Holy See clarifies that Immaculate Conception is Holy Day of Obligation despite transfer

CV NEWS FEED // The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is still a holy day of obligation even though it has been transferred from the second Sunday of Advent (December 8) to the following Monday (December 9) this year, the Holy See clarified in a letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The Holy See’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts Prefect, Archbishop Filippo Iannone, wrote in a September 4 letter to the USCCB Committee of Canonical Affairs chair, Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, Bishop Thomas Paprocki:

“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.”

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The Vatican has clarified that Catholics in the United States must still attend Mass on holy days of obligation even when they are transferred to Mondays or Saturdays, correcting a long-standing practice in the U.S. Church.

In its complementary norms, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) stipulates that when certain feast days fall on a Saturday or Monday, the obligation to attend Mass on that day is “abrogated.”

Dec. 8 is typically a holy day of obligation celebrating the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, but this year the feast day lands on a Sunday in Advent. As a result, the USCCB transferred it to Monday, Dec. 9, according to the 2024 USCCB liturgical calendar.

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