Washington D.C., Mar 22, 2021 / 11:00 am
The Diocese of Springfield in Illinois is restoring the Sunday obligation for most Catholics on April 11, Divine Mercy Sunday.
"The Easter season is a very fitting time to renew our commitment to worship Our Lord every weekend in commemoration of His Resurrection and to pray for God's Divine Mercy to heal the sick and bring an end to this pandemic," Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield stated in an announcement on Monday.
Bishop Paprocki announced the "modified" obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation beginning on April 11, with some exemptions.
Those dispensed from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass include those with symptoms of COVID-19 or who have "good reason" to believe they are COVID-positive and asymptomatic. Also, the elderly who are age 65 and over are dispensed from the obligation, as well as caretakers of the sick and the homebound, pregnant women, those turned away from a church that is "at safe-distancing capacity," and those considered at risk of COVID-19 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).