Missa pro populo (Latin: "Mass for the people") is a term used in liturgical texts and rules of the Western Catholic Church.
[2] Under the current (1983) Code of Canon Law,[3][4] both Diocesan Bishops and Parish Priests are required to apply one Mass for all the people entrusted to them on each Sunday and each Holy Day of Obligation.
[5] This obligation fell into desuetude owing to the privileges granted to the religious orders; the Council of Trent,[6][7] treats it only as a counsel; and notwithstanding certain provincial and diocesan regulations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the obligation ceased.
[8] The Mass not being strictly conventual, it is not obligatory by common law for it to be sung as a missa cantata, but it may be, and frequently this is prescribed by the statutes or custom.
[9] What is characteristic of it is the instruction, with its special prayers, the announcements made to the congregation, the publication of banns of marriage, and finally the familiar sermon or homily.