The 2025 Decree on Mass Intentions

What the Decree Is §

Pope Francis approved the decree on Palm Sunday, 13 April 2025, and it came into force on Easter Sunday, 20 April. It’s signed by Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, the Dicastery’s Prefect, and Archbishop Andrés Gabriel Ferrada Moreira, its Secretary, and the Holy See Press Office published it the day it was approved (Bollettino, 13 April 2025). Some writers call it Secundum probatum, from the words of canon 945 printed at its head.¹ It is short: a preamble, six articles, a promise of a study after ten years, and the Pope’s approval.

He approved it “in forma specifica”, in specific form, and that matters. An office of the Roman Curia “cannot issue laws or general decrees having the force of law, nor can it derogate from the prescriptions of the current universal law, except in individual and particular cases, and with the approval of the Roman Pontiff in forma specifica” (Praedicate Evangelium, Art. 30, the Holy See’s English), and the decree’s preamble calls collective intentions “un’eccezione alla legge universale”, an exception to the universal law (our translation). Mos iugiter was approved the same way, by Pope John Paul II on 22 January 1991 (AAS 83 (1991) 446).

Is There an Official English Translation? §

No. The Holy See publishes the decree in Italian only. The Dicastery’s English list of its documents gives it an English title, “Decree of the Dicastery for the Clergy on the discipline of Mass intentions (13 April 2025)”, and links only the Italian (Documents, checked 14 October 2026). Every English version, ours included, is someone’s translation.

On this page the Italian comes first and our English follows, labeled as ours. Where a word matters, the Italian is the law.

Why the Holy See Issued It §

The decree opens with canon 945: it’s the Church’s approved custom for a priest to accept an offering so that he applies a Mass for a particular intention (canon 945). The faithful’s gifts, the preamble recalls, were never regarded as a “sale price” for something holy, since that would be simony (our translation), and Church documents have judged two things contrary to justice: one Mass applied for several offerings accepted separately, and a promised Mass never applied. Then it names a third: “No less illicit would be to replace the application promised in the Mass with a mere ‘prayer intention’ during a celebration of the Word, or with a simple mention at certain moments of the Eucharistic celebration” (our translation).

The whole discipline, it says, rests on “la giustizia verso gli offerenti, e cioè il mantenimento della parola data agli offerenti, e il dovere di evitare che ci sia anche solo la mera apparenza di “commercio” di cose sacre”: justice toward the offerers, that is, keeping the word given to them, and the duty to avoid even the mere appearance of “commerce” in sacred things (our translation; it cites canons 947 and 945 §2).

A shortage of priests for the Masses people asked for was among the reasons, the preamble says, that led the Holy See in 1991 to allow one Mass for several offerings, as an exception, and Mos iugiter itself warned that the practice, spread too far, would be an abuse. More than thirty-four years on, the Dicastery judged that new norms were needed, to make the law “more explicit in excluding certain practices that have wrongly arisen in various places” (our translation). It gives them “a integrazione della disciplina attualmente vigente in materia”, as a supplement to the discipline already in force (our translation).

Article 1: Collective Intentions §

Art. 1 § 1 Rimanendo fermo il can. 945 CIC, se il concilio provinciale o la riunione dei Vescovi della provincia, tenendo conto di condizioni quali, per esempio, il numero dei sacerdoti rispetto alle richieste di intenzioni o il contesto sociale ed ecclesiale, nei limiti della propria giurisdizione lo dispone per decreto, i sacerdoti possono accettare più offerte da offerenti distinti, cumulandole con altre e soddisfacendovi con una sola Messa, celebrata secondo un’unica intenzione “collettiva”, qualora - e soltanto qualora - tutti gli offerenti ne siano stati informati e liberamente abbiano acconsentito. § 2 Tale volontà degli offerenti non può mai essere presunta; anzi, in assenza di un consenso esplicito, si presume sempre che non sia stata data. § 3 Nel caso di cui al § 1, al celebrante è lecito tenere per sé l’offerta di una sola intenzione (Cfr cann. 950-952 CIC). § 4 Ogni comunità cristiana sia attenta a offrire la possibilità di celebrare Messe giornaliere di intenzione singola, per le quali il concilio provinciale o la riunione dei Vescovi della provincia fissano lo stipendio stabilito (Cfr can. 952 CIC).

Art. 1 §1. With canon 945 CIC standing as it is, if the provincial council or the meeting of the Bishops of the province, taking account of conditions such as, for example, the number of priests in relation to the requests for intentions, or the social and ecclesial context, so provides by decree within the limits of its own jurisdiction, priests may accept several offerings from different offerers, combining them with others and satisfying them with a single Mass, celebrated for a single “collective” intention, if, and only if, all the offerers have been informed of it and have freely consented.

§2. This wish of the offerers can never be presumed; on the contrary, in the absence of explicit consent, it is always presumed not to have been given.

§3. In the case spoken of in §1, the celebrant may lawfully keep for himself the offering of one intention only (cf. cann. 950 to 952 CIC).

§4. Every Christian community is to take care to offer the possibility of celebrating daily Masses for a single intention, for which the provincial council or the meeting of the Bishops of the province fix the established offering (cf. can. 952 CIC).

Art. 1. Italian · Our translation.

A collective intention is several people’s separate offerings, joined together and satisfied by one Mass. It’s an exception to the ordinary law, under which every offering given and accepted is owed a Mass of its own, however small (canon 948). Article 1 allows it only when the bishops of the province have provided for it by decree, and only when every person whose offering goes into that Mass was told and freely agreed.

The second paragraph is the one the article turns on. As we read “consenso esplicito”, a notice in the bulletin isn’t consent, and neither is a box ticked on someone’s behalf: the parishioner has to say yes, and without that yes her offering is owed a Mass of its own. The priest keeps the offering of one intention (§3), though the decree doesn’t say which, and the rest go where canon 951 sends them (Article 3). And every parish must still keep it possible to ask for a daily Mass for a single intention (§4).

Only the province can make that decree: the provincial council, or the meeting of the bishops of the province, the same body that fixes the customary offering (canon 952). A province is a group of neighboring dioceses, and the archbishop of one of them presides over it (canons 431 and 435). It isn’t a parish’s decision or one diocese’s, and the decree doesn’t name the national bishops’ conference, as some early English reports did.² Bishop Elias Frank, a consultor to the Dicastery for Divine Worship, reads Article 1 as leaving to the province “how many such Masses may be celebrated per week and on which days.”¹

In 1991 nobody had to decree anything first. Mos iugiter let a priest satisfy several offerings with one Mass where the givers, told beforehand and explicitly (“praevia et explicita ratione praemoniti”), freely agreed. Such a Mass had to be announced publicly, with its place and time, and held at most twice a week (“ad summum bis in hebdomada”), and he kept only the diocesan offering and sent the rest to the Ordinary (Art. 2 §§1 to 2 and Art. 3, AAS 83 (1991) 445, our translation). Now the province decides, a no is presumed without an explicit yes, and the priest keeps one intention’s offering rather than the diocesan figure. The six articles set no number of collective Masses a week, though Vatican News’s English report says the decree “further restricts the frequency” of them;³ the only number in the universal law is still Mos iugiter’s, wherever Article 6 applies.

Article 2: More Than One Mass in a Day §

Art. 2 Fatto salvo il can. 905 CIC, qualora il sacerdote celebri legittimamente l’Eucaristia più volte nello stesso giorno, se necessario e richiesto dal vero bene dei fedeli, può celebrare differenti Messe anche secondo intenzioni “collettive”, restando fermo che gli è lecito trattenere, quotidianamente, una sola offerta per una sola intenzione tra quelle accettate (Cfr cann. 950-952 CIC).

Art. 2. Without prejudice to canon 905 CIC, where the priest lawfully celebrates the Eucharist more than once on the same day, he may, if it is necessary and the true good of the faithful requires it, celebrate different Masses, including Masses for “collective” intentions, it remaining settled that he may lawfully keep, each day, one offering only, for one only of the intentions accepted (cf. cann. 950 to 952 CIC).

Art. 2. Italian · Our translation.

A priest may normally celebrate once a day; where priests are few, the local Ordinary may let him celebrate twice a day for a just cause, and three times on Sundays and holy days of obligation when pastoral need requires it (canon 905). Article 2 lets such a priest offer those Masses for collective intentions too, when the good of the faithful requires it, but he keeps one offering a day. That is canon 951’s rule for several Masses in a day, carried over to collective Masses (canon 951).

As we read it, Article 2 doesn’t make a collective Mass lawful by itself. It assumes one already is, under a provincial decree or under Mos iugiter, and settles the offering. The 1991 decree had no article of this kind.

Article 3: Nothing Asked for the Sacraments, and Where the Offerings Go §

Art. 3 § 1 Occorre soprattutto tenere presente le disposizioni del can. 848 CIC il quale stabilisce che il ministro, oltre alle offerte determinate dalla competente autorità, per l’amministrazione dei sacramenti non domandi nulla, evitando sempre che i più bisognosi siano privati dell’aiuto dei sacramenti a motivo della povertà. Si osservi inoltre quanto vivamente raccomandato dal can. 945 § 2 CIC, vale a dire «di celebrare la Messa per le intenzioni dei fedeli, soprattutto dei più poveri, anche senza ricevere alcuna offerta». § 2 Per la destinazione delle offerte si applichi, congrua congruis referendo, la norma del can. 951 CIC. § 3 In considerazione delle circostanze specifiche della Chiesa particolare, e del suo clero, il Vescovo diocesano può, per legge particolare, disporre la destinazione di tali offerte alle parrocchie in stato di necessità della propria o di altre diocesi, specialmente nei paesi di missione.

Art. 3 §1. Above all, the provisions of canon 848 CIC must be kept in mind, which lays down that the minister is to ask nothing for the administration of the sacraments beyond the offerings determined by the competent authority, always taking care that the neediest are not deprived of the help of the sacraments by reason of poverty. Let what canon 945 §2 CIC so warmly recommends be observed besides, namely «to celebrate Mass for the intentions of the faithful, above all of the poorest, even without receiving any offering».

§2. For where the offerings are to go, the norm of canon 951 CIC is to be applied, congrua congruis referendo.

§3. In view of the specific circumstances of the particular Church and of its clergy, the diocesan Bishop may, by particular law, provide that these offerings go to parishes in need in his own or in other dioceses, especially in mission countries.

Art. 3. Italian · Our translation.

The first paragraph adds no new law. It sets two canons at the head of the decree’s article on offerings: nothing is to be asked for the sacraments beyond the offerings the competent authority has set, and the poor are never to go without them because they’re poor (canon 848); and priests are urged to celebrate even when no offering is given (canon 945 §2).

The second sends the offerings beyond the one the priest keeps where canon 951 sends them, to the purposes the Ordinary lays down. Congrua congruis referendo is a canonist’s phrase for applying a rule to a like case with the adjustments it needs, and Mos iugiter had said much the same in its own words (Art. 3 §2). The third is new: a diocesan bishop may now decide, by particular law, that those offerings go to parishes in need, in his own diocese or another, especially in mission countries.

Article 4: The Book, and a Mass Applied or a Name Remembered §

Art. 4 § 1 Spetta agli Ordinari erudire il rispettivo clero e popolo circa il contenuto e significato di queste norme, e vigilare sulla loro corretta applicazione, curando che si annotino accuratamente sull’apposito registro il numero delle messe da celebrare, le intenzioni, le offerte e l’avvenuta celebrazione nonché prendendo ogni anno visione di tali registri, personalmente o tramite altri (Cfr can. 958 CIC). § 2 In modo particolare, sia gli Ordinari che gli altri Pastori della Chiesa debbono assicurare che sia a tutti eminentemente chiara la distinzione tra l’applicazione per un’intenzione determinata della Messa, (ancorché “collettiva”) e il semplice ricordo nel corso di una celebrazione della Parola o in alcuni momenti della celebrazione eucaristica. § 3 Sia specialmente reso noto a tutti che la sollecitazione o anche solo l’accettazione di offerte in relazione alle due ultime fattispecie è gravemente illecita; laddove simile uso sia indebitamente diffuso, gli Ordinari competenti non escludano il ricorso a misure disciplinari e/o penali per debellare tale deprecabile fenomeno.

Art. 4 §1. It belongs to the Ordinaries to instruct their clergy and people on the content and meaning of these norms, and to watch over their correct application, taking care that the number of Masses to be celebrated, the intentions, the offerings and the celebration once completed are accurately recorded in the register kept for the purpose, and examining those registers each year, personally or through others (cf. can. 958 CIC).

§2. In particular, both the Ordinaries and the other Pastors of the Church must make sure that everyone sees with complete clarity the distinction between the application of the Mass for a particular intention (even a “collective” one) and the simple remembrance in the course of a celebration of the Word or at certain moments of the Eucharistic celebration.

§3. Let it especially be made known to everyone that asking for, or even merely accepting, offerings in connection with the last two cases is gravely illicit; where such a practice has wrongly spread, the competent Ordinaries are not to rule out disciplinary and/or penal measures to stamp out this deplorable phenomenon.

Art. 4. Italian · Our translation.

The first paragraph is the Mass book. The Ordinaries, meaning in a diocese the bishop with his vicars general and episcopal vicars (canon 134), are to teach these norms, watch over them, see that the register records the four things canon 958 names, and look at the registers every year, as that canon already asked (canon 958). Neither the canon’s librum nor the decree’s registro names paper or a screen (how the book is kept).

The second and third paragraphs are the ones most parishes will feel. A name simply remembered in the Prayer of the Faithful, at a Communion service, or in a November book of names is a prayer, and a good one, but it isn’t a Mass applied for that person (canon 901). Pastors are to make that difference plain to everyone, and no offering may be asked for a remembrance, or even accepted for one. Bishop Frank puts it plainly: “Simply reading aloud the donor’s name or intention is not sufficient; the celebrant must actually apply the Mass to the donor’s intention.”¹

Readers differ on one phrase. Bishop Frank renders “celebrazione della Parola” as “the Liturgy of the Word”,¹ the name usually given to the readings at Mass. We read it as a celebration of the Word held instead of Mass, such as a Communion service led by a deacon or a lay minister, because the preamble speaks of replacing a promised Mass with a prayer intention “nel corso di una celebrazione della Parola”, and the paragraph covers “certain moments of the Eucharistic celebration” in its next words. Either reading puts a name read aloud, for which no Mass is applied, on the remembered side of the line.

The decree names no canon for its “disciplinary and/or penal measures”. The Code’s penal canon on Mass offerings punishes whoever makes an unlawful profit from one (canon 1383); what a given case calls for is the Ordinary’s to judge.

Mos iugiter said nothing about remembrances. In an office the line reaches the envelopes many parishes send at All Souls and around Mother’s Day. An envelope that gathers names to be remembered may not ask an offering for them, and an offering given for Masses is owed Masses, each written in the book (canon 948; the parishioner’s side of this).

Article 5: Keeping the Custom, and the Missions §

Art. 5 In vista dei valori anche soprannaturali connessi con la veneranda lodevole prassi di ricevere l’offerta elargita affinché applichi una Messa secondo una determinata intenzione (Cfr can. 948 CIC), per favorire altresì l’apprezzabile usanza di trasferire nei paesi di missione le intenzioni di Messe in esubero con le corrispondenti offerte, curino i Pastori di anime di incoraggiare opportunamente i fedeli a mantenerla, e laddove fosse indebolita, a rinvigorirla e promuoverla, anche attraverso l’opportuna catechesi sui novissimi e sulla communio sanctorum.

Art. 5. In view of the values, supernatural ones among them, bound up with the venerable and praiseworthy practice of receiving the offering given so that a Mass may be applied for a particular intention (cf. can. 948 CIC), and so as to encourage also the commendable custom of transferring to mission countries surplus Mass intentions with the corresponding offerings, pastors of souls are to take care to encourage the faithful, as is fitting, to keep it, and where it has weakened, to revive and promote it, also through suitable catechesis on the last things and on the communio sanctorum.

Art. 5. Italian · Our translation.

Article 5 asks pastors to encourage the faithful to keep the custom of giving an offering for a Mass for a particular intention, and to revive it where it has weakened, by teaching about the last things and the communion of saints. Part of the reason it gives is the missions: the custom of sending surplus intentions, with their offerings, to priests in mission countries.

For a parish with more requests than Masses, that is the lawful way through. No one may accept more Masses to say himself than he can say within a year (canon 953). They may be said elsewhere unless the person who asked expressly said otherwise (canon 954). Whoever passes them on sends the whole offering, stays responsible until word comes back that the obligation was accepted and the offering received, and writes both sides in the book (canon 955) (sending them to the missions).

Mos iugiter asked something close. A priest given more offerings than a year could hold, as at All Souls, was not to refuse them, but to pass them to other priests or to his Ordinary (Art. 5 §1).

Article 6: Where the Province Has Decided Nothing §

Article 6 speaks to every province that hasn’t acted: “Laddove il concilio provinciale o la riunione dei Vescovi della provincia nulla dispongano in materia rimane in vigore quanto previsto dal Decreto Mos iugiter del 22 febbraio 1991”, where the provincial council or the meeting of the Bishops of the province makes no provision on the matter, what the Decree Mos iugiter of 22 February 1991 lays down remains in force (Art. 6, our translation).

As we read Articles 1 and 6 together, where your province has made a decree under Article 1, that decree governs collective intentions in your parish; where it has made none, the 1991 conditions set out under Article 1 still do.

Not everyone reported it that way. The Catholic News Agency’s report on the day, reprinted widely, said the new decree “replaces” Mos iugiter.² The decree’s words are against that: it calls its norms a supplement, and Article 6 keeps the 1991 decree in force. Vatican News’s Italian report says the decree “integra e specifica”, supplements and specifies, Mos iugiter’s norms.⁴ Bishop Frank reads it as we do: until the bishops of the province have decreed, “the provisions of Mos iugiter (22 February 1991) remain in force”.¹ And when the Province of Dubuque in Iowa set a new offering on 19 November 2025, its decree named both decrees among “those regulations now in force”.⁵

Readers of Mos iugiter differ, too, on what its twice-a-week limit counts. The Archdiocese of Detroit says collective Masses “may not be celebrated by a priest more than twice a week”;⁶ the rector of Albany’s cathedral, in a policy of March 2025, allows “up to two weekly Masses per parish”.⁷ The Latin names neither a priest nor a church, so ask your diocese how it counts.

The Ten-Year Review §

After Article 6 the decree promises a study: “Il Dicastero per il Clero, trascorsi dieci anni dall’entrata in vigore delle presenti norme, promuoverà uno studio della prassi nonché della normativa vigente in materia, in vista di una verifica della sua applicazione e di un eventuale aggiornamento”, ten years after these norms come into force, the Dicastery for the Clergy will promote a study of the practice and of the law in force on the matter, with a view to reviewing how it is applied and possibly updating it (the decree, our translation).

The norms don’t lapse in 2035, and the clause sets no deadline. Once ten years have passed from 20 April 2025, the Dicastery is to promote that study, and any update would follow from it.

What Did Not Change §

The decree opens its first article with “Rimanendo fermo il can. 945 CIC”, canon 945 standing as it is (our translation), and every canon on Mass offerings still binds as before (canons 945 to 958). One offering accepted still means one Mass applied, save for the collective exception (canon 948). A priest who says several Masses in a day still keeps one offering, Christmas apart (canon 951). The province still sets the customary offering (canon 952), and Masses are still to be said within the year, passed on with their whole offering, and written in the book (canons 953 to 958).

What changed is narrow: who may allow a collective intention, and on what terms; where the offerings beyond the priest’s one may go; and how plainly the Church now says that a name remembered isn’t a Mass.

A Note on a Widely Shared English Translation §

The English most people find was published by ZENIT on 15 April 2025, with the credit line “Translation of the Italian original into Spanish by ZENIT’s Editorial Director and, into English, by Virginia M. Forrester.”⁸ Most of it follows the Italian closely. Three places could mislead a parish office, so we note them, with respect.

Article 1 §2 reads “in the absence of an explicit offering, it is always presumed that none has been given.” The Italian, “in assenza di un consenso esplicito”, means in the absence of explicit consent. The clause is about the parishioner’s agreement, not money.

Article 4 §2 speaks of “the request for a specific intention for the Mass”. The Italian is “l’applicazione”, the application. A request is what the parishioner makes; the decree’s line runs between a Mass applied and a name remembered.

Article 5 speaks of “transferring to mission countries the Mass intentions that exceed the corresponding offerings”. The Italian, “le intenzioni di Messe in esubero con le corrispondenti offerte”, means surplus intentions sent together with their offerings.

What to Ask Your Diocese §

1. Has our province made a decree under Article 1, and where is it published?
2. If it hasn’t, how does the diocese expect parishes to keep Mos iugiter (Article 6), and does its twice-a-week limit count by priest or by church?
3. Has the bishop made a particular law under Article 3 §3, and where do offerings beyond the one a priest keeps go (canon 951)?
4. How does the Ordinary want the Mass book kept, and when will he examine it (canon 958; Article 4 §1)?
5. Where should Masses the parish can’t say within the year be sent (canons 954 to 956; Article 5)?

How Memento Keeps This §

Memento gives every Mass one intention and offers no collective intentions, so no one’s offering is ever joined to another’s. Its register is the book canon 958 asks for: nothing in it is deleted while the parish keeps its account, every change records who made it and when, and the whole register exports for the yearly review (canon 958 and what we do about it).