Posted on 08/12/2020 9:20:51 AM PDT by ebb tide
SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota, August 11, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A South Dakota bishop is changing his COVID-related order dispensing Catholics from their obligation to attend Sunday Mass, citing “pastoral concern for the souls entrusted to my spiritual care.”
Bishop Donald DeGrood announced in an August 10 pastoral letter that effective next Sunday, the dispensation will “apply only to those at increased risk for severe illness and those responsible for their care.”
DeGrood was consecrated bishop of Sioux Falls, a diocese east of the Missouri River with some 124 parishes and more than 120,000 baptized members, on February 13, 2020 — a day before he turned 55, and a month before the coronavirus crisis slammed the United States.
As the country locked down, all Catholic dioceses canceled public Masses while the bishops simultaneously granted the faithful a dispensation from their Sunday Mass obligation.
Bishop DeGrood’s diocese resumed public Masses on May 15, and he appears to be the first American prelate to significantly modify his Sunday Mass dispensation.
His pastoral letter also includes notably lenient measures for celebrating Mass and gives parish priests wide discretion on their implementation.
According to DeGrood’s directives, masks are not mandated, Holy Communion can be received on the tongue, holy water may be restored in receptacles, priests and deacons are not to wear masks when distributing Holy Communion, pre-registration for Mass is no longer to be requested, the sign of the peace and passing the collection basket are discouraged, and the practice of “prudent and reasonable” social distancing and hygiene is encouraged.
DeGrood wrote that he has been “praying and monitoring the situation” and that the rates of infection and numbers of people who became significantly ill from the virus have not been as widespread or significant in the diocese “as it had been projected when the general dispensation was granted.”
As of August 10, “of the 44 counties in our diocese, seven have no active cases, 22 have one to 10 active cases, and 15 have 11 or more active cases. Thanks be to God, the hospitals within our state have not suffered an overwhelming surge as was initially feared,” DeGrood said.
Moreover, at that time, “63 people are hospitalized with a COVID-19 diagnosis out of a total of 1,146 known active cases,” and these “account for 3 percent of the total hospital bed capacity, 3 percent of intensive care unit bed capacity, and 5 percent of ventilator capacity for the state,” he said.
“After receiving clarity through prayer, consultation with clergy and others, and in light of this data, effective on August 17, 2020, I am changing the dispensation to apply only to those at increased risk for severe illness, and those responsible for their care,” the bishop stated.
“It is important for all in the diocese to know that this modification is made out of pastoral concern for the souls entrusted to my spiritual care.”
DeGrood also reiterated why Catholics are obliged to attend Mass on Sunday, noting that the Catholic faith “teaches us so beautifully” through the Catechism of the Catholic Church that the “Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life” (CCC 2179).
According to the Catechism, the “celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship ‘as a sign of his universal beneficence to all’. Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people, p. 2176,” DeGrood said.
“What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life,” the bishop said.
For those Catholics “not at increased risk of severe illness, the Church has long recognized circumstances in which the faithful may be excused from Mass attendance even without a dispensation from the bishop,” DeGrood noted.
In the case of the coronavirus crisis, “morally justifiable reasons for not attending Sunday Mass may include regular contact with a person with increased risk; recent, prolonged contact with a symptomatic person; or a significant emotional response from fear of contracting COVID-19,” he said.
A footnote cites South Dakota’s Department of Health Guidelines definition of “prolonged contact” as “having been within six feet of another individual for 15 minutes or longer.”
For Catholics who want “to avoid attending Sunday Mass in person due to significant fear or some other serious reason, the Church teaches us that we must carefully discern whether the fear is morally justifiable, or whether such fear is inordinate (not reasonable) and, therefore, not based on a prudent examination of reality,” wrote the bishop.
“But it is essential that these serious questions are discerned in prayer and that the decisions are made in good faith, based upon objective data.”
Another footnote specifies that for “the purposes of the canonical dispensation herein, ‘those at increased risk for severe illness’ is exclusive to those aged 65 and older and those with the following medical conditions: cancer; chronic kidney disease; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant; obesity (body mass index of 30 or higher); serious heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies; sickle cell disease; and type 2 diabetes mellitus.”
Bishop DeGrood’s letter can be read here.
Ping
Pretty strict.
FINALLY!
He broke the logjam and, hopefully, others will follow suit.
Wife and I will go back when they dispense with the signing in which violates my 1st Amendment rights.
When will they elect a Pope and not a liberal politician?
So is God. Have you heard of the Fourth Commandment?
To miss Mass on Sunday without being considered to have sinned gravely ordinarily requires one to have discussed the matter with their pastor and obtained his permission in advance. There are exceptions, of course, such as in the case of illness, or some other kind of emergent situation that unexpectedly rendered it truly impossible for a member of the faithful to make it to mass despite their best intentions. But once one’s local ordinary rescinds or lifts the (arguably illegitimate) decree by which the Church precept with respect to in-person assistance at Holy Mass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation (one of which, i.e., Solemnity, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is coming up soon on Saturday, August 15th) was temporarily “dispensed” during the pandemic, laziness, stupidity, failure to plan, or general knuckle-headedness will not keep you from falling out of friendship (i.e., sinning gravely and thus not remaining in a state of grace) with our Lord and Savior if you don’t show up at the parish.
Isn’t watching mass online honoring the Lord’s day?
Not in Sioux Falls.
I would refer my right honorable friend to the comment I left some minutes ago.
Short answer: no.
Longer anwer: Oh, heck no!
And BTW: Don’t approach the altar to receive the Most Holy Sacrament if you missed mass the week before or on a Holy Day of Obligation without a serious reason or without your Pastor’s permission, unless in true remorse and with a firm purpose of amendment you have already confessed that grave sin and received absolution from the priest In Persona Christi.
Receiving the Most Holy Sacrament while in a state of mortal sin is a double sacrilege. One of the worst sins you can commit, actually.
Just TRY to find a Novus Ordo priest willing to profess this nugget of truth to the assembled lay faithful during a homily. Nevertheless, it needs to be said at least occasionally during the homily—at least at every Easter and Christmas mass!
To attend, assist at, facilitate, or in any way advocate or promote a Vatican II quasi Mass is probably a significant sin in itself.
This is not so. You are almost certain to scandalize a member of the faithful if you continue to spread such a falsehood. Heaven forbid you scandalize a Catholic child in this way.
The Novus Ordo mass, despite all its obvious faults and flaws, is, nevertheless, most definitely licit. In his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, Benedict XVI wrote, “The Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI is the ordinary expression of the lex orandi (rule of prayer) of the Catholic Church of the Latin rite.”
If licit and the Consecration is valid, why is it that “Eucharistic Miracles” seemed to cease with the advent of the Novus Ordo?
“Receiving the Most Holy Sacrament while in a state of mortal sin is a double sacrilege. One of the worst sins you can commit, actually.”
I believe you’re absolutely correct on that: indisputably.
And since doing so is extremely common — no doubt the great majority— I do not believe The Holy Ghost would continue to allow valid Consecration.
Maybe they were bogus to begin with? Not deliberately fake, but some mass hysteria involved?
I must say that I miss Sunday Mass but I don’t see this happening in the KC area any time soon. We’re considered a hot spot.
The Church will always be visible until the end of time. The faithful will never be forced by the Holy Spirit to undertake a deep and throroughgoing analysis to determine if the weekly mass they are being urged to attend is licit and the Consecration valid. If there is no question that a priest was properly ordained, the faithful need not rack their brains about the propriety of assisting at a weekly mass at which he is the celebrant. If the words of consecration are properly and timely uttered, and the matter over which they are said is proper, that should be sufficient, don’t you think?
That was until the practice of easing the rule of holy day of obligation when a holy day fell on a Saturday or a Monday because of it being to too close to Sunday.
Not true. I know a priest personally who was at the occurrence of a eucharistic miracle.
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