Q. Does attending a wedding Mass that takes place after 4 p.m. on a Saturday fulfill one’s Sunday obligation?
A. This question is the kind of question that is very easy to answer because the answer is extremely cut and dry. Yes, attending a wedding Mass that takes place after 4 p.m. on a Saturday does fulfill one’s obligation to attend Mass on Sunday.
Canon 1248 §1 states: “A person who assists at a Mass celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the feast day itself or in the evening of the preceding day satisfies the obligation of participating in the Mass.”
The use of the word “assists” might be a source of some confusion but it is an issue with the English translation from the Latin. In this context “assists” can be understood as participates in or attends. One does not need have some role in the Mass to fulfill one’s obligation.
The Latin version (which is the official and binding version of the code) also clarifies that it must be in the evening (vespere) of the preceding day. Evening has traditionally and legally been identified as beginning at 4 p.m. Therefore, a wedding Mass that started before 4 p.m. would not be an evening Mass and therefore would not fulfill the obligation.
Any Mass after 4 p.m. fulfills the obligation, whether or not the texts and/or readings for Sunday are used. With regards to wedding Masses, there are rules about when a Mass using the “Ritual for Marriages Celebrated within Mass” can be used and when the prayers and readings of the Mass for that Sunday must be used. These rules are a bit convoluted and go beyond the scope of this answer. What matters for the purposes of fulfilling the obligation is simply that one attends Mass.
This Mass can be in any Catholic rite, even if that rite is different from the rite to which the person belongs. A Ukrainian Rite Catholic fulfills their obligation by attending a Roman Rite Mass, and vice versa. This does not extend to Masses or services that are not Catholic, whether they be Orthodox or Protestant.
While one can validly receive Communion at an Orthodox Divine Liturgy, this should only be done when one cannot attend a Catholic Mass. If one is in such a position, then the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday is not enforced by the law itself, since the law does not bind to the impossible.
It is always important to try to get out of the mindset of seeing the Sunday Mass as an obligation. Yes, it is one, but it is also where we enter into true Communion with our Lord and receive Him Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. To reduce the Mass to a simple obligation is to lose sight of why we go.
I feel confident saying that most (if not all Catholics) have had moments where we just do not feel like going to Mass and, if we are honest with ourselves, only went because we had to. It happens, which is why the Church makes it an obligation, so that even when we are not in the mood or it is inconvenient we go. But we should, all of us, ask for the grace to see past the obligation and recognize Mass for what it is, an encounter with God in a way that is so far beyond anything we could ever ask for that, quite literally, the least we can do is show up for it.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
