By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The diocesan Office of Worship last month published a list of special liturgical days to be observed in the Diocese of Honolulu in the year 2017.
These include “holy days of obligation,” various “solemnities,” and “memorials” specific to Hawaii.
A holy day of obligation requires attendance at Mass by the faithful.
A solemnity is the highest rank of celebration in the liturgical calendar. Holy days of obligation are solemnities but most solemnities are not days of obligation.
Memorials are the lowest rank of liturgical celebrations, reserved for the saints, and come under two categories, “obligatory,” which must be observed, and “optional,” which may be observed but observance is not required.
Unlike most dioceses in the United States, the Diocese of Honolulu, with the consent of the Vatican, has only two days of obligation: Dec. 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (Mary, patroness of the U.S.), and Dec. 25, Christmas.
However, last fall, the diocese’s Presbyteral Council, the bishop’s primary priest advisory body, made the decision to encourage, but not require, Island Catholics to attend Mass on the days of obligation observed by other American dioceses. These days are Jan. 1, the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God; Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and Nov. 1, the Solemnity of All Saints.
The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, traditionally observed as a day of obligation on the Thursday 40 days after Easter, is celebrated in the Diocese of Honolulu on a Sunday.
According to Deacon Modesto Cordero, director of the Office of Worship, pastors are asked to “provide practical opportunities for more people to attend Mass” on the three days of obligation observed in other U.S. dioceses. This would include a vigil Mass when permitted “or an extra Mass or two at hours convenient for the faithful.”
The Office for Worship memo also stated that individual parishes should celebrate as solemnities the anniversary of the dedication of the parish church and the feast day of the patron of the parish, unless the date is “impeded by a day of higher rank.”
The feast day of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, patroness of the Honolulu diocese, which this year falls on Sunday, July 9, is to be celebrated as a solemnity in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, but not in other Hawaii churches.
The feasts of Hawaii’s two saints are to be celebrated as obligatory memorials in all Hawaii churches, the Memorial of St. Marianne Cope on Monday, Jan. 23, and the Memorial of St. Damien DeVeuster on Wednesday, May 10.
Two other special days noted by the Office of Worship are the Solemnity of the Transfiguration, which this year falls on Sunday, Aug. 6, replacing the Sunday in Ordinary Time, and Thursday, Nov. 2, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, commonly called All Souls Day. Although All Souls Day is not a holy day of obligation anywhere in the U.S., “pastors are encouraged to add Masses for the convenience of the faithful.”
Also noted, because Christmas falls on a Monday this year, the Masses for the Fourth Sunday of Advent and the evening Christmas vigil Masses are celebrated on the same day, Dec. 24.
