HOLIDAYS OF OBLIGATION

New Zealand Tablet, 31 August 1911, Page 1695

HOLIDAYS OF OBLIGATION

. - ..•- . » .... ~. ■■ PIUS X., POPE. 'Motu Propbio.' The Roman Pontiffs, supreme custodians and moderators of ecclesiastical discipline, have always been accustomed to benignantly relax the laws of the Sacred Canons as often as the good of the Christian peopls counselled it. We also, as We have before now considered it wise that other matters should be changed, on account of the changed conditions of the times and of civil society, so likewise at the present time We think it Our duty, considering the special circumstances of Our age, to introduce some opportune modifications in the Ecclesiastical Law as to the observance of Feast days of precept. For men to-day traverse with marvellous rapidity the greatest distances by land and sea, and through wider facilities for travelling find readier access to those nations where the number of

'Feast days-of precept is less; Also increased commerce and : the additional demands of business seem to suffer loss ; from the delays .caused by frequent Feast days f Finally the daily increasing cost of the necessaries -of life makes it additionally desirable that the servile work of those who gain their living by labor maynot be too often interrupted. ,-..:. For such reasons repeated petitions, particularly in these later times, have. been made to the Holy See that the number of Feast days of precept be diminished. Having all these things present in Our -mind, it has seemed to Us, who have at heart the well-being of the Christian people, a counsel in the : highest degree opportune to diminish the number of Feast days declared by the Church to be of precept. ':', Wherefore by Motu Propria and after mature deliberation,, having heard the counsel of Our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals of Holy Roman Church who are charged with the codification of Ecclesiastical Law, we prescribe with regard to Feast days as follows: " •' I. The ecclesiastical precept of hearing Holy Mass and of abstaining from servile work remains in force only for the following days: All and every Sunday, the Feasts of the Nativity, of the Circumcision, of the Epiphany and of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ; of the Immaculate Conception and of the Assumption of Blessed Mary Mother of God of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul; and finally of All Saints. :. . 11. The Feasts of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the Nativity of Saint John Baptist, both with Octave, shall be celebrated as in their proper place; the first, on the Sunday following the nineteenth day of March, the Feast remaining fixed on the nineteenth day of March if that day falls on a Sunday ; the other on the Sunday preceding the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. The Feast, too, of Corpus Christi, equally with privileged Octave, shall be celebrated, as in its proper place, on the Sunday after the Most Holy Trinity, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus remaining attached to the Friday within the Octave. 111. To the ecclesiastical precept spoken of above the Feasts of Patrons shall not be subject. Ordinaries, however, may transfer the solemn celebration of them to the Sunday immediately .following. . IV. If in any place any one of the Feasts indicated has been legitimately abolished or transferred, let nothing be done without consultation with the Apostolic See. But if in any nation or region the Bishops deem it right to preserve any one of the Feasts abrogated, let them refer it to the Holy See. T*r V. If, however, with any one of the Feasts which We wish preserved there should coincide a day consecrated to abstinence or fasting, We dispense in both, and We grant the same dispensation also for Feasts of Patrons abolished by this law of Ours, should it happen that they be celebrated solemnly and with a large attendance of the people. :■...'■;■■ In giving this new proof of Apostolic solicitude We nourish the certain hope that all the faithful even • on those days which We now remove from the number of those of strict precept,, will no less than before show testimony of their piety towards God and of their veneration for the Saints, and that on the other Feasts which are preserved. by the Church they will care with greater diligence than before for the observance of the precept. All things whatsoever, even such as require special mention, to the contrary notwithstanding. a Given at Rome at Saint Peter's on the second day of July, 1911, m the-eighth year of Our Pontificate. PIUS PP. X. :