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How Are Weekend Mass Times Set?

Question:

How do parishes decide weekend Mass times? Are there any guidelines in canon law or the General Instruction of the Roman Missal?

Answer:

Sunday Masses may be any time from 4 p.m. Saturday evening to Sunday before midnight (which sometimes happens at colleges and in Latin countries, where 9 p.m. Sunday Masses are not unheard of). That is the only norm there is, taken from canon 1248, 1 in the Code of Canon Law.  The 4 p.m. vigil time is customary, although there are those who would argue for 3 p.m. All this applies also to holy days that do not fall on Sunday.

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