問 Q: Hi Fr Francis, I recently heard that if we attend midnight mass on Dec 24th, we do not need to attend Christmas Day mass on December 25 to fulfill “Christmas obligation”. This year is different as Christmas day is a Sunday. We need to go to mass on Christmas Day to our Sunday mass “duty”. But if neither Christmas eve nor Christmas Day falls on Sunday, we only need to attend either midnight mass or Christmas Day mass. Is this correct. What about Easter Vigil and Easter Day masses?
04/07/2023
【 問題來自Question from】 Canada 加拿大 | Toronto, Canada
That is correct. The midnight mass fulfills the mass of the day. It is the case for Christmas day and it is the same for Easter. That is, the Easter Vigil fulfills the obligation for the Easter Day mass.
As to this year’s Christmas being on Sunday, it does not make a difference. The midnight mass is called midnight mass, precisely is to tell us it is for the next day,, even though nowadays the so-called midnight mass takes place way earlier than midnight.