Bet you forgot about all those little old ladies still sleeping in pews at closed parishes in the Boston area. Seems everybody did. Cardinal Sean O’Malley announced this week that he won’t be sending priests to celebrate Mass at the closed churches this Holy Week. Last year, he allowed Masses at certain parishes during Holy Week and at Christmas, but not this year. He seems to be losing patience. Or maybe it’s the protesters losing patience and their protests are petering out.
O’Malley spurned requests for clergy from people occupying closed parishes in East Boston, Scituate, and Wellesley, and declined to allow priests for Holy Thursday and Good Friday at a closed parish in Framingham. He did allow a priest to preside over a full complement of Holy Week liturgies at a church in Sudbury that has been occupied by protesters around the clock for 19 months, because that church, St. Anselm, was reopened by the archdiocese as a chapel of a nearby parish.
In which case, it shouldn’t have a sit-in protest as a closed parish anymore, although I wonder why they’re still there.
Do-it-yourself liturgies, Protestant edition
Technorati Tags: bishops, Boston, Catholic, Holy Week, parish closing
Of course if they do this on Easter and do not attend a Mass they have just committed an objectively grave sin. Communion services can never satisfy the obligation to attend Mass. In real cases where someone is truly unable to attend a Mass the obligation is dispensed, and only in these cases would a Communion service be worthwhile.
It does beg some other questions like where are they getting the Communion hosts from?
The other point is that of course a Communion service requires proper approval by lawful ecclesiastical authority? Which I rather doubt they will not have in this case.
So the people doing orchestrating this will also incur another sin.
What a great way to celebrate the Resurrection, by sinning.