reflections, updates and homilies from Deacon Mike Talbot inspired by the following words from my ordination: Receive the Gospel of Christ whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach...
The Pan Orthodox Church of St. Spyridon (San Espiridion) in Trujillo Alto, PR community were received into the Catholic Church as a Greco Catholic Byzantine community under the “Omophorion” (jurisdiction) of the Latin Archbishop, Metropolitan Roberto González, O.F.M.
According to gloria.tv website, the welcome ceremony was presided over by the Vicar General of the Archdiocese, father Alberto Figueroa Morales on behalf of the Archbishop.
This makes San Espiridión the first Eastern Catholic community in Puerto Rico. The priests and parishioners of San Espiridión, despite being in the Catholic Church, will continue celebrating the Divine Liturgy and sacred mysteries according to the Byzantine tradition. The liturgy will be in English, Spanish, and Slavic, as well as follows the liturgical calendar Julian (old calendar).
The community was under the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul). Now it is under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of San Juan of Puerto Rico. Thereafter, it may pass to any of the Slavonic Byzantine Eastern Catholic churches, although they continue to remain under the local Latin metropolitan authority.
According to tradition, St. David was the son of King Sant of South Wales and St. Non. He was ordained a priest and later studied under St. Paulinus. Later, he was involved in missionary work and founded a number of monasteries. The monastery he founded at Menevia in Southwestern Wales was noted for extreme asceticism. David and his monks drank neither wine nor beer - only water - while putting in a full day of heavy manual labor and intense study. Around the year 550, David attended a synod at Brevi in Cardiganshire. His contributions at the synod are said to have been the major cause for his election as primate of the Cambrian Church. He was reportedly consecrated archbishop by the patriarch of Jerusalem while on a visit to the Holy Land. He also is said to have invoked a council that ended the last vestiges of Pelagianism. David died at his monastery in Menevia around the year 589, and his cult was approved in 1120 by Pope Callistus II. He is revered as the patron of Wales. Undoubtedly, St. David was endowed with substantial qualities of spiritual leadership. What is more, many monasteries flourished as a result of his leadership and good example. His staunch adherence to monastic piety bespeaks a fine example for modern Christians seeking order and form in their prayer life.His feast day is March 1.
When EF Hutton speaks, people listen! Do you remember this TV commercial? This investment firm’s advertising campaign implied that every word EF Hutton spoke was important, so people listened and took action. If they listened carefully, the client made money. Well, we all know by now, EF Hutton is no more.
In our lives, people speak, we listen, perhaps we take action and the result has some benefit for us. We were taught to listen to our parents, teachers, coaches and our boss. When we got married we learned early on that part of the formula for a great marriage includes listening. When we come to church, we should be listening too. Unfortunately many studies tell us that listening is a struggle for us. All too often we want to speak and not listen. There is a reason God created us the way he did; he created us to listen because He gave us two ears and only one mouth.
As people of faith, we are commanded to listen to Jesus because God the Father told us: this is my beloved Son. Listen to Him!
Every 2nd Sunday in Lent the Church gives us the Gospel of the Transfiguration! The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all detail the Transfiguration and each account is remarkably consistent. In each account of the Transfiguration we hear the voice of God the Father. We only hear God’s voice twice in all of the New Testament, once at the Baptism of Jesus (where He reminds us that in Jesus He is well pleased) and at the Transfiguration (where He tells us listen to Him).
In the context of the Gospel of Mark, which we heard proclaimed today, the command listen to Him is to be understood as all the Good News of the Kingdom of God as proclaimed by Jesus. If we want to know the Good News, if we want to share eternal happiness one day with God in Heaven, we must listen to Him!
In all the Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration we have the appearance of both Elijah and Moses. The presence of Elijah and Moses embodies all of the Old Testament, the law and the prophets. The Good News proclaimed by Jesus is deeply rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures. We are called today, in hearing again the Gospel of the Transfiguration, to embrace all of the Scriptures; the New Testament and the Old Testament! We are challenged to read and delve deeply into the Bible and listen!
Listen to Him is not a mere suggestion from God; this truly is the path to glory. The glory that shone forth from the transfigured body of Jesus Christ at Mt. Tabor is the same glory that stretched out His arms for us on that Cross, the same glory that burst forth in the Resurrection and the same glory present in His Holy Word, the Scriptures, and that perfect glory present in the Eucharist, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, which we receive at Holy Communion in the physical appearance of bread and wine.
Of course, this is not mere bread and wine. Today we hear the word Transfiguration in the Holy Gospel but as Catholics we should be very familiar with the word Transubstantiation. This is the word, given to us by the Church to describe the changing of the bread and wine into His Body & Blood. The words and actions of the Priest at the Consecration, the bread and wine become the actual, the real Body and Blood of Jesus while maintaining all the physical appearances of bread and wine. It is a mystery of our faith and a real and present reality. We are challenged to know not what we receive at Holy Communion; we are challenged to know who we receive at Holy Communion! And we are challenged to receive Him worthily, by being properly disposed, properly prepared and spending all of our time before receiving Holy Communion listening to Him!
In the week ahead, as we continue our Lenten journey, our challenge is to LISTEN. Can we ask ourselves throughout the week, do I really listen to Jesus? Do I follow what He teaches? Can we commit this week to listen to Jesus by reading the Bible at least twice this week? Reread today’s readings perhaps tomorrow and read next Sunday’s readings at the end of the week. Listen to what His Word is saying to me personally. We have an opportunity to listen to Him next if we attend our Lenten Mission which begins next weekend with our Mission Presenter speaking at all masses. This is a prime example of God calling us to listen, but we must accept the invitation! And we can listen to Him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As we confess our sins listen to the words spoken by the Priest, giving us our penance and absolving our sins. And when you really listen carefully, you hear Jesus for it is Jesus forgiving our sins.
One more point from today's Gospel; Peter proclaims: it is good that we are here. It most certainly is good that we are here. As we see hopeful signs concerning this pandemic, as more folks are vaccinated, we are all praying for the day when all of us are here; and that too will be very good. Perhaps today is the day for us to prayerfully consider our return to Mass. Know that I am not talking to those, who for whatever reason, still cannot return, for all the rest of us, we want to welcome you back to Mass, back to our beautiful church and our church family. We are made to worship in community, as the Body of Christ, and we want you, if at all possible, to come home. Yes, it is good that we are here.
Yes, when EF Hutton spoke, people listened. Guess what? EF Hutton is no longer in business today. When Jesus speaks, we are called to listen; Listen to Him! Jesus is not out of business and never will be; we should always listen to Him!
Pope at Angelus: Prayer lifts us out of spiritual laziness to help others
At the Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis reflects on the Transfiguration of Jesus, and urges Christians to turn our experience of prayer into a desire to carry hope to the world.
By Devin Watkins
Ahead of the traditional Marian prayer of the Angelus, Pope Francis spoke about the Transfiguration, as recounted in the Sunday Gospel (Mk 9:2-10).
He began by considering what Jesus told His disciples before taking them up the mountain. Jesus had just revealed that He would be condemned to death but would rise again.
“The image of a strong and triumphant Messiah is put into crisis, their dreams are shattered, and they are beset by anguish at the thought that the Teacher in whom they believed should be killed like the worst of wrongdoers,” said the Pope.
Broken hearts
With these concerns in their hearts, the disciples follow Jesus up the mountain, where He is transfigured before them.
Pope Francis said Jesus thus reminded them that He would overcome death.
“His face radiant and his garments glistening, providing a preview of his image as the Risen One, offer to those frightened men the light to pass through the shadows.”
New point of view
The Pope went on to reflect on Peter’s words: “Rabbi, it is good that we are here!”
He said the Apostle’s expression of appreciation is a reminder that the Lord never lets darkness have the final word.
When we face seemingly-endless trials, said the Pope, we need another point of view: “a light which illuminates in depth the mystery of life and helps us to move beyond our frame of mind and the criteria of this world.”
We too, he stressed, are called to climb the mountain with Jesus to have every fragment of our lives illuminated by His victory at Easter.
Spiritual laziness
Yet, warned Pope Francis, we must not let our joy at the Transfiguration become “spiritual laziness.”
“We cannot remain on the mountain and enjoy the beauty of this encounter by ourselves,” he noted. “Jesus himself brings us back to the valley, amidst our brothers and sisters and into daily life.”
Spiritual laziness, said the Pope, pushes us to rest in the satisfaction of our own well-being, while ignoring the struggles faced by others.
“Going up the mountain does not mean forgetting reality; praying never means avoiding the difficulties of life,” he said.
Christian mission
Pope Francis concluded his catechesis urging Christians to transform our experience with Jesus and carry His light throughout the world.
The mission of every Christian, he said, is to ignite "little lights in people’s hearts; being little lamps of the Gospel that bear a bit of love and hope.”
And the Pope asked the Blessed Virgin Mary to accompany us to welcome the light of Christ, to care for it, and to share Him with our brothers and sisters.
Pope from 461-468 and guardian of Church unity. He was born in Sardinia, Italy, and was a papal legate to the Robber Council of Ephesus in 449, barely escaping with his life from this affair. Hilary was used by Pope St. Leo I the Great on many assignments. When Leo died, Hilary was elected pope and consecrated on November 19,461. He worked diligently to strengthen the Church in France and Spain, calling councils in 462 and 465. Hilary also rebuilt many Roman churches and erected the chapel of St. John Lateran. He also publicly rebuked Emperor Anthemius in St. Peter's for supporting the Macedonian heresy and sent a decree to the Eastern bishops validating the decisions of the General Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. Hilary consolidated the Church in Sandi, Africa, and Gaul. He died in Rome on February 28.
The future of the parish depends on taking Catholic belief and practice more seriously, rebuilding neighborhoods of solidarity within the parish, and proposing Catholicism as integral to human flourishing.
In my doctoral program at Boston College, the predicament of the Catholic parish was a frequent topic. At the center of the sexual abuse crisis, parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston had seen precipitous declines in Mass attendance. Many parishioners refused to contribute money to their local parish, fearful that it would be used to pay off lawsuits.
Sexual abuse crisis or not, parishes in Boston were going to change. Parishes were established in the city during the zenith of Catholic immigration to the United States. A church on every street corner might have been necessary in 1900, but it was unsustainable in 2006. Even with a slight uptick in vocations to the priesthood, it remains impossible to sufficiently staff each parish in the Archdiocese. This dilemma will exponentially increase in the coming decades, as older clergy retire.
Further, the decline in the number of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Boston, as in many northeastern dioceses, seems inevitable. Catholics, like the general population, are having fewer children. Many residents of the northeast—tired of traffic, cost of living, and climate—are moving away, and the rise of the religious “nones” and disaffiliation is especially prominent there. In a 2019 Pew study, the northeast saw a 15-percent decrease in those who identify as Christian over ten years and a 12-percent increase of those who are unaffiliated. Once buoying Catholic demographics in the United States, the majority of Latinos are no longer Catholic.
Of course, there is a tendency to overly focus on northeastern Catholicism and give little attention to the southeast or southwestern United States. Dioceses in these areas are often in building mode because they never possessed the institutional infrastructure of northeastern Catholicism. In East Tennessee, where I grew up, there was but a single Catholic parish for the county, and it was normal for a new parish church to be built every year in the diocese. In 2018, the Archdiocese of Atlanta baptized over 8,000 new Catholics and welcomed close to 1,500 Catholics from other Christian traditions. The Archdiocese of Atlanta (which is only 14 percent Catholic) had close to the same number of baptisms as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (which is 26 percent Catholic). These stories are rarely told, especially by journalists and academics, who myopically focus on the I-95 corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston.
And yet, trends in disaffiliation in the southeast and southwest are not dissimilar to what we find in the northeast. The South has also seen a 12 percent decrease in ten years among those who identify as Christian, with a 10 percent increase in those who are religiously disaffiliated. As a southerner in exile, I find these numbers shocking. In my public school in 2000, it would have been anathema to claim no religion. And yet, the decreasing religiosity among citizens of the United States is a national reality, not just a regional one. The decline of religious practice among Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) has been well documented. These Millennials are now parents, and it is likely that, as Christian Smith has shown in Souls in Transition, they will pass on their “none-ness” to their children.
These numbers do not yet consider the possibility of further decline spurred by the 2018–19 repeat of the sexual abuse crisis. For many Catholics—both conservative and liberal—it has become clear that the crisis is not evidence of a few bad apples but proof of a culture that repeatedly overlooked sexual and moral transgressions of certain bishops.
Furthermore, no one knows what is going to happen in the post-COVID-19 era. It is possible that many Catholics may never return, realizing that they did not miss parish life. Declining enrollment in Catholic parishes will only exacerbate the financial crisis that many of these parishes are already experiencing. Between 2014 and 2017, 56 percent of Catholic parishes saw a decrease in financial giving, with another 13 percent remaining constant. Parishes’ financial exigencies have only increased with fewer people attending Mass in COVID-tide. Lay parish and diocesan staff have endured layoffs and reductions in already tepid salaries.
Why and How to Rebuild Catholic Parishes
All of these trends should be worrying not only to Catholics but to those committed to the flourishing of the kinds of institutions identified by Yuval Levin in A Time To Build. Religious institutions, according to Levin, provide a telos for the human person that is not reducible to the market or the practice of politics. These institutions form men and women committed to pursuing the truth in a community dedicated to human flourishing. Without institutions proposing a transcendent end for human being, life becomes about power: who has it, and who can exercise it? The future of the parish depends on taking Catholic belief and practice more seriously, rebuilding neighborhoods of solidarity within the parish, and proposing Catholicism as integral to human flourishing. While what I write below focuses on Catholicism, the implications extend beyond Catholics to other religious traditions.
First, we must take the particulars of Catholic faith and practice more seriously. In the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, many in the Church assumed that the primary task of religious formation was adaptation. Creedal proclamations, understood to be archaic in form, were replaced by a general sentiment that one should be a good person. Liturgical prayer took on an increasingly didactic tone, where the priest verbally explained every sign and symbol in the liturgy. Clergy and lay leadership ensured that devotional and popular Catholicism would disappear from common life, since it was viewed as both superstitious and pious.
As Stephen Bullivant has shown in his Mass Exodus, this adaptation and relaxing of norms had the effect opposite to what was intended. The lack of seriousness or demands led to Catholics’ leaving. After years of adaptation, most parishes have become mirrors of American secular culture. They are reflections of a bourgeois and comfortable Catholicism in which individual families feed themselves with a bit of religious nourishment in the context of a life that is otherwise ordered to consumption, entertainment, and individualized pursuits of happiness. This trend was noticed as early as the mid-1980s with the publication of the Notre Dame Parish Study.
And yet, it is not impossible to turn this culture around. In the United States, Catholicism flourishes where doctrines and practices are taken seriously. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. At Notre Dame, active Catholics who are committed to their faith study theology, attend Mass, are often affiliated with the local Catholic Worker movement, possess a robust devotional life, and are moving toward lifetime commitments such as marriage or the priesthood. What makes Catholicism engaging for such students is that it requires something more of a person than beige niceness. American religions flourish where something more is asked of the person than being nice.
Notre Dame is not alone in possessing young people committed to transcendence. They may be found among FOCUS missionaries who spend time on college campuses in the work of evangelization; in the New York Encounter hosted each year by the apostolic movement Communion and Liberation; and in countless young adult communities dedicated to study, prayer, and the works of mercy throughout the United States. Parish life must attend to these renewal movements. Catholics can handle serious study of the tradition. They want to attend a Mass that is not just about affirming the community as it is but that invites them to a new form of life. They desire a rich devotional life, and an understanding of Catholic social teaching that transcends culture wars.
Second, a serious approach to doctrine and practice is not sufficient. Equally important for the renewal of the parish is rebuilding the bonds of solidarity in the neighborhood. A parish, in Catholicism, is not reducible to the church building. The parish is, strictly speaking, a geographic area. Every Catholic living within its boundaries is part of that parish. Yet this is not how U.S. Catholics treat parishes today. Instead, parish shopping is the norm. If I like the parish, if it sustains me, then I join up. U.S. Catholics go where they are fed, rather than belonging to a communion that transcends their individual desires. This leaves parishes susceptible to the instability of the market economy. Understood in this way, the parish ceases to be a stable community of men and women united in solidarity with Christ. Leaving the parish is easy, because I have no bonds that keep me connected, including a financial commitment to the flourishing of the parish.
The liquidity of the parish can be counteracted through rebuilding bonds within the neighborhood. Catholics in the United States will not return to entirely ethnic parishes, even in communities that are primarily Hispanic. Yet we can still learn something from those ethnic communities, which understood that parish life was a neighborhood phenomenon. They did not just go to Mass on Sunday. They were Catholic together with their neighbor, raising their kids within a religious culture. The presence of Hispanic Catholics who practice this popular Catholicism in the neighborhood should be a reminder to the U.S. Church of what is possible even today.
A parish can help rebuild these bonds of solidarity in two ways. First, parishes can take an active role in introducing people to their Catholic neighbors. A parish might take all those who have formally registered, letting them know who lives near them. Parish programming could take place at the local level, rather than forcing everyone to come to a church hall on a Wednesday night. In other words, parishes should be rebuilding neighborhoods, not just running programs. This rebuilding of neighborhoods may be shared among a variety of religious traditions.
Second, catechesis and preaching alike must attend to stability. We have grown used to moving on from each other too quickly. Stability matters for neighborhoods and parishes, and we must attend to the way that a globalized culture has damaged our ability to enter significant relationships. It may be a challenge, but pastors could invite parishioners to recognize the gift of staying even if that means turning down a new job.
Lastly, the whole task of evangelization, of teaching and preaching in the Church, will need to take on a spirit of proposing the fullness of Catholic teaching. The Church possesses a memory of what constitutes human flourishing—grounded in the person of Jesus Christ and the saints—that may serve as a medicine for many modern ailments. But Catholic parishes no longer have the power or authority to make people bring their kids back for First Communion. The cultural memory is gone. And that means that priests and catechists alike cannot depend on a vague memory of a once-remembered religiosity, a return to the rites of passage. Other religious communities are in the same boat as Catholicism. Cultural practice is not enough to sustain religious growth in the future.
A Moment of Opportunity
The post-COVID era may provide an opportunity for a persuasive invitation to return. COVID has revealed to many of us the insufficiencies of a digital life, disconnected from communities of concrete flesh-and-blood persons. We were not made to be alone, to operate as monads separated from one another. We were not made to worship via Zoom. Human beings are made for communion. Ironically, this vocation to communion may be the most important thing that Catholic parishes both propose and perform within the present polis. Communion does not mean benign tolerance that bypasses every disagreement, but the flesh-and-blood reality of abiding together even as we disagree with one another. After COVID-19, people may be looking once more to belong.
On this point, conversion within the Catholic parish itself may be necessary. As the black Catholic and longtime radio host Gloria Purvis has shown, American Catholic parishes still suffer from the sins of racism. Rather than proposing the Gospel from the pulpit, Catholics often hear either vague religious sentiment and even patent heresy against Church doctrine on marriage, family, abortion, and the Eucharist. Catholic parishes should be ready to admit to the world their own deficiencies. In a culture that possesses a certain expertise in scapegoating and blaming the other, the public confession of personal sinfulness is at the heart of the Church. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
After all, the Catholic parish is always in crisis—the crisis of not living up to the demands of Jesus Christ. The proper response to this crisis is not to run away but to experience conversion. Such a conversion may benefit not just the Catholics but the common good of the nation itself. Institutions matter, and the disappearance of the parish would be bad for all of us.
Important for Catholics to read the following advisory issued yesterday afternoon by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The statement details why, as Catholics seeking to receive the Covid19 vaccine should opt for Pfizer or Moderna over Johnson & Johnson.
Parishes should plan now how to welcome back parishioners to church
The shadow of a woman entering St. Pius X Church in El Paso, Texas, is seen Sept. 23, 2019. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service 2/26/2021 9:30 AM
WASHINGTON — Even with many recent hopeful signs on vaccinations and the reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases, there is no date certain at which the coronavirus pandemic will be declared over.
That should not stop parishes from planning now to welcome back parishioners to Mass in the future.
“You can’t be thinking, ‘What will we do after the pandemic?’ You have to be doing it now,” said Dominican Sister Teresa Rickard, president and executive director of Renew International, which has been offering parish renewal programs since 1976.
“I would be doing things leading up to the fall and going into next Christmas,” Sister Rickard added. “People have to be creative, innovating. It can’t be about maintenance, it’s got to be about mission.”
“Don’t dwell on what you can’t do, focus on what you can do,” said Jack Beers, content director for Dynamic Catholic, which sees as its mission “to reenergize the Catholic Church in America by developing world-class resources that inspire people to rediscover the genius of Catholicism.”
There had long been a “gravitational pull toward the parish — the social life, educational life, the worship life — all revolve around the parish,” Beers said. “That’s not true anymore. Worse than that, because of the pandemic, people are reluctant to come back. There’s a fear to (come back). ... There needs to be something to get them over the hump to come back, to sort of overcome the repellent.”
“The main reason that people will come back to church is for community,” said Amy Ekeh, director of Little Rock Scripture Study, a small-group Bible study program serving Catholic parish-es. “If they were already experiencing community as a parish, they’ll come back to that. Small groups is one way in parishes to experience that community.”
Asked whether there is a carrot or stick approach needed to entice pandemic-shy Catholics to return to church, Ekeh replied, “I think the carrot already had to be there,” referring to the sense of community parishioners feel. “They’re self-motivated by that. I don’t know if you can create a carrot if it wasn’t already there. And don’t even try the stick!”
Nor is it likely that Catholics would embrace “back to church” on a set date any more than they would for “back to school” for their children, according to Peter Dwyer, director of Liturgical Press.
“It’s probably healthier to think about gradually,” Dwyer said. “I too have thought about ‘we’re back’ the first Sunday we’re all back, but that’s not likely to happen because people will not feel comfortable.”
He added, “We have to be attentive to people who are not afraid and people who are very afraid. I think a parish leadership needs to be attentive to ... what makes them feel welcome. It’s a tough call.”
Ekeh, who lives in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, said: “I’m finding things all over the map in our archdiocese and the country. It depends on the leadership of the parish and the ministers.” She added, “ How do we bring together the best of both worlds — gathering to-gether again in person but making use of these online tools as best they can?”
Beers said imitating the model of Jesus can be a big help. “Jesus didn’t wait on people,” he said. “He went to the people and went to the people — to go to the people and tell them to return to God.”
He added, “Most people’s first move toward going (back to church) isn’t a faith step, it’s a selfish one. What we’ve found in our work with parishes is that people miss a connection. ... Many people start asking the question of what’s missing in my life, how can I gain this connection. What opportunities are there for us as a church? We have the only thing that can fill people’s lives, and that’s God. There’s a God-sized hole in people’s lives.”
Both Beers and Sister Rickard of Renew say parishes should be phoning parishioners right now.
Beers calls it “a simple act of just connecting with people,” and not just making one call and thinking the job is done.
“Check in: ‘How are you doing. Can we pray for you? What’s an obstacle for you at this time in your life?’” he said. “Some things are just practical, that people need a bridge. Or people need the Eucharist but they don’t know how, and they’re afraid: ‘How safe is Mass? Have you had any cases (of COVID-19)?’ But in most cases they don’t want anything from you and are just concerned about how things are at church.”
“You’ve got to do the personal touch. You’ve got to start encouraging people,” Sister Rickard said. “Soon, more people will be coming to Mass. And you’ve got to be making your case why you should be going to Mass.” And that case, she added, cannot be “you’re going to hell if you don’t go.”
Instead, Sister Rickard said, tell people: “We miss being together, we’ll be together soon — personal outreach, telling people you care about them, and the power of community.”
Liturgical Press’ Dwyer said a “simple thing” for a parish to do would be for its hospitality committee “for some time — maybe for a long time — to offer masks, disposable masks, at the entrance to church, just to have them available as you would have a bulletin available.”
Cold and flu numbers were way down this winter, he noted, “because we were not in contact. Contact brings us all kinds of things we’d rather not have. What are the practices we can install as a community — and instill — as a way to make them feel comfortable?”
Dwyer said, “There’ll be all kinds of challenges. The communities that are growing, they don’t have room for everybody, and we don’t have enough clergy to do 10 Masses day after day, so we’ll have to make choices.” He added streaming Masses should continue, especially for parishioners who feel ill.
“Most people will make that choice anyway,” he said, “rather than come into contact with others.”
“Parishes thinking outside the box are getting more people now,” Sister Rickard said, taking note of a parish that dispensed drive-by ashes on Ash Wednesday. “I think people will appreciate it, and when they feel safe, it’ll be better,” she added. “Parishes that haven’t done much have to start catching up.”
Sister Rickard said, “When it got really safe, I’d have welcome-home Sundays, and not just once. Everything’s a new beginning, a celebration. And I would do a gradual rollout. Even in the fall, we’ll still be wearing masks.”
