From a priest reader…
This year the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December, falls on the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Which has precedence?
It is transferred in the Novus Ordo. Is it transferred in the Traditional Latin Mass?
My initial reaction was that Immaculate Conception should be transferred to the next available day, that is, to Monday 9 December.
NB: Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation in these USA as Mary under that title is patroness of the nation. More on the obligation question at the end.
I looked at a couple different Ordos, including online divininumofficium.com which says that Immaculate Conception is on 9 December. However, the Ordo of the LMS and propria.org have Immaculate Conception on Sunday 8 December, with a commemoration of the Sunday.
So… here’s the problem in a nutshell.
Immaculate Conception is a 1st Class Feast. The 2nd Sunday of Advent is a 1st Class Feast.
Because this date conjunction is sure to pop up every few years, the clever guys who developed our calendar and rubrics will have sorted this out.
In the front of the 1962 Missale Romanum in the 1. Rubricae Generales, under III – De dominicis we read that 1st Class Sundays (e.g., of Advent and of Lent), take precedence over 1st Class Feasts that coincide. That settles it, right?
There’s more!
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is the Calendrical Exception!
Here is the page from an editio typica of the 1962 Missale Romanum:
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin is “praefertur” (literally “placed before”) a “occurrenti” (literally “meeting up with”) Advent Sunday.
Smoother: The Feast of the Immaculate Conception has precedence when a Sunday of Advent falls on the same day.
Then it tells you what to do: go look at 104-105 which deals with concurrence of feasts for Vespers.
So, the bottom line is that 8 December 2024 we celebrate the Immaculate Conception using the Vetus Ordo with a commemoration of the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Say the Office of the Immaculate Conception with commemorations.
The Novus Ordo places more emphasis on the season.
Another question pops up. If in these USA in the Novus Ordo the Immaculate Conception is on Monday 9 December and if the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation…. does everyone – regardless of preference or what they attended on Sunday – have to go to Mass under pain of mortal sin?
According to a document from the Vatican on Holy Days in September 2024, yes, the Mass obligation is also transferred to Monday 9 December. HOWEVER, the USCCB’s liturgical calendar for 2024 still marks 9 December as “not a holy day of obligation.” The calendar wasn’t updated.
I believe many US dioceses have stated that 9 December is a Holy Day of Obligation. Check with your diocese to see if it stands or if there has been a dispensation. I believe Houston has a dispensation.
So… are those who determined only to participate in the Vetus Ordo, and do in fact participate on 8 Dec in Mass for the Immaculate Conception, still bound to go to Mass on 9 December? I think, yes. … um… no… um… the mens of the obligation is pretty clearly that the obligation to attend Mass for the Immaculate Conception means that the Mass to fulfill the obligation uses the formulary for Immaculate Conception. So, if you attend a Mass of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December, you are not also obliged to go on the 9th.
What if there is no Traditional Latin Mass available?
Then one’s conscience needs to struggle with issues of “moral impossibility” and “serious reasons” by which the obligation is held to be voided. One truly must have a “serious reason” or “just cause” to be legitimately excused from the obligation. Cf. CCC 2181 and can. 1248 §2.
One could also ask one’s pastor (or the local bishop or VG) for a dispensation.
UPDATE:
More HERE about the Novus Ordo 9 December date.
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FSSP Phoenix is transferring to the 9th, probably to be “in union” with the local bishop. Will be interesting to see what SSPX do.
So let me get this straight…. For the N.O., Ascension Thursday is so important that it is moved to a Sunday so people can easily attend. All Saints’ Day gets the obligation cancelled if it falls on a Saturday or Monday, because then the people would have to attend Mass on two consecutive days. BUT the Immaculate Conception does not have its obligation cancelled if it lands on a Monday and if it lands on a Sunday, it gets its obligation moved…unless the local ordinary decides to cancel it? But it’s allegedly not as important as Ascension, but the extra obligation exists. Wow! How is the average pew-sitter supposed to figure this all out? I tend to be a little more on top of this than average, and if I hadn’t read this post I would have thought that December 8 is a Sunday this year, so no extra obligation – just like when Christmas falls on a Sunday.
I am not sure how the rubrics for the traditional Latin Mass could be any clearer:
“Sunday I class takes precedence over all feasts in occurrence. The feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, however, takes precedence over the Sunday in Advent on which it falls.”
The problem with the comment by Joseph Corvus is that it makes sense, clearly more than we can expect from the hierarchy.
After reading this yesterday I was motivated to do some further research. Several dioceses and archdioceses are giving dispensations – I found at least six or seven. What I don’t know is if an archdiocese grants a dispensation if the suffragens have to follow suit (from what I could tell – it’s up to the local ordinary).
Anyway, this reminds me of Christmas every six or seven years when Christmas falls on a Saturday and a large number of Catholics complain about having to attend Mass twice on a weekend. The last twenty-five years (that I know of) many parishes purposely schedule a Holy Day Mass for 0700 or 1900 to allow those who have to work a full day can make their Holy Day of Obligation. The parish I regularly attend is in an area with several businesses and that parish (and at least two other parishes) have Mass on Holy Days around lunchtime. It’s not difficult to find a Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation.
Hwriggles4-
Metropolitan archbishops do not have the authority to dispense the faithful of a suffragan diocese. Each bishop must make his own decision.
In the Byzantine east, we simply don’t transfer feast days like that. If a first class feast falls on a Sunday, then it is both Sunday AND the first class feast. Vespers and Matins get a bit more complicated with the propers, but they both are celebrated. Even the Annunciation and Good Friday are both celebrated together if they fall on the same date (and have been twice in the last 10 years) – and in 2035, we’ll have a “kyriopascha” – Annunciation and Easter together! That’ll be fun!
So… are those who determined only to participate in the Vetus Ordo, and do in fact participate on 8 Dec in Mass for the Immaculate Conception, still bound to go to Mass on 9 December? I think, yes. … um… no… um… the mens of the obligation is pretty clearly that the obligation to attend Mass for the Immaculate Conception means that the Mass to fulfill the obligation uses the formulary for Immaculate Conception. So, if you attend a Mass of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December, you are not also obliged to go on the 9th.
I asked our priest from the FSSP years ago when this issue came up. The way he explained it was that even though they follow the liturgical rubrics for the 1962 Missal, if the holy day of obligation is transferred, Catholics who attend the EF are still bound by the obligation to attend Mass on the transferred day, even if it’s the regular daily Mass according to the 1962 Missal, if they are able to do so.
If it’s helpful to any readers this side of the pond, to my knowledge, Immaculate Conception is not a holy day of obligation in England and Wales (or Scotland) – it is of obligation in Ireland (including NI); however, a quick look at the “Diocesan Diary” for Dublin archdiocese suggests there is no additional obligation for the 9th.
Two calendars.
Two very different calendars.
Yesterday I was told our Novus Ordo parish might not have Mass on Monday Dec 9. That means, NOT celebrating the Immaculate Conception.
Explain to me again how this is not two churches?
We profess to believe in one, holy, Catholic and apostolic.
Ave Maria, ora pro nobis
I beg to differ. The requirement to attend a mass on a holy day is separate from the readings heard or the feast celebrated. Using the Ascension as an example, assume a Bostonian traveling in Chicago on Ascension Thursday. He has an obligation to attend mass in that day, the solemnity not having been transferred in his Archdiocese. But Chicago has transferred the solemnity. Accordingly, the Bostonian will satisfy his obligation by attending a mass which celebrates the Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter. If he returns the next day to Boston and attends mass on Sunday, he will hear the readings for that Sunday. In fact, in that year, he will never have assisted at a celebration of the Ascension but will have fulfilled his obligation.
In the same way, if someone attends mass according to the 1962 missal on December 8 and hears the mass for the Immaculate Conception, I believe that he is still obligated to attend mass on December 9 to fulfill the obligation for that day.
We can usually control whether we attend mass on a particular day. We cannot control what the celebrant does at that mass.
In any event, how much harm could it do to assist at the celebration of Our Lady as the Immaculate Conception twice in the same year?
Dear APX,
well, when has it ever been heard of that when a feast of precept was transferred, the precept was transferred with it? Did the bishops say this explicitly? I suppose they can… but it’s not what is usually done…
Anyway, assuming there is not a particular feast on December 9th… well, it will be spiritually of benefit to Sunday churchgoers if they hear either a second Mass of the Immaculate Conception (either in the NO, or as a Votive Mass in the VO which is quite allowed). It used to have an Octave. – Or else the Mass which they missed on the preceding Sunday because it was then outranked.
(Going on Sunday to a Novus Ordo Mass and then the weekday to a Vetus Ordo ferial mass, without hearing any Mass of the Immaculate Conception seems to be more in the realm of the merely-legal, to me.)
I think the danger here is to the faithful in that it sews confusion as to what is their obligation. It also leads one to the conclusion that these obligations are not a matter of canon law but the whims of the local ordinary. I will likely attend at the local ICKSP oratory on Sunday then on Monday , the ninth local NO parish. Not a problem . On 11/1 I went to NO All Saints. All Souls Vetus Ordo on 11/02 and NO Mass on 11/03 . Not a problem. In my youth one would attend Midnight Mass on Christmas them Mass during the day. I do not understand the apprehension or concern of two or three days in a row of Mass attendance . I think this fussing about this is giving the impression that the faith is not immutable. It can be catered to the present times. Changing days of obligation seems like a whim. “ We don’t do that anymore “. I think this erodes observance not only of Mass obligation but of the faith as a whole.
Father Z.,
Just checked DivinumOfficium, (Dec. 6) and the 8th is now listed as the Immaculate Conception with a Commemoration of the 2nd Sunday of Advent. The FSSP in Baltimore will have the Feria of Advent on Monday and it is a holy day of obligation in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.