Catholic and Enjoying It!
This bit of correspondence from Tradition in Action demonstrates why sedevacantists don’t get invited to parties:
From Tradition in Action:
Dear TIA,
Thank you for all the great articles on your website.
I have a question to ask. Maybe I’m being too scrupulous, but the other day I went over to my sister’s house to visit my father who came into town, and he was watching EWTN on the TV. So I sat down with him. He unfortunately goes to the new mass; I do not – I go to an independent chapel.
EWTN was on and he was watching the new mass, so I watched and listened to the sermon and the rest of the new mass.
Was that a sin to watch the new mass? I know that there are many problems with the new mass so I wasn’t sure if I should even do that.
Thank you
J.P.
TIA responds:
Dear J.P.,
Thank you for amiable initial words.
For a person to commit a mortal sin, three conditions have to be met: 1. It must be a grave matter; 2. The person must have full knowledge of the evil contained in it; 3. There must be a deliberate adhesion of the will to commit it.
1. In the case of the Novus Ordo, since it refers to the most important act of worship, the grave matter is obvious.
2. Regarding the full knowledge of the evil of the Novus Ordo one has to consider that five Popes and the ensemble of the Hierarchy for the last 40 years have presented it as good, and the majority of Catholics accept it as such. Hence, instead of considering that they are attending a sinful ceremony, they, on the contrary, think they are attending it to avoid sin; that is, they go to fulfill their Sunday obligation.
To have a full knowledge of the evil of the Novus Ordo, Catholics need to study to prove, against this general tendency, that it has a flavor of heresy. Such an effort, which is a moral obligation, is not made by the immense majority.
3. In this complicated scenario, the deliberate adhesion of the will cannot be easily established by general norms.
For those who have studied the matter and know perfectly well that the Novus Ordo has a flavor of heresy, they should avoid it at any cost to prevent contaminating themselves with this virus. We don’t know to what degree a mortal sin is involved if they attend it. We think this is a case that falls into those matters where the religious authority has given contradictory orientation. In this confusion each Catholic has to act according to his own conscience – and respond before God for that. In the case you reported, your primary goal was not to go to a Novus Ordo Mass, but to visit your father. It happened that he was watching television and a Novus Ordo Mass was being said.
As far as we know, without being experts on the topic, only in rare conditions does a Mass watched on television count as attendance at Mass. The person must be handicapped and without any means of transportation for getting to a church. This does not seem to be the case of your father. So, if it were a Tridentine Mass, according to the traditional norms, the fact of watching it on TV or listening to it on radio would count only as an act of piety, not as assisting at that Mass.
Applying all these principles to your case, one sees that you certainly should have avoided watching it, because it was a concession on your part to Progressivism that gave a bad example to your father, but we believe that no mortal sin was involved.
We hope this will help you.
Cordially,
TIA correspondence desk
Reactionary Dissent and Progressive Dissent: where everybody can be a bishop!
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