Cardinal Wilton Gregory has issued a decree granting the faithful of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, as it is observed this year on Monday, Dec. 9.
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is a holy day of obligation that is celebrated each year on Dec. 8 to commemorate the fact that Mary was preserved from original sin from the moment she was conceived.
This year, Dec. 8 falls on the Second Sunday of Advent. Some holy days – such as the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady or the Solemnity of All Saints – when they fall on Saturday or Monday have the obligation to attend Mass lifted. Such is not the case with the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
In publishing Cardinal Gregory’s decree, the archdiocese noted that “The Church moves a solemnity that falls on the Sundays in Advent out of deference for our preparation to welcome the Lord on Christmas. So the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is transferred to Monday, Dec. 9.”
However, the archdiocese added, “there has been some confusion this year about the observance of this Holy Day and the obligation to attend Mass. But guidance from the Vatican was only recently shared and many parish calendars were already set for the year.”
Because of that confusion, Cardinal Gregory issued his dispensation.
In his decree, the cardinal noted that “no one is required to make use of this dispensation. It is certainly preferable that those who can do so attend Mass on December 9.”
Those who make use of dispensation should “engage in other acts of prayer, charity, and Christian witness, all in keeping with the preeminent example of our country's Patron, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the Immaculate Conception,” Cardinal Gregory said in his decree. “Perhaps they could attend a daily Mass at some other time in the weeks before or after December 9 that is convenient.”
Similar dispensations were offered to the faithful of several other dioceses including the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis; the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan; the Diocese of San Jose, California; and the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, is the patroness of the United States of America. Although the faithful venerated Mary’s immaculate conception from the first centuries of the Church, it was not officially proclaimed a dogma of the faith until Pope Pius pronounced it infallibly so in his 1854 encyclical Ineffabilis Deus.
