[Question:]{.underline} How does one determine what buying and selling is permitted on Sundays?
[Answer:]{.underline} The traditional Code of Canon Law (1917) is very explicit on this question, stating that “On feast days of obligation” (including every Sunday) “…one must abstain from public commerce, public gatherings of buyers and sellers (e.g. auctions) and all other public buying and selling, unless legitimate custom or special indults permit them.” (Canon 1248). The 1983 Code of Canon Law does not give this precision, but simply states that those things are to be abstained from that impede worship to God, joy proper to Sunday and due relaxation (Canon 1247). Everything is left to the interpretation of the private individual.
The traditional law is very explicit, and excludes all public buying and selling, such as auctions or major legal contracts. However, it allows for the details to be determined somewhat by local custom. This is not to be understood as what everybody does, but the custom amongst fervent, practicing Catholics. It is certain that private contracts can be entered into, namely those that do not have any public legal form. It is equally certain that the purchasing and selling of small items is licit, such as milk, fruit, bread, flowers, holy pictures, books, clothing and other such items that might be available at road side stalls or at a church bookstall. All agree that those items that are necessary for daily use, such as common food items can be sold and purchased on Sundays.
The authors also agree that if there is a grave reason to purchase larger items on a Sunday, that this is permissible, for example when a person lives a long distance from town, and is only able to come in to town on a Sunday. These exceptions, due to necessity, show the Church’s attachment to the spirit of the law, rather than simply the letter.
There are things that are manifestly forbidden in the traditional law of the Church, such as buying and selling real estate, bidding on important items at auctions (e.g. furniture). Then there are areas that are not so clear cut, such as doing one’s grocery shopping on a Sunday. Any one or other of the items could certainly be purchased on a Sunday without any scruple of conscience, and likewise a person who had no other opportunity to do his grocery shopping could do so. However, a person who did a whole week’s grocery shopping on a Sunday without necessity would be considered as involved in public purchasing and selling of items of large value, and could not be excused from at least venial sin.
Here, as always, the value of the Church’s law lies in the fact that they determine the right means to our end. Our end is to sanctify the Holy Days and Sundays, for the greater honor and glory of God and the salvation of our souls, which is only possible if we remove the preoccupation with the mundane, temporal things that occupy the rest of our time. We must consequently consider it a grave spiritual obligation to take these means that the Church so wisely imposes upon us. Let us then be determined to abstain from all unnecessary shopping for items of considerable value on Sundays and Holy Days. In particular let us protest the opening of grocery outlets on Sundays by refusing to patronize them on Sundays.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.