Identity Theft - Give Us Back Our Holy Days!

Earlier this week I had occasion to consult the calendar for something or another and I noticed something that saddened me.  I was going to say "shocked and saddened" but unfortunately I can't say I was really shocked.

This year we only have three - THREE - holy days of obligaton which require us to hear Mass on a day other than Sunday!  By "we" I mean Catholics in most U.S. dioceses.  How can this be?

First - the three really, actually, obligatory holy days of obligation in the U.S. this year:

• January 1st - Mary, Mother of God (1970 calendar) or Circumcision of Our Lord (1962 calendar)
• December 8th - The Immaculate Conception
• December 25th - The Nativity of Our Lord

But... what about Ascension Thursday?  Sorry, in most dioceses that's transferred to the following Sunday. (Although usually not in Boston or Providence...)

Wait a minute - I know The Assumption is never transferred to a Sunday, right?  Maybe so, but this year the 15th of August happens to fall... on a Sunday!

OK, how about All Saints Day?  Nope, sorry, that's gone this year too.  You see, it falls on a Monday in 2010; and the U.S. Bishops apparently believe that having to attend Mass two days in a row would place an onerous burden on the People of God!

I haven't the time to research the entire history of holy days, but I can tell you what I do know.  Prior to 1911 there were at least eleven holy days of obligation in the calendar - in addition to the six which remain today there were The Epiphany, St. Joseph, Corpus Christi, The Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and Ss. Peter and Paul.  Pope St. Pius X removed the obligation for St. Joseph, Corpus Christi, and St. John the Baptist in 1911.  Later in the 20th century, we "lost" Epiphany and Ss. Peter and Paul, although some of these days are permanently or typically transferred to the following Sunday at this time.

I understand quite well that these liberalizations were undertaken in a spirit of charity.  As I recall, the reforms of St. Pius X were in consideration of the need to tend crops or earn a living - as on Sundays, one is supposed to abstain from servile work on a holy day.  I am reluctant to question the prudential judgments of the only 20th-century pope-saint, but I cannot help but wonder whether some other course of action  - perhaps a partial dispensation for workers under certain circumstances - might have helped to beter preserve Catholic identity.

As for the more recent innovations in this area, I feel far less charitable toward those of our shepherds who've seen fit to continually "define Catholicism down" in many ways.  In an age when nearly everyone who wants a car has one, is it really too difficult for a Catholic to attend Mass two days in a row if a holy day falls on a Saturday or a Monday?  At a time when the secular world is offering us more and more choices of activities for our leisure time, oughtn't the Church issue us an extra summons to the most glorious of activities, Holy Mass, now and again?

The bishops of the U.S. have a campaign this Lent to get Catholics back to confession.  This is a laudable intention, and you will hear not a word of complaint from me about it (although one might ask where they've been for the last forty years).  But perhaps they'd be better off starting a campaign to restore the presence of the Church in the world, and in the lives of Catholics.  Holy days are certainly a part of that presence, and I want my holy days back!

[I suppose it could be worse - the Diocese of Hawaii only has TWO!  Every year!  Just Immaculate Conception and Christmas.  Quelle dommage!]