OUR LADY OF FATIMA 

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Silvio Cardinal Oddi Confirms that attendance

at the Tridentine Mass fulfils the Sunday Mass Obligation

Letter to Mrs Barbara Keenan

"- Sacred Congregation for Clergy, Rome

Jan. 11, 1984

To his Eminence Cardinal Oddi:

"(…) Could you kindly send my family and myself a letter with the information that you told me on the telephone that we are fulfilling our obligation for Sunday Mass by attending Holy Mass at the chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel which is under Archbishop Lefebvre."

Mrs. Barbara Keenan

Holbrook, N.Y. 11741

Mar. 17, 1984

Dear Mrs. Keenan:

I have your letter of January 11th and thank you for it. According to the new Code of Canon Law, "The obligation of assisting at Mass is satisfied wherever Mass is celebrated in a Catholic rite either on the day of obligation itself or in the evening of the previous day." (Canon 1248:1)

I hope that settles your doubts. In the meantime, I send you and your loved ones my blessing and wish you God’s choicest graces.

Faithfully in Christ,

Silvio Card. Oddi.

Exchange of letters is cited in a pamphlet "Why the Traditional Latin Mass?"
published by the Society of St Pius X at their seminary in Winona, Mn.

 

Although Mrs Kennan in her letter to Cardinal Oddi speaks of her specific attachment to one chapel of the Society of St Pius X, it will be noted that the Cardinal in his reply makes no reference to the particular chapel nor indeed to the Society of St Pius X but rather states the canonical principle that assistance "at Mass is satisfied wherever Mass is celebrated in a Catholic rite" which applies equally to Our Lady of Fatima where the same Mass is celebrated according to the Missale Romanum that was used prior to the Second Vatican Council.

 

 

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