text: I believe the author shows his own bias (which is natural, of course) when he insists that mass attendance "fulfills a divine command." Does he derive this from a protracted understanding of the 3rd commandment? This seems quite silly and archaic to me... did Jesus *invite* us to follow Him or did he "command" us to attend RCC mass? I certainly fit the mold of "skeptic" in terms of his idea of mass being a "sacred obligation," especially where he presents as "fact... that it's offensive to God if they deliberately choose to ignore him"--as if tending to an elderly parent (for one example) would be a poor way to keep holy the Sabbath. To keep holy literally means to "set apart." Other than tradition in the early church (the earliest of whom attended house gatherings--not mass--incidentally), there are no "facts" that command mass attendance and/or that it is offensive to God to honor Him in other ways... not suggesting that mass attendance is bad but "sacred obligation" seems a stretch.