Question: What is to be said about Catholics who miss Mass on Sunday because they have gone into the lake region or the woods for the purpose of hunting, fishing, etc., over the weekend?
Fr. Francis Connell, C.SS.R., in More Answers to Today’s Moral Problems, gives us the answer:
It is a deplorable fact that in recent years the sin of missing Mass on Sunday has become more common among Catholics in the United States. Priests should recognize the danger to the faith inevitably connected with this custom, and strive to avert it by impressing our people with the importance of Sunday Mass in Catholic life. It is true, there can be legitimate reasons excusing a Catholic from the obligation of attending Mass on Sunday; but these reasons should not be inordinately extended. The motive of recreation is an example of a reason that may be stretched too far. It is held by reliable theologians that if a person can obtain needed recreation only in a section of the country where there is no church or only in circumstances in which he cannot hear Mass, he can be justified in taking his recreation in this place or in these circumstances and thereby missing Mass once or twice, or at most a few times a year. However, Catholics should be told that this concession may not be used except when there is considerable difficulty in getting to Mass from the place of recreation, and that it may be used only rarely (once or twice a year, according to Fanfani; a few times, according to Konings). In these days of automobiles and motorboats, Catholics can generally get to Mass even from remote parts of the woods and the lake regions. Certainly, a person would not be excused from attending Mass merely because the journey to church would take an hour by car. And a Catholic can make use of recreation as an excusing cause only when he cannot find the needed recreation in a place where he can get to Mass on Sundays.