ATTENTION: CHANGE IN PRACTICE | SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

What stays the same: In 2024, December 8 falls on the Second Sunday of Advent. Because the Sundays of Advent rank higher, the date of solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated in 2024 is necessarily transferred to Monday, December 9. What changes: Previously in these situations—when the DATE of the Solemnity was transferred from the 8th to the 9th—the obligation to attend Mass on the 9th was abrogated (eliminated). This abrogation is no longer true. In 2024 and into the future, Mass celebrated on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception will always be obligatory, regardless of which day of the week it falls—even if the celebration has necessarily been moved to December 9th.
Why the change: Earlier this year, Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, Chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, wrote to the Holy See seeking clarification about the obligation to attend Mass when a holy day of obligation in Advent, Lent, or Easter falls on Sunday and the Solemnity is transferred to Monday. In a memo to the U.S. bishops dated Thursday, October 10, 2024, Bishop Paprocki communicated the Dicastery for Legislative Text’s response: “the feast must be observed as a day of obligation on the day to which it is transferred.” Therefore, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Monday, December 9, 2024 is to be observed as a holy day of obligation. Father Maria Joseph Kodiganti