EARL BOYEA
EPISCOPUS LANSINGENSIS
Divina Miseratione et Apostolicæ Sedis Gratia
DECREE DISPENSING FROM HOLY DAY OBLIGATIONS (CANON 1247)
ON DECEMBER 9, 2024
Whereas the previously issued USCCB Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of America 2024 stated that Monday, December 9, 2024, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patronal Feast Day of the United States of America, is “not a Holy Day of Obligation this year,” and;
Whereas recent correspondence from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts (Prot. N. 18329/2024) to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance addressed whether the obligations pertaining to a Holy Day of Obligation also transfer when (1) a solemnity of precept falls on a Sunday during the privileged seasons of Advent, Lent, or Easter, and (2) the liturgical observance of the solemnity is transferred to Monday. In its response, the Dicastery clarified that “these feasts are always days of obligation … even when the aforementioned transfer of the feast occurs.”
Therefore –
Keeping before my eyes the salvation of souls, which is the supreme law of the Church (can. 1752); in light of the doubt (can. 14) both in favor and against the observance of Monday, December 9, 2024, as a Holy Day of Obligation; and judging it to be in accord with their spiritual welfare (can. 87 §1), I hereby dispense the faithful present in the Diocese of Lansing from observing the obligations of the holy day (can. 1247) on Monday, December 9, 2024.
For the same reasons, I further dispense all priests obliged to celebrate the Mass pro populo (can. 534 §1) from observing that obligation on December 9, 2024.
While dispensing from these obligatory observances for this year alone, I warmly invite all the faithful, out of devotion, and not binding under penalty of sin, to participate in Mass on Monday, December 9, as they are able, and to keep the day with the joy proper to our nation’s patronal feast.
Given at the Curia in Lansing on this, the twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord 2024.
Most Reverend Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing
Mr. Michael Andrews
Chancellor