Dealing with Covid Response/ Restrictions - Christmas Mass

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The OP hasn’t been back to this thread in a while, so I don’t know whether s/he has already “thrown away the account”.
But, just on the off chance that s/he is still around…
throwawayaccount15 said:
The Covid restrictions in Chicago are draconian
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throwawayaccount15 said:
It’s all by sign-up and very limited.
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So, in an environment in which “social distancing” is required (thus limiting the seating capacities of churches), how would you recommend they handle it?

The way I see it, “very limited seating” == “social distancing”, and “sign-up” == “attempt to implement contract tracing” and “attempt to not make it a free-for-all at the door”.

So… how would you handle it?
throwawayaccount15 said:
To add salt to the wounds, the parishes have been quite curt in their communications like “insisting that there would be no walk-ins allowed”
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Think about it from their perspective for a minute: they realize that Christmas will be quite stressful this year – there’s usually a ton of folks who never come to Mass (many of whom are the “I only darken the doors of the church on Christmas and Easter” variety). With limited seating capacity available, what’s your opinion – how should they handle the (expected) deluge?
throwawayaccount15 said:
they will take Communion out to people in their cars and show them how to stream the Mass like it is a fast-food drive-thru.
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Given that they cannot handle the expected attendance inside due to limited seating capacity, how do you recommend they handle it, then?
 
I was responding to the claim that it had never been done before. Not to the merits of whether it should be done.
 
If it matters to the OP anymore, there is this to consider…

Our parish priest has asked us to not spread the word to too many families outside the parish that there will be one additional Mass added for Christmas. Note that we are a mission church, connected to a larger one on a Native American reservation that is on complete lockdown with only live stream Masses. Our tiny church can accommodate 14 people at 25% capacity. Many of our parishioners have to travel a bit to get to us, so many have taken to watching the live stream as there are no reservations taken for Mass and you pretty much take a chance on finding a seat when you get there. He’s doing this to accommodate the registered parishioners who have not been able to attend Mass either and he hopes that some of them will be able to get to Christmas Mass, at least.

Father CAN NOT afford to get fined for violating the maximum capacity mandate. That’s a $5000 fine per instance. And let’s say he opens up the church and says “No limits, all are welcome” and he gets hit with a fine, who do you think will pay for it? Probably the “elite” who have bothered to register with the parish and take financial responsibility to keep it going. It seems the OP won’t care and would brush off any appeal to help pay for said fine as another example of the church constantly asking for money. This, in spite of the fact that the parish was fined for trying to accommodate everyone. That’s if the parish doesn’t get shut down for the violation (as some restaurants and businesses have in our area). Then what? No Mass for anyone.
 
I am not cowering in fear, I do not know anyone who is cowering in fear. I and many of the people I know are taking precautions in order to protect those who are at risk, vulnerable, and they do it out of love.
 
We are required under pain of sin to obey just laws.

At the same time, in my Diocese, the Bishop has rules in place that are more stringent than the state regulations. There has not been one case of Covid traced to a Catholic Mass in our state.
 
Well, our obligation is to attend Mass every Sunday/HDO and to receive the Eucharist once per year (aka our “Easter Duty”). I can only speak for the US, however, the Bishops of the US dispensed (aka “excused”) the faithful from their obligation to attend Mass at the beginning of the pandemic.

As restrictions lifted, some Dioceses have re-instated the obligation allowing the dispensation to continue for those who are vulnerable or do not want to expose vulnerable people, etc.

Last Easter, that meant that the Easter duty was also dispensed.

We are not yet to Easter, so, we do not know what the Bishops will have in place at that time. They will not require under pain of sin something that is impossible, so, if public masses are again suspended we will not sin by failing our Easter duty.

My Diocese has offered confession times more during the pandemic than they did before, I know this is not the case for all Dioceses. As long as we, the faithful, do not choose sin then should we die, we die in friendship with God.
 
Cancer, mental health issues, and unemployment aren’t contagious, like covid is. Apples and oranges.
 
Around here, businesses are struggling because no one wants to fill the open jobs. WalMart is so in need of associates that one can interview today and be hired tomorrow. This goes for so many other stores and restaurants.

I speak to people who have had a redux in hours or been furloughed due to Covid, providing them a list of current job openings and they do not want to take those jobs. There is a big disconnect going on between what is happening on the ground and what is the perception.
 
throwawayaccount15 said:
I’m low priority, especially as I never registered at a parish. This is especially true for the Christmas Masses, which they allowed those who are the “elites” to sign up for prior to everyone else.
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I don’t understand why you call those that register and do things with their parish elites. You could have done the same thing, but chose not to. You want to begrudge people that get in because they are registered with the parish? They support their parish and should be able to get in.

Let’s face it, everyone is not going to fit into the building, someone is going to be left out.

Clearly, you do not seem to grasp how to even approach this if you think emailing the diocese is the first step.
 
TheLittleLady said:
We are required under pain of sin to obey just laws.

At the same time, in my Diocese, the Bishop has rules in place that are more stringent than the state regulations. There has not been one case of Covid traced to a Catholic Mass in our state.
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I’m not wanting to start an argument (for once), but I’m wondering how people know that a case of covid can be traced to a group event (like any church gathering) or not.

If Joe Schmoe is sitting 2 pews away, and has pre-symptomatic covid, and shows symptoms three days later, and I caught it from him at Mass, but I don’t know him, or even know his name, and I also attended other gatherings, and work, and shopped at various stores, how could anyone trace my covid case back to Joe Schmoe?

So how is everyone so sure that their Mass / parish has spread zero cases?
 
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I’m merely stating what our State Health Department has reported. They use contact tracing. Other non-catholic congregations have been super spreaders, sadly. The State government has held up the Catholic parishes as an example for all churches.
 
Lara said:
I miss Mass too. But I wouldn’t give a moment’s thought to how your Church is managing things. Think of all the positives. We can still get the Mass online from many different countries. “It’s wonderful that I have a computer.” “It’s wonderful that the Church is universal!” “It’s wonderful I don’t have to get up at a certain time!”

Trust in God for something good will come out of all this. Is there a hobby you can finally get to on Sunday morning?
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I have to agree strongly with this. Perhaps it’s because my situation makes Covid a far more serious threat than the average person and I can’t risk going out in large crowds, but I don’t get why people won’t trust their parishes and diocesan leadership and accept their decisions. We sign up for a Mass once a week, just like our parish asks, and sit in a huge room with fifty of us spread out, and we no longer have the musicianship nor ‘extras’ to enhance Mass (I do miss the bells, though). I’m just happy there is a means to receive Eucharist after such a long drought.

Our church leaders are doing their best.
 
TheLittleLady said:
I’m merely stating what our State Health Department has reported. They use contact tracing. Other non-catholic congregations have been super spreaders, sadly. The State government has held up the Catholic parishes as an example for all churches.
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I live in Labrador. We had the first three cases in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. First was a recently returned traveller and the 2 others were household contacts. That was back in March. We didn’t see another case until a nurse came here from across the country to work in our local hospital. She didn’t spread it even though the protocol for incoming workers wasn’t adhered to and hundreds of people had to be tested. We are isolated so that helps.

Our parish follows the government protocol for religious gatherings. We are allowed up to 99 + the priest providing that that number is 50% or less of our capacity and that we are able to maintain adequate distancing. In reality, putting 99 in our church is only possible if we have several families or “bubbles” registering. But when you look around you notice that their are many who attend who are not bubbled with anyone so they sit alone. That means that a 9’ pew accommodates only 2 people, providing both consent to sharing the pew. Masks must be worn any time we’re moving and if we want to sing. I don’t bother taking mine off until I get up to the Communion station and then put it back on immediately after putting the Host in my mouth.

At the beginning we had to call every week to be put on the list for Mass. But after 3 months or so they realized that the same people were coming week after week so they went with putting those names on the list automatically and asking them to call if they weren’t coming so that their spot could be allocated to someone else.

For Christmas that protocol of presuming people would attend went out the window. Even though I volunteered to read at the late Christmas Eve Mass (9 p.m.) I still had to register by email to make sure my husband was included in the numbers. I was also asked to stay behind afterwards to help sanitize the pews.

The 6:30 p.m., so-called Family Mass" filled up very quickly. The late Mass is rarely more than 50% capacity on a good year (this is the only parish I’ve ever been in that has so few wanting to go to the so-called “Midnight Mass”) so that one took longer to reach capacity. We also have Mass at 10:30 Christmas morning. They are not allowing walk-ins at any of the 3 Masses.
 
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Nope. The greatest volume of whining I hear is coming from those who want to open up everything right now, not the ones who don’t want to see the 300,000 figure go to 4 or 5 or 6 or more. In case you didn’t notice.
 
Please don’t accuse me of lying. I said it because it is true; that is where I hear the most whining coming from.

I can’t help that. My experience was pretty much the opposite.
 
You did. You said that I said something for reasons other than truth. Also jumping to conclusions, which you apparently also attribute to me falsely. And if you “simply mean” something, perhaps you should simply say what you do mean in a simple manner.
 
Question: Does Indiana have the same rules? Or Wisconsin?
You might be able to go to Mass in a neighbouring state. I know Chicago borders Indiana and isn’t too far from Wisconsin.
 
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