Catholics to return to Mass by June, Ohio Catholic bishops announce

May 14—Ohio Catholics should return to the pews by the first Sunday in June.

The Catholic Bishops of Ohio are reinstating the usual obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation on June 5-6, they announced in a statement on Thursday. Catholics had been dispensed from this obligation since March, 2020, in response to the coronavirus pandemic that for a time led bishops to additionally suspend public liturgies.

The bishops clarified in their statement that those with a serious reason to skip in-person liturgies remain exempt, as they note has always been the case under the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This includes those who are ill, at a significant health risk or caring for someone at a significant health risk or "those who have significant fear or anxiety of contracting the coronavirus in a large group of persons."

These persons should observe in an alternative way, such as watching a broadcast of the Mass.

The reinstatement is effective across each diocese in Ohio, including the Diocese of Toledo.

"The obligation to attend Mass on Sunday and Holy Days is not something God asks of us out of his own necessity to be worshipped, but rather a gift to the faithful for their spiritual well-being, eternal salvation and formation in our relationship with God and one another," the bishops wrote in their statement in part. "To that end, Saint John Vianney rightly asserts, 'There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us.'

"The Eucharist is the greatest gift Christ left to the Church — the gift of Himself. There is no substitute for Mass celebrated in person."

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