Bishop Most Rev. Dennis Villarojo, D.D., has lifted the dispensation from physical attendance in Sunday masses for all the faithful in the Diocese of Malolos beginning June 11, 2023, Solemnity of the Corpus Christi.
In a circular issued to all clergy of the Diocese, as well as chaplaincies and Catholic schools, Bishop Villarojo instructs parish priests to “employ all effective means necessary to catechize the faithful these coming weeks, especially on Pentecost Sunday and Trinity Sunday, on the importance of the Sunday obligation.”
“Let us ardently encourage the faithful to encounter God through the Church in her communal celebration of the Sacred Mysteries,” Bishop Villarojo added.
In October 2022, citing the weakening of the pandemic and relaxed protocols imposed by health officials, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President and Kalookan Bishop Most Rev. Pablo Virgilio David, D.D. encouraged the faithful to return to Sunday Eucharist.
“These circumstances permit and oblige us to return to the normality of Christian life, which has the Church building as its home of the celebration of the liturgy, especially the Eucharist, as ‘the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed, at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows’ (SC, 10).”
Early this year, the Diocese of Malolos, through its Commission on Social Communications, instructed parishes to limit the livestreaming of masses during Sundays to two, preferably one in the morning and one in the evening. Parish social communication ministry workers were also encouraged to wean from livestreaming and focus more on content creation.
It was in March 2020 that the CBCP gave Bishops to exercise their prerogative to dispense the faithful from Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation after the government restricted public gatherings to stem the spread of COVID-19. (Diocese of Malolos Social Communications Ministry)
