Prudence in a Panic

With the coming of the global Covid-19 Pandemic, many dioceses have suspended Public Masses and are now beginning to dispense the faithful from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass. I am fearful that this is going to to cause a twofold reaction in the faithful, according to whether they are lax or rigorous in their spiritual lives.

First, let’s be clear what the dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass means, and what it does not. This is not a suspension of the Third Commandment, which is Divine Law and cannot be abrogated by any authority in heaven or earth. However, because the Third Commandment does not specify what exactly constitutes keeping the Lord’s Day holy, the Church, knowing the importance of the “Eighth Day” of Resurrection, and the Sunday Eucharistic Celebration, has generally stated that to attend Mass on a Sunday is to fulfill the obligation, since that is the highest form of worship we can offer God, because it is the very offering which Our Lord made on Calvary for the sins of the world. In fact, the Mass is the only offering which can perfectly bridge the gap between our need to give God his due worship (also called the virtue of religion), and our inability to do the same adequately. Only the God-Man, Our Lord Jesus, makes this possible, as the perfect Priest and Victim, acceptable to the Father.

The Church for time immemorial has also, like her founder, recognized that there are circumstances where Mass attendance may be difficult or impossible. Sickness always has excused from the obligation. So too has necessary care for sick or otherwise incapacitated family. There are even professions largely deemed essential who generally are given wide berth so to speak, like emergency medical workers or some Law Enforcement. Although Catholics in all professions ought to lobby for their right to fulfill their obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Precept, there is also an understanding, much like Our Lord said, that the “Sabbath is made for Man, not Man for the Sabbath”, and therefore we may at times have to make exceptions for legitimate reasons.

In this spirit, Universal Canon Law has always allowed Pastors to do things like dispense from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for a just and grave cause. However, it is rarely done because most people don’t know they can ask for that, and also because so few people have truly serious reasons for requesting such a dispensation. One thing Pastors who give such dispensations do, however, is commute the obligation to some other act. In other words, the Third Commandment is of such importance that it cannot be ignored. For this reason, another act of religion is typically commanded. For instance, a nurse who has to work a long shift on a Sunday may be asked to attend the Monday Daily Mass to fulfill his or her obligation. Or perhaps they may be asked to read a part of the Scriptures, or recite the Rosary. The form of the act of religion may shift, but the obligation to offer God worship does not cease.

Let me turn then to what I see as a growing problem: several voices have already spoken, like that of Msgr. Pope and others, saying that the closing of Churches and the suspension of public Masses is akin to an act of cowardice or impiety. I have the utmost respect for Msgr. Pope and love his writings and talks. However, he does represent a certain subset of the Catholic population that views the current pandemic as a sort of divine chastisement. It conjures in their minds the heroic efforts of the Milanese clergy during the bubonic plague, or the penitential processions which often took place during those times.

I have a lot of sympathy for these sentiments for two reasons: first, because the obligation and joy of worshiping God on his Holy Day is of such importance that Christians have literally been martyred for observing it, and have overcome all sorts of mortal dangers in their desire to unite themselves to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Good Christians don’t simply shrug off Sunday. The second reason is that the piety and courage of our ancestors makes observing social distancing seem like a sort of wimpy excuse to sleep in. Why can’t we be as intrepid and bold as our ancestors?

At the same time, I would like to make two complimentary observations: firstly, the virtue of prudence, the moralists teach us, is the virtue which moderates justice, and the virtue of religion is a part of that. So the virtue of religion is moderated by proper time, place, motivation, etc. It would seem that respecting the insights and advice of competent epidemiologists would be prudent, and moderate how we do acts of religion.

But the other side would tell us that this is merely human prudence, that we lack faith in God, that our fears of sickness and death are overcoming our love of God. There is some merit to these arguments as well, I believe.

Saint Gregory and Saint Charles Borromeo may have led heroic efforts to minister to the sick and dying during the plagues of their days. Yet neither of them were aware of what we know from modern medicine, and how powerful social distancing is for stopping the spread of a highly contagious and dangerous pathogen. I wonder if they were alive today, whether they would be equally brave, but with a little more circumspection?

These are the sorts of discussions that should make us turn to the Angelic Doctor and recall that while it is important to have fortitude in order to do good things which are difficult, we are reminded that fortitude ceases to be such either by excess or defect. A defect of fortitude is the vice of cowardice. An excess, so to speak, is the vice of foolhardiness (audacia). It seems to me that both vices may be a part of our current situation, but I also think there is a good admixture of prudence. Closing churches and not having Public Masses may not have the same heroic appearance as penitential processions, but these are effective for preserving human life and health.

It seems to me, however, that the Bishops should make clear that if people are going to avail themselves of the dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass, they ought to be encouraged to do some sort of penance: a fast, or a Penitential Psalm, or a Litany. These should be done with the express purpose of invoking the mercy of Almighty God during a time of pandemic. By doing so, they would avoid giving the faithful the impression that the dispensation from attending Sunday Mass was something as easy as dispensing from the obligation to abstain from meat on Fridays.

I think it is unfair of some Catholics to denigrate the Bishops and other Church officials who are in favor of cooperating with civil authorities to help deal with the pandemic. I think it is unfair to say that they lack courage in this case, or to say that they are in fact acting out of the vice of merely human prudence. I believe they want to keep people safe. Especially considering that Covid-19 is particularly dangerous to the elderly, and that demographic is so prevalent in the pews, I certainly want to protect those people.

I think other questions are going unaddressed as we continue to fixate on the Mass attendance issue. For instance, what is the protocol for Priests visiting homes and hospitals? I would suggest that all Priests, in accordance with the permissions of the Code of Canon Law, immediately begin anointing via disposable instrument rather than by the hand. Perhaps one can use a Q-Tip or other applicator, which used, can be put in a separate bag and burned. Also, in order to avoid contaminating oil stocks, Priests should ask that during any house call that if possible the sick person put out a small dish or plate of olive oil or other acceptable vegetable oil, and each Holy Oil should be blessed fresh, used, and then discarded in the ground.

We may need to be proactive in allowing Priests wider permissions for General Absolutions. Priests typically move from room to room, and house to house. They are liable to bring droplets of the virus with them unless they have a disposable gown on. And these are bound to decrease in availability as the crisis worsens. People should be led to make an Act of Contrition and given General Absolution if they are in extremis. In this way, people can receive the comfort and spiritual blessing of the Sacraments, while danger is minimized for the Priest and other people whom he meets along the way.

This doesn’t even begin to touch very sensitive topics like funerals and the reverent burial of bodies.

Here is something I think we can all agree on: whatever Public Masses do take place during this pandemic, especially since we are in the Lenten Season, ought to have an especially penitential nature. People should be praying, fasting, and giving alms. We have become so accustomed to airbrushing death out of our bourgeois, first-world Catholicism. Now is the time to remind people of the ars moriendi, the art of dying well. It is a good time to remind ourselves that our personal judgment is always a heartbeat away. No moment ought to be taken for granted. All times are an occasion to merit glory or shame.

The Covid-19 crisis can cause us in panic to lose sight of what truly matters. The true crisis is not trillions of dollars of erased stock market value. It is not the restriction of movement of millions of people. It is not the prospect of losing friends and loved ones, as real as that possibility may be. The real crisis is that so many souls may suddenly arrive at their last moments without having given a single thought to their immortal soul. This is a perfect opportunity for the Church to remind each and every person that life is short, and eternity is long. The Christian does not learn to fear death, he learns to fear sin.

So, dear Catholics, please don’t incriminate the Bishops and others as cowards for wanting to exercise prudence. But also don’t despise the piety and fervor of those who say we should have more Masses and Penitential Processions. I think that both those instincts are right. But what will make all the difference is whether we allow panic or prudence to carry the day.