Pope says attending Sunday Mass essential part of Christian living

Published: 2005-01-21

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Attending Sunday Mass each week is a sign of a Catholic's fidelity to Christ and an essential part of Christian living, Pope John Paul II said. "Participating in the Sunday Mass is not only an important obligation, as the 'Catechism of the Catholic Church' says clearly, but, above all, it is a profound need experienced by each of the faithful," he said Jan. 21. The pope focused on the importance of Sunday Mass during a speech to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which met Jan. 18-21 at the Vatican to discuss "Sunday Mass, the Center of Christian Life in Latin America." The pope told the commission members that bishops and priests must find more effective ways to communicate to the faithful the central place Sunday Mass has "in the church and social life of men and women today."

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