While Catholics who feel comfortable going to church are encouraged to attend Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Dec. 8 — normally a holy day of obligation — there is no obligation to do so this year while the Archdiocese of Baltimore has a dispensation in place from attending Mass because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Catholics are invited to watch a livestream of the feast day liturgy that some parishes will be offering online and on social media outlets. (See www.archbalt.org/online-mass.)
The feast day celebrates the dogma that Mary was preserved from original sin from the moment of her conception. In 1846, while meeting in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops adopted a decree naming Mary, “conceived without sin,” as patroness of the United States. Pope Pius IX approved the choice and placed the United States under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception in 1857.
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