How to fulfill the precept of Mass this Sunday if you participate in elections in Mexico?

With the elections scheduled for next Sunday, June 2, many Catholics in Mexico will wonder how they will be able to comply with the Sunday obligation if they have responsibilities on election day all day.

This day Mexicans will go to the polls to elect who will succeed Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the presidency of Mexico, as well as representatives to more than 20,000 public officials in various parts of the country.

For those Catholics who will actively participate in the elections, with responsibilities that include serving as polling place officials—the places where citizens go to vote—the Catholic Church offers a solution: attend Mass on Saturday afternoon.

The Code of Canon Law, in its numeral 1248points out that “the precept of participating in the Mass is fulfilled by those who attend it, wherever it is celebrated in a Catholic rite, both on the day of the feast and the day before in the afternoon.”

Likewise, in the Misal Romano It is indicated that “for the Mass of the previous day to be valid as a Sunday Mass or a holy day of obligation, it must be celebrated in the afternoon (starting at 4:00 pm) and contain the liturgy and readings of the Sunday Mass.” .

Along these lines, a case that has gone viral on social networks in recent days is that of Father Emiliano Cabrera, parish priest of Santa Mónica in the Archdiocese of Tlalnepantla, north of Mexico City.

Father Cabrera invited the faithful who will not be able to participate in Mass this Sunday because of the elections to attend the Eucharistic celebration on Saturday, June 1 at 6:00 pm (local time), so that they can “fulfill the Sunday precept of the Eucharist.”

“With the favor of God and the Most Holy Mary, we will hold an early Sunday celebration for polling station officials,” said the priest.

Election Day in Mexico

According to the National Electoral Institute (INE), They’ll be installed around 170,858 polling stations throughout the country, each made up of a president, two secretaries, three tellers and general substitutes, which totals one million 532,358 people in these positions.

In addition, citizens were appointed to man the boxes in charge of counting and counting the votes of Mexicans residing abroad, early voting for people who for health reasons will not be able to attend on June 2, and people who are in preventive detention.

It was also reported that 21,703 national observers and 1,309 foreign visitors were accredited for this election day.

The democratic participation of Catholics in the Mexican elections

Father René Carrera Sánchez, executive secretary of the Faith and Social Commitment dimension of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM), reflected on the social commitment and personal responsibility that participation in the elections implies.

“These days it has been questioned whether voting is a dispensable right or an obligation. Likewise, in the consciences of many faithful there is a conflict if not voting is considered a sin, or if voting for a candidate or party can represent an offense to faith,” the priest told ACI Prensa.

Although he indicated that democratic participation “is not coercive,” in social activities it is seen as a “co-responsibility for the common good.” Father Carrera mentioned that “the promotion and exercise of the common good will always be a pillar to be able to carry out a full community life. “Whoever does not seek the common good breaks social synergy and is the beginning of disintegration.”

He also pointed out that “in them we see not only an imposition, but a way of realizing our vocation within the world based on order and justice.”

Considering that “suffrage is a moral act,” Father Carrera stated that its “abstention results in a sin against the common good, that is, in a social sin.”

“Not exercising the vote is a sin because it isolates us from others and affects the entire society with an indifference that not only generates political problems, but also at an economic, social and cultural level,” he concluded.