20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parishioners,

    It has been a couple of months since we have returned to church.  We have a number of protocols that people have wondered about. There have been comparisons between what we do and other parishes do I’m sure.  One key to implementing safety measures successfully is to communicate the reasons behind a policy.  I have been trying to explain as we have gone along.  I am reviewing some information in this note.

    I have just read how a church in Ohio did not follow protocols properly and how 91 people were ultimately infected.  It was not only the people at the service but people who were around people who went to the service.  This virus can spread rapidly so we need to do everything we can to protect our parishioners.  Here are three questions that seem to come up most often.

1. Why do we have to sign up for or in for Mass?

The reason for this is that we may need to do contact tracing.  If we do not know who is at a particular Mass and we find out someone who attended that Mass is infected then we would have to notify the whole parish.  If we know who was at Mass we will only have to contact the people who attended that particular Mass. This is a lot easier.  Parishes that have not signed people up at Mass have on occasion found out that infected people were at Mass. These parishes have had real problems notifying parishioners.  It is an obligation to inform people if they have been in contact with an infected individual.

2. Why do we have to wear masks to Mass and throughout Mass? 

We have heard over and over again that the easiest way to get COVID is to be in confined space with a group of people.  Wearing masks cuts down the risk dramatically.  It has been stated several times in the news recently that we could have as many as 300,000 people dead by the end of the calendar year from COVID.  If everyone was conscientious about wearing masks, 70,000 lives could be saved.  Coming into the church and taking masks off defeats the whole purpose of wearing a mask.

3. Why is there no communion on the tongue?

Our bishop has prohibited it and for good reason.  If an infected person breaths on the communion ministers hand and he distributes communion to the rest of the line he could infect everyone who receives behind the person who insists on receiving on the tongue.  The communion minister is at the greatest risk. An acceptable option (and a reverent one) is receiving communion in the hand.  We will not be distributing communion on the tongue until it’s safe.

Nothing we do to protect people has a political or Theological motivation.  There is one motivation we want, and that is to protect people’s health and their very lives.

Thanks to all of you who are following the science and trying to love as Jesus loved.

Fr. Mark