The bishops' letter permits parishes to resume public Masses May 26.
Parishes are not obliged to begin public Masses that day, the bishops said, and those which do will need to meet stringent requirements established by the Church, including a plan to limit attendance to one-third of church capacity, and follow sanitation protocols. They also said that Catholics remain dispensed from the Sunday obligation.
A May 13 executive order began Minnesota's second stage of statewide response to the coronavirus pandemic. The order, issued by Governor Tim Walz, reopens retail businesses and will gradually reopen restaurants and bars, but limits religious services to 10 people or fewer, with no timeline for loosening religious restrictions.
The bishops' decision to contravene a statewide executive order is the first made by U.S. bishops since the coronavirus pandemic began.
But Minnesota's bishops said the state's prohibitions on religious gatherings of more than 10 people does not respect the right to the free exercise of religion.
"It is now permissible for an unspecified number of people to go to shopping malls and enter stores, so long as no more than 50 percent of the occupancy capacity is reached. Big-box stores have hundreds of people inside at any one time, and the number of goods that are being handled and distributed in one store by many people-stock staff, customers, cashiers-is astounding. Workers are present for many hours per day, often in close proximity. There is no state mandate that customers wear masks in those malls or stores, wash their hands consistently, or follow any specific cleaning protocol," the bishops wrote.