WESTMINSTER, U.K. (LifeSiteNews) – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) announced that the obligation to attend Sunday Mass will be reinstated for the first time since March 2020.
In a press release published May 9 and signed on the last day of the bishops’ 2022 spring plenary May 6, the CBCEW announced the reinstatement of the obligation for Catholics to attend Sunday Mass. The obligation was temporarily suspended March 18 at the outset of the Church’s own COVID-19 restrictions in the country.
“Most people have resumed the wide range of normal activities, no longer restricted by the previous Covid measures,” the assembled bishops noted.
“We therefore believe that the reasons which have prevented Catholics from attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation no longer apply,” they wrote.
The “‘Virtual viewing’ of Mass online does not fulfil the Sunday Obligation,” stated the CBCEW, adding that live-streamed Masses may be “a source of continual spiritual comfort to those who cannot attend Mass in person, for example those who are elderly and sick, for whom the obligation does not apply.”
The Church’s Canon Law 1247 obliges Catholics “to participate in the Mass … on Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church subsequently adds exceptions to this prescription: “unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor.”
The CBCEW statement did not present a definitive date on which the 2020 removal of the Sunday obligation would end. However, the statement appeared to present the feast of Pentecost as a day on which all Catholics in England and Wales should consider the obligation to be reinstated:
Looking forward to the forthcoming feast of Pentecost, we now invite all Catholics who have not yet done so to return to attending Mass in person.
The Scottish Bishops’ Conference, led by Bishop Hugh Gilbert, already reinstated the Sunday obligation beginning March 6, 2022, which had also been suspended since the outset of COVID restrictions in 2020.
Beginning March 20, 2020, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales prohibited the celebration of public Masses before the lockdown came into force on March 23 and, according to their own statement, played a crucial role themselves in convincing the government to require that churches be closed altogether.
Once Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the nationwide lockdown on March 23, Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the CBCEW, announced that Catholic churches would not even be open for private prayer, saying, “It’s not essential for people to travel to go to church in order to pray.”
“Open churches will only tempt people to travel,” the cardinal said. “And that is not good practice now.”
READ: English churches banned Masses, but ‘support groups,’ blood donations are allowed
In the wake of the lockdowns and church closures, Shrewsbury Bishop Mark Davies petitioned the UK government for “financial assistance,” given the “dramatic fall of about a third in parish income.”
Once the churches reopened in summer 2020, the CBCEW released guidance for the resumption of the public celebration of Mass, which included members of the congregation wearing face coverings, allowing Holy Communion only in the hand while standing, not allowing congregational singing, and encouraging those who receive Communion to leave the church immediately after Mass.