16 February 2021

Dear friends and parishioners,

Greetings! Welcome to our parish website. I hope to see you at Sunday or weekday Masses. During this time of covid-19 restrictions, for the sake of safety we are all called to socially distance, wear masks and wash our hands often. Below are the protocols we follow to ensure everyone’s safety at Mass. Please know the following:
 

• The bishop has extended his dispensation from Sunday Mass and all holy days throughout this pandemic. If you are sick and most especially if you have symptoms of covid-19, stay at home. If your health is such that you are considered vulnerable, stay at home. Please do not risk it for yourselves or anyone else
• Please sign in for possible contact tracing if the Department of Health deems it necessary. A sign-up sheet will be available at the entrances of the church
• You will be socially distanced in the church, six feet or more apart. Family units may sit together, but each person in the family counts toward the final number of allowed participants. Sections of the church will be roped off
• Only a certain number of people are allowed within each church building
• The church will be cleaned between Masses
• Please bring disinfectant wipes with you to Mass and wipe down the area where you sat during Mass
• Masks are to be properly worn throughout Mass by anyone more than two years old
• Communion will normally be distributed on the hand. Those who receive communion on the tongue are to go only to the priest at the end of the communion line, for sanitation purposes
• There will be no sign of peace, and the collection baskets will be at the doors for your to place your donations as you leave
• There will be no coffee hours or any other kind of gathering in the near future
• As weekday Masses are not as highly attended as weekend Masses, they may be a good alternative during this pandemic

Any of these protocols can change at any moment without notice depending on circumstances, government and diocesan guidance and our cooperation.

Most needed from you, my dear friends and parishioners, are patience and charity — patience with ourselves, the Church and one another, and a spirit of charity. Some might not agree with these directives, but right now they are the best we have. They are being followed by all parishes at the directive of the bishop. All these directives come from a place of wishing that no one, including your neighbor, your priest and you, becomes infected or sick. They are not perfect, for sure. Let us all continue to pray for an end to this pandemic so that we can move forward with our lives in joy.

My prayers for a healthy and holy Lent and Easter.

Peace,
Msgr Bernard W Bourgeois, Pastor