Speaking personally, it means the grievous loss
of something about Catholic observance which always used enormously to impress me as a non-Catholic: the spectacle
of Catholics keeping their weekday
obligations, often at enormous inconvenience to themselves: as an Anglican, for whom any liturgical
obligation was essentially a matter
of my own whim, this was immensely attractive: there was the
sense that Catholics were under obedience, and that their religion was a
real force in their lives, one not to be diverted by secular pressures or values.
It has «
real relevance» in non-human animals, so much so that a primitive
sense of moral
obligation can be found in the higher species
of the animal kingdom (MT 28).