[Question:]{.underline} I was told that the Church’s law permits Catholics to satisfy their Sunday obligation at a schismatic orthodox ceremony, and that this was the case both before and after Vatican II. Is this true?
[Answer:]{.underline} The authority that you quote (Catholic Family Radio) defends the opinion that it was and is permitted to satisfy this obligation of assisting at Mass in a schismatic church before and after Vatican II. It quoted Canon 1258 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, and the shameful Canon 844 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law on the sharing of sacraments with non-Catholics.
However, I am sorry to inform you neither of these Canons is relevant to the question at stake.
To start with the 1917 Code, or pre-Vatican II practice, the Canon that you used to justify the possibility of satisfying the Sunday obligation at a schismatic orthodox church actually means exactly the opposite. Let me quote for you Canon 1258: “It is illicit for Catholics to assist actively in any way, or to take part in, the sacred worship of non-Catholics”. Could there be a more explicit prohibition, and could there be any way of interpreting this as meaning that it is permissible to attend an orthodox, that is non-Catholic, ceremony?
However, there is another canon in the 1917 code of Canon Law that treats of the question more specifically. It is Canon 1249, which states that: “The precept of hearing Mass is fulfilled by being present at Mass celebrated in any Catholic rite…” . I cannot possibly see how any Catholic commentary on Canon Law could interpret “any Catholic rite” as including Orthodox ceremonies, since these are manifestly schismatic and not Catholic. The following is the commentary on this section of the Canon, taken from a standard textbook on the 1917 Code of Canon Law (Bouscaren & Ellis, p. 635): “The Mass may be celebrated in [any Catholic rite]{.underline}; therefore an Oriental may satisfy the precept by hearing Mass according to the Latin rite, and a Latin by hearing it according to any of the Catholic Oriental rites”. The schismatic Orthodox rites are consequently explicitly excluded from the fulfillment of the law, and a Catholic who assists at these ceremonies does not fulfill his Sunday obligation.
Despite all the changes that have taken place in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, this is in fact one thing that has not changed. The appropriate canon to refer to is not Canon 844, but Canon 1248, §1, which states that: “The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite…” Consequently, as before, the presence at a schismatic non-Catholic orthodox ceremony does not satisfy the Sunday precept. It is true that Canon 844, §2 authorizes Catholics to receive valid sacraments from heretical or schismatic non-Catholic ministers, but this is a betrayal of the unity of the Church. However, it nowhere states that this constitutes a satisfaction of the Church’s precept for Sunday and holy days. It is one of the many contradictions that ecumenism injected into the modernist code of Canon Law.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.