England and Wales: Bishops invite faithful to return to Sunday Mass. “The very heartbeat of the Church and our life of faith”

“We encourage all Catholics to look again at the patterns which they have formed in recent months with regard to going to Mass on Sundays”. This is an excerpt from the statement entitled “Honouring Sunday” recently released by the Bishops of England and Wales which acknowledges a trend that was also highlighted in the British press. The fact that many faithful have lost the habit of Mass during the pandemic. Even if online services have been very popular in all Christian denominations and have attracted people who did not normally attend Church, for others the lifting of the obligation to attend Mass has become an opportunity to fill with other activities the time that used to be dedicated to the Eucharist. The Bishops hence encourage the faithful to consider and reflect on “what we might do on Sundays, such as sports or shopping, or other leisure and social activities”. “This review, and the decisions which arise from it, fall to every Catholic and we trust this will be done with honesty, motivated by a real love for the Lord whom we encounter in the Mass”. In the statement, the third dedicated to this topic, the Bishops of England and Wales recall that “Sunday Mass is the very heartbeat of the Church and of our personal life of faith”.
Valentina Bombelli