Obligation to attend Mass dispensed on Dec. 9 in the Diocese of Knoxville

Bishop Mark Beckman has dispensed the faithful in the Diocese of Knoxville from the obligation to attend Mass on Monday, Dec. 9, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a holy day of obligation that is typically celebrated on Dec. 8 to honor the Blessed Mother's conception without original sin. This year, since Dec. 8 falls on the second Sunday of Advent, the holy day has been transferred to be observed on Monday, Dec. 9. 

In a letter dated Sept. 4 to Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, the Holy See’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts Prefect, Archbishop Filippo Iannone, noted that Dec. 9 would be observed as a holy day of obligation.  

“Canon 1245, §1, establishes the feasts that must be observed as days of obligation,” wrote Archbishop Iannone, in part. “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.” 

Before receiving Archbishop Iannone’s letter, the USCCB had stated that the Dec. 9 observations would not be a holy day of obligation. The obligation of a holy day when transferred to a Monday had not been the standard policy in the United States since 1992. Because clarification arrived late and because many parishes had already set their liturgical schedules, Bishop Beckman saw fit to dispense the faithful in the Diocese of Knoxville from the obligation to attend Mass on Dec. 9.  

That Monday remains the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and should be observed as such in all Masses and in the Liturgy of the Hours that day, even though the obligation to attend Mass is dispensed.  

Moving forward, the Diocese of Knoxville will observe the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception as a holy day of obligation when it is transferred to Monday.