Every year the Irish Catholic politicians of Eastern Massachusetts hold their annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast in South Boston on the Sunday closest to the feast day. According to the schedule it starts at 8:30 am and ends around noon. So when do all these fine Catholic people go to Mass?
Okay, maybe they go Saturday or Sunday evening, but it’s not a very good witness to be holding a political event connected to the Catholic faith on a Sunday morning. Maybe their pastors will say something to them. Maybe not.
Yeah, if it were just one hour, no problem—it’d just be in principle a Church-hosted pancake breakfast or post-service potluck. 3 1/2 hours tells me this is a Whitehall civil-servant’s “Lunch Hour.”
There is a Mass associated with the events on Saturday at St. Augustine’s and has been for 103 years. It is lightly attended compared to the breakfast. I don’t attend the breakfast because I organize the parade the parade. Being associated with all the St. Patrick’s Day events for many years I can say that things are not as religiously oriented as I would like them to be but they are also not as secular as some are led to believe. Of the people that I know that attend the breakfast I would be suprised if they skipped Mass.
The Mass times have changed over the years. In recent years it has been a morning Mass on Saturday so it does not fulfill the Sunday obligation. I can’t account for others but I always attend 7:00 a.m. Mass on parade day. There are plenty of options. The breakfast is not a religious event. Yes they will open with a prayer and there are clerics in attendance but it is not a religious event.
Over the years the civic element of the parade has overshadowed the religious but as I said it is not devoid of religion. I suppose it refelects the secular nature of most cultural catholics. I was pleased several years ago to see Holy Trinity entered the parade. The only strong religious message I saw this year was a float from a local baptist church that encouraged people to repent.
Just to be clear, my original comments were about the politicians’ breakfast and not the parade itself.