Holy Days of Obligation Abroad

A business trip was set to take me to Canada in late October and into the first days of November. As I already knew that All Saints’ Day is not a holy day of obligation in Canada, and mindful of the maxim When in Rome, do as the Romans do, I gathered that I was not obligated to attend Mass on November 1. Yet, because I’m a lawyer, I wanted to figure out the exact nuances of the rules. But because I’m not a canon lawyer, I did not know where to start. Guidance isn’t particularly easy to find online. Though praying about it might be the right approach, I wanted to understand the law.

On online discussion boards, people seem to favor following the local rule and thus see no obligation to attend Mass in a situation like All Saints’ Day in Canada. But I’m not one to believe things on message boards, and I found out that some experts seem to think differently.

Several years ago, the late Fr. Kenneth Doyle, himself also a lawyer (he earned a law degree from Albany Law School in 1978), wrote, “When traveling for brief periods…Catholics should follow the rules of their own country on Mass attendance” (Catholic Philly, Aug. 29, 2017). Canon Lawyer Cathy Caridi reached a similar conclusion: “If you visit another country on a vacation of less than three months, you are obligated to attend Mass on the holydays established by the U.S. Catholic Bishops — no matter what the Church does in the country you are visiting” (CanonLawMadeEasy.com, May 22, 2008). Caridi and Doyle both anchored their analysis in canon 12 of the Code of Canon Law. I could see their point in the sections of canon 12 they highlighted, yet in my inexpert reading, canon 13 seems to lead to the opposite conclusion — especially if read together. (I emailed Caridi but did not receive a response.)

In short, I concluded that canon law did not require me to attend All Saints’ Day Mass when I was in Canada. I started with the basic principle that the Church’s universal laws bind everyone (cf. can. 12.1). But those who find themselves in a foreign territory are not obligated to observe universal laws that are not in force there: “All who are actually present in a certain territory…are exempted from universal laws which are not in force in that territory” (can. 12.2). The particular laws of your diocese do bind you (cf. can. 12.3), but that includes a specific carveout pointing to canon 13, which is important here. That canon says particular laws are not presumed to be personal (applying to a specific group of Catholics regardless of where they are) but are territorial (applying in a specific area) unless otherwise evident (cf. can. 13.1). Perhaps more importantly, travelers are explicitly exempt from the particular laws of their home territory while abroad. Canon 13 reads:

§ 2. Travelers are not bound:

1° by the particular laws of their own territory as long as they are absent from it unless either the transgression of those laws causes harm in their own territory or the laws are personal;

2° by the laws of the territory in which they are present, with the exception of those laws which provide for public order, which determine the formalities of acts, or which regard immovable goods located in the territory.

Therefore, if the obligation to attend Mass on All Saints’ Day is a universal law, it wouldn’t apply to a traveler who’s in a territory where that’s not in force (cf. can. 12.2). All Saints’ Day is set by the universal Church, so it seems a universal law; thus, I would not be obligated to attend if it’s not in force in the diocese I’m visiting. The analysis under particular law seems to come out the same way.

If it’s a particular law, it doesn’t apply to travelers (cf. can. 13.2.1). Moreover, the issue I faced with All Saints’ Day in Canada doesn’t seem like a particular law. The bishops of the United States would have no reason to create a new, particular law to make All Saints’ Day a holy day of obligation since the universal Church had already established it as such. The full list of holy days is found in canon 1246.1:

· Christmas
· Epiphany
· the Ascension
· Corpus Christi
· Feast of Mary, Mother of God
· the Immaculate Conception
· the Assumption
· Feast of St. Joseph
· Feast of SS Peter and Paul
· All Saints

Even if the U.S. bishops were to make All Saints a particular holy day in addition to its being universal, there would be no reason to make it a personal, as opposed to territorial, holy day.

In 1992 the U.S. bishops exercised their authority to suppress or transfer certain holy days, thus reducing their number. They presumably didn’t enact a separate particular law making All Saints a holy day in addition to its being a holy day of the universal Church, let alone declare it a personal, as opposed to a territorial, day. (If they did so, it’s not easy for a layman to find that out.) Bishops can, in fact, create special feast days (cf. can. 1244.2). The issue of a particular law would seem to cover something like St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. An Irishman who finds himself in Texas wouldn’t be obligated to attend Mass on St. Patrick’s Day unless his bishops had made it personal as opposed to territorial. Conversely, an American in Ireland wouldn’t necessarily have to go to Mass or try to find out what the local holy days are (cf. can. 13.2.2).

Thus, I concluded that notwithstanding the limited but contrary expert analysis, either I was not obligated to attend Mass under canon 12.2 or I was subject to the traveler’s dispensation under canon 13.2.1

Whether this is the correct interpretation, I had satisfied myself by playing amateur canon lawyer. Nevertheless, I asked my pastor for his view on the topic. He answered by acknowledging the “general principle of a traveler’s dispensation” but concluded that “the question you are asking is the wrong one. No one is ever going to try you for the canonical violation, but we will all be judged on the divine precept that is the basis of the human law.” His advice was, therefore, to “examine your conscience carefully and be sure that you have a desire to assist at Mass on the day of precept that outweighs any secondary priorities. If so: ‘love and do what you will.’”

I think that’s the right answer. In the end, I went to Mass on All Saints’ Day at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Calgary, and I do not regret it.

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