By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-10-29 21:36:25 | Updated at 2024-10-30 03:18:04
5 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // In a letter addressed to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Holy See has clarified that although the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been transferred to Monday, it remains a Holy Day of Obligation.
The September 4 letter was a response to a request for clarification from Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, who is the Chairman of the Committee of Canonical Affairs for the USCCB. In 2024, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is transferred from December 8, which is the second Sunday of Advent, to Monday, December 9.
Archbishop Filippo Iannone, the prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts, responded:
“Canon 1245, §1, establishes the feasts that must be observed as days of obligation. The Canon does not provide exceptions. For those reasons, those feasts are always days of obligation, and so, even when the aforementioned transfer of the feast occurs. Therefore, in that year, the feast must be observed as a day of obligation on the day to which it is transferred.”
The letter states that the faithful are excused from holy days of obligation in grave cases, such as illness or the care of infants, or if their own pastors dispense them for a just cause.
Before receiving the letter from Archbishop Iannone, the USCCB had stated that December 9 was not a Holy Day of Obligation. The USCCB’s liturgical calendar has yet to be updated in light of Archbishop Iannone’s response.
U.S. dioceses are taking various approaches to the directive.
A spokesperson from Bishop Paprocki’s Diocese of Springfield confirmed to CatholicVote that the diocese is observing the feast of the Immaculate Conception as a Holy Day of Obligation.
Other dioceses such as Youngstown, Ohio, have confirmed to the faithful their obligation to attend Mass on December 9. The Diocese of Youngstown stated that Bishop Paprocki wrote a memo to United States bishops on October 8, sharing the response from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts.
“In light of this new directive, the Solemnity of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Monday, December 9, 2024, is to be observed as a holy day of obligation this year,” the diocese announced.
Bishop Lou Tylka of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, also confirmed the Vatican’s new clarification regarding the Holy Day of Obligation; however, he dispensed his diocese from the obligation “since this is a change in the previous practice, and since parishes have already determined their Mass schedules.”
However, Bishop Tylka added, “While the obligation is dispensed, I nevertheless urge the faithful to make every effort to honor the Mother of God by attending Mass on this day.” He also reminded the faithful of the Blessed Mother’s powerful intercession against sin.
Meanwhile, also in Illinois, an email to deacons and priests from Bishop Robert Casey, auxiliary bishop of Chicago, stated that Cardinal Cupich provided his diocese with a dispensation, despite the Vatican’s letter.
The email quotes Code of Canon Law 87, §1, which states that “a diocesan bishop, whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good, is able to dispense the faithful from universal and particular disciplinary laws issued for his territory or his subjects by the supreme authority of the Church.”
The email then states, “No member of the Catholic faithful is obligated to attend Mass on December 9, 2024.” The email did not mention that the priests should encourage the faithful to still attend Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception honors the Blessed Mother’s purity, pointing to the fact that she was conceived without original sin. The Church clarified the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Shortly afterward, in 1858, Our Lady revealed herself to St. Bernadette of Lourdes under the title “Immaculate Conception.”
