Vatican publishes clarification

No renewed obligation to attend Mass after holiday postponement

Vatican City - Going to church is compulsory for Catholics on Sundays and high church holidays. But what happens if a "holy day" falls on a Sunday and is therefore postponed? The Vatican has ruled.

Published  on 29.01.2025 at 14:22  – 

If a high church holiday in a country is exceptionally postponed because it falls on a Sunday, for example, then going to church on the alternative day is not compulsory. This was decided by the Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and announced in an official note. The document was signed by Cardinal Arthur Roche (photo above) on 23 January and has now been made public.

The text explains that the coexistence of movable (dependent on the date of Easter) and non-movable (i.e. always celebrated on the same date) public holidays can lead to ecclesiastical "double occupancy" of a day in some years. In this case, the higher-ranking holiday should always be celebrated. If a bishop or a conference of bishops decides to move the "required holiday" to another day, the obligation to attend church on this "alternative day" is cancelled.

Example USA

The Vatican note was prompted by a decision by the bishops in the USA. Last year, they moved the required feast day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary from 8 December to the following day because the feast day of Mary 2024 coincided with the First Sunday of Advent. At that time, they had also declared the replacement day to be an ecclesiastically commanded holiday, so that US Catholics were required to go to Mass on both days.

According to the Church, Catholics who do not attend a Eucharistic celebration on a required church holiday - which in Germany includes Easter Monday, Whit Monday and Ascension Day - are committing a sin. In Germany, the bishops temporarily cancelled this so-called Sunday obligation in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. (KNA)