Rules for the Implementation of ROMCAL

General

• The Church document governing the Calendar is General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, dated March 21, 1969. This was published following the approval of the new Roman Calendar by Paul IV in Mysterii Paschalis on February 14, 1969. The authority for this motu proprio was Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, issued by the Second Vatican Council on December 4, 1963.

• The types of observances of the General Roman Calendar in order of precedence are:
•         Christmas/Easter
•         Octave of Easter/Holy Week
•         Ash Wednesday
•         Sundays of Advent, Lent & Easter
•         Movable Solemnity
•         Fixed Solemnity (transferred if on Sunday of Advent or Lent)
•         Feasts of the Lord
•         Sundays of Ordinary Time & Christmas
•         Feasts
•         Memorials
•         Optional Memorials
•         Commemorations
•         Weekdays

• The following table shows the earliest and latest possible dates for certain celebrations.

Solemnities & Feasts

Fixed and Movable Solemnities

• The Solemnities which occur on fixed dates are as follows:

** - May be a movable Solemnity depending on National Conference

• The Solemnities which are movable are as follows:

*  - Depends on National Conference
** - May be fixed Solemnity depending on National Conference
 
• If a fixed date Solemnity occurs on a Sunday of Lent or Advent, the Solemnity is transferred to the following Monday.  This affects Joseph, Husband of Mary (Mar 19), Annunciation (Mar 25), and Immaculate Conception (Dec 8).  It is not possible for a fixed date Solemnity to fall on a Sunday of Easter. (See the special case of a Solemnity during Holy Week below.)

• If a Solemnity occurs on a Sunday of Ordinary Time or on a Sunday of Christmas, the Solemnity is celebrated in place of the Sunday. (e.g., Birth of John the Baptist, 1990)

Feasts of the Lord and Other Feasts

• The Feasts of the Lord are as follows:

• If a fixed date Feast of the Lord occurs on a Sunday in Ordinary Time, the feast is celebrated in place of the Sunday.  (e.g., Presentation of the Lord, 1992).

• If a Feast (not of the Lord) occurs on a Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Sunday is celebrated.  (e.g., St. Luke, 1992)

The Season of Advent, Christmas, & Epiphany

Advent

• The length of Advent depends upon the day of the week on which Christmas occurs, according to the following table.

Christmas

• Christmas occurs on December 25. The weekday of Christmas can be found by computing the date of Easter (which is of course on a Sunday), and counting the number of days between Easter and Christmas, modulo 7.

• If Christmas falls on a Sunday, then Holy Family is celebrated on Dec. 30.  Otherwise, Holy Family is the Sunday after Christmas.

Epiphany

• The rubrics of Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours state:

 "Where the solemnity of Epiphany is celebrated on the Sunday between January 2 and January 8, the proper parts are taken from below, unless January 7 or 8 occurs on Sunday in which case Ordinary Time begins on the following day, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord being omitted."

• However, on October 7, 1977, the Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship issued the decree Celebratio Baptismatis Domini which directed the following:

"In places where the solemnity of the Epiphany is to be transferred to the Sunday falling on 7 January or 8 January, with the result that the feast of the Baptism of the Lord would be omitted, this feast is to be transferred to the Monday immediately following that Sunday."

Version 1 of ROMCAL implemented the original rubric. Versions 2 and following implement the correct rubric.

• If Epiphany is celebrated on Jan. 6:

1. Jan. 1 is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
2. Days from Jan. 2 through Jan. 5 are called "*day before Epiphany".
3. If a Sunday occurs on a day from Jan. 2 through Jan. 5, it is called the "Second Sunday of Christmas".
4. Epiphany is celebrated on Jan. 6.
5. Days between Jan. 6 and the following Sunday are called "*day after Epiphany".
6. The Baptism of the Lord occurs on the Sunday following Jan. 6.
7. Ordinary time begins on the day after the Baptism of the Lord.
ROMCAL implements these rules with the -e option.

• If Epiphany is not celebrated on Jan. 6 (i.e., celebrated on Sunday):

1. Jan. 1 is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
2. Days after Jan. 1 but before the Sunday occurring from Jan. 2 through Jan. 8 are called "*day before Epiphany".
3. Epiphany is celebrated on the Sunday occurring from Jan. 2 through Jan. 8.
4. If Epiphany occurs on Jan. 7 or Jan. 8, then the Baptism of the Lord is the next day (Monday)
5. If Epiphany occurs on or before Jan. 6, then the days of the week following Epiphany are called "*day after Epiphany" and the Sunday following Epiphany is the Baptism of the Lord.
6. Ordinary time begins on the day after the Baptism of the Lord.

The Season of Lent & Holy Week

• Ash Wednesday occurs 46 days before Easter.

• If the Annunciation (Mar 25) falls on Palm Sunday, it is celebrated on the Saturday preceding. If it falls during Holy Week or within the Octave of Easter, the Annunciation is transferred to the Monday of the Second Week of Easter. Versions of ROMCAL prior to version 4 always moved it to the Monday of the Second Week of Easter.

• If Joseph, Husband of Mary (Mar 19) falls on Palm Sunday or during Holy Week, it is moved to the Saturday preceding Palm Sunday. This was first addressed in the Decree Cum Proximo Anno issued in 1966. Versions of ROMCAL prior to version 4 incorrectly moved it to the Monday of the Second Week of Easter, where it was overwritten by the Annunciation.

• If a fixed date Memorial or Optional Memorial falls within the Lenten season, it is reduced in rank to a Commemoration.

The Season of Easter & Pentecost

Easter

• Easter follows a complicated formula for its determination. The Ecumenical Council of Nicea passed the following canon

"That everywhere the great feast of Easter should be observed upon one and the same day; and that not the day of the Jewish Passover, but, as had been generally observed, upon the Sunday afterwards."

• The Council also laid down these rules:

1. That the twenty-first day of March shall be accounted the vernal equinox.
2. That the full moon happening upon or next after the twenty-first of March, shall be taken for the full moon of Nisan.
3. That the Lord's-day next following that full moon be Easter-day.
4. But if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Easter-day shall be the Sunday after.

• ROMCAL uses an algorithm from The Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac published by the U.S. Naval Observatory. The algorithm is attributed to Oudin, J.M. (1940) "Etude sur la Date de Paques". Bull. Astronomique (2) vol. 12, pp. 391-410.

The Octave of Easter

• Easter and all the days within the Octave of Easter, including the Second Sunday of Easter (formerly "Low Sunday") are Solemnities.

Ascension

• The Guide for Christian Prayer (The Liturgy of the Hours) for 1995 stated:

"In the following states [of the United States], Ascension is transferred from Thursday to the Seventh Sunday of Easter:  Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, [and] Washington."

• In 1999, an Indult for the Transfer of the Solemnity of the Ascension was issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops allowing each ecclesiastical province to determine if the Ascension should be celebrated on its proper Thursday (39 days after Easter) or on the Seventh Sunday of Easter (42 days after Easter). The following provinces of the United States have retained the celebration of Ascension on its proper Thursday. All other provinces of the United States have transferred the celebration of the Ascension to the Seventh Sunday of Easter. ROMCAL will move Ascension to the Seventh Sunday of Easter with the -a option.

Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi

• The Solemnity of Pentecost occurs 49 days after Easter.

• The Solemnity of Trinity Sunday occurs 56 days after Easter.

• The Solemnity of Corpus Christi occurs 60 days after Easter, if it is celebrated on Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter. In those places where Corpus Christi is not a holyday, it is transferred to the following Sunday (63 days after Easter). ROMCAL will place the celebration of Corpus Christi on Thursday with the -c option.

Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary

• The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus occurs 68 days after Easter.

• Immaculate Heart of Mary occurs 69 days after Easter and is a Memorial. This was formerly an Optional Memorial.

"Formerly an optional memorial, the celebration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary has been raised to the rank of an obligatory memorial in the General Roman Calendar by a decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (24 May 1996)."
-- Paulist Press Ordo for 2000

The Season of Ordinary Time

• Ordinary Time in the early part of the year begins the day after the Baptism of the Lord and concludes the day before Ash Wednesday.

• Ordinary Time in the later part of the year begins the day after Pentecost and concludes the day before the First Sunday of Advent.

• The Solemnity of Christ the King is always the 34th (and last) Sunday of Ordinary Time and is the week before the First Sunday of Advent. The Sundays of Ordinary Time in the latter part of the year are numbered backwards from Christ the King to Pentecost.

Liturgical Colors

• The proper color of the Advent and Lent seasons is purple.

• The proper color of the Easter and Christmas seasons is white.

• The proper color of Ordinary Time is green.

• The proper color of a Commemoration is the color of the season.  As Commemorations only occur during Lent, their proper color is purple.

• The proper color of an Optional Memorial is the color of the season.

• The proper color of a Memorial or a Feast is white except for martyrs in which case it is red.  The proper color for the Chair of Peter (Feast, Feb 22) and the Conversion of St. Paul (Feast, Jan 25) is white, although both St. Peter and St. Paul were martyrs.

• The proper color for Solemnities is white except Pentecost and Peter and Paul (Jun 29) in which cases it is red.

• The proper color for Feasts of the Lord is white except the Triumph of the Cross in which case it is red.

• The proper color of the Third Sunday of Advent and the Fourth Sunday of Lent is rose. Purple may also be used on these Sundays.

• The proper colors of Holy Week are as follows:

• Gold vestments may be used on very festive occasions, such as Easter and Christmas.

• Black vestments may be used in Masses for the dead.

• Blue is not liturgical color in the Roman Rite, except in some very special cases in Mexico and Spain on feasts of Mary. It is not an option for Advent. The rubrics do not distinguish between the color of Advent and the color of Lent.

Copyright © 2001-2006 by Kenneth G. Bath