation MASSES Sat Dec 25th in the Evening!~