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Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley issued the following letter June 9 on his decision to reinstate the Sunday Mass obligation for most parishioners on Father’s Day weekend, June 19-20. The local dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, Manchester, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine will also join Boston in reinstating the Sunday obligation on that weekend.
Brothers and Sisters,
“Without the Lord’s day, we cannot live!” His Holiness, Pope Benedict, in his homily at the Cathedral of Saint Stephen in Vienna on September 9, 2007, quoted the Abitinian Martyrs, who during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian were arrested for celebrating Sunday Mass. The martyrs responded to the magistrate: “Sine dominico non possumus!” – without the Lord’s day, we cannot live! The Pope went on to say: “For these Christians, the Sunday Eucharist was not a commandment, but an inner necessity. Without him who sustai