Vatican Should Address These 6 Pandemic Oddities

National Catholic Register, 03 June 2021

The transfer of the Vatican celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi to Sunday, instead of today, is one of the liturgical innovations that invite further explanation from the Vatican.

Thursday is the traditional day for the feast of Corpus Christi, though in much of the world it is transferred to Sunday (June 6 this year).

There is something odd going on the Vatican though this year — the latest in a series of oddities that have marked the pandemic. Strange things have been happening the world over as pastors struggle to maintain public worship in a time of closures, but six pandemic oddities invite further explanation from the Vatican.

Corpus Christi

The date for Corpus Christi is Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Many places transfer the feast to Sunday, but the Vatican City keeps the traditional date, as one would expect.

For years, Pope St. John Paul II would celebrate Corpus Christi Mass at St. John Lateran and then follow the Eucharistic procession to St. Mary Major. Both papal basilicas are extraterritorial parts of Vatican City. The traditional Thursday date was observed.

Pope Francis kept that custom until 2016. In 2017, he celebrated Corpus Christi on Sunday at St. John Lateran, which was ambiguous. As part of Vatican City it keeps Corpus Christi on Thursday, but it is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome which, like Italy, moves Corpus Christi to Sunday. 

Since 2018, the ambiguity has been resolved. Pope Francis goes to a Roman parish for Corpus Christi Sunday, and the papal procession to St. Mary Major has been set aside. (Not for any lack of affection; Pope Francis has visited St. Mary Major dozens of times, more than any other pope.)

So what happened in 2020, and will happen again in 2021? 

The Holy Father will celebrate Corpus Christi in St. Peter’s due to the pandemic. But not on Thursday, but Sunday. Given the restricted numbers, it is just as easy to have the Mass on Thursday, the proper date in the Vatican, than it would be on Sunday. 

Has there been a de facto shift in the feast of Corpus Christi in the Vatican? And if the traditional date is not kept in the Vatican itself, where should it be kept?

Ascension Thursday/Sunday

The same Thursday/Sunday shift often happens with the Ascension. Some dioceses in the United States keep the feast on Thursday, its biblically-fixed date 40 days after Easter; others transfer it to Sunday.

This year Pope Francis celebrated Sunday Mass for the suffering people of Myanmar in St. Peter’s on May 16. In the Vatican that would the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Ascension having been kept on Thursday.

What was done? The Office of Liturgical Celebrations, which posts notices about the pontifical ceremonies online, strangely left it off its website. The Holy See website had the homily, which was entitled “Solemnity of the Ascension — Seventh Sunday of Easter,” which does not exist. It is either one or the other. The homily itself made reference to neither. No explanation was offered.

Continue reading at the National Catholic Register.