Archdiocese of Santa Fe reinstates Sunday Mass obligation

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Catholics in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe will once again have to fulfill their obligation to attend Sunday Mass.

Archbishop John Charles Wester wrote in a letter Monday that the attendance obligation has been reinstated.

The obligation has been lifted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but the archbishop wrote in the letter, “Given the current situation of the virus, its less severe symptoms, the availability of vaccines, and the advice of the medical establishment, I now reinstate the obligation of the faithful to assist at Sunday Mass and all other Holy Days of Obligation.”

The Diocese comprises 19 of the 33 counties in New Mexico: Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos, Sandoval, Valencia, Rio Arriba, Colfax, Union, Mora, Harding, San Miguel, Quay, Socorro, Torrance, Guadalupe, De Baca, Roosevelt, and Curry.