This year, the feast of Ss Peter and Paul falls on the Sunday after the feast of the Sacred Heart (June 27). A priest friend has put forth the question, What does one do about the external solemnity of the Sacred Heart, which would be celebrated on that day? The short answer, according to the rubrics of both the 1960 Missal and of the prior editions, is, Omit it.
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| The Allegory of the Holy Eucharist, 1750, by Miguel Cabrera. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
An “external solemnity” is not the translation of a feast. It is a pastoral provision which may be made, but is not obligatory, in cases where a reasonable number of the faithful are unable to attend a feast on the day itself. The Mass of the feast is repeated, but the Office is not changed to match it; the rubrics of the 1962 Missal (numbers 356-361) describe it as “celebratio … festi absque Officio – the celebration of the feast without the Office.” Whereas on the feast day itself, a church may celebrate as many Masses of the feast as are possible, desired, or necessary, only two may be said of the feast on its external solemnity (number 360), and only one of them may be sung.
Further, it should be noted that according to this rubric, there are only two feasts to which an external solemnity is automatically granted, those of the Sacred Heart and the Holy Rosary; the former may be repeated on the following Sunday, the latter on the first Sunday of October, whether before or after its fixed date of October 7.
An external solemnity is classified as a Votive Mass of the Second class (rubr. gen. 341d), and therefore does not take precedence over a feast of the First class such as that of Ss Peter and Paul.
