How dioceses are tackling 2019 Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19)

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Just announced: Philadelphia suspending all public Masses effective noon on March 18th, until further notice.

At least we got St. Patrick’s Day Mass. I was hoping for St. Joseph’s Day Mass also, but not gonna happen here.

I might see what the neighboring PA dioceses are doing, since I already know Maryland is suspended.
Edited to add, all of PA is suspended, and all neighboring states.

Additional info from the Philly press release:
Priests will continue to offer the sacrifice of the Holy Mass during this period and to honor all requested Mass intentions.

Churches can remain open as a location for private prayer at the discretion of the pastor. Baptisms, Confessions, Marriages, and Funerals will take place as usual but with due regard for the limitation of participants and reasonable social distancing.

In conjunction with directives already in force in hospitals and institutions, all visits to the sick with Holy Communion, including in private homes, by priests, deacons, and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion are suspended. In such instances, only priests will be available to celebrate the Sacraments for those in immediate danger of death. In all circumstances, government and health agency directives for group size and social distancing are to be observed as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia strives to meet the pastoral and temporal needs of all those in need.
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I live in nyc and all masses Sunday and weekdays are cancelled until further notice. I called my parish today to see about confession and she said no confession, no open church for prayer and it is likely that Easter Mass will be cancelled. What a bad phone call that was.
 
Yeah, I guess I should still be glad we’ll probably have confessions and churches open for prayer, maybe even Adoration.
You can bet that if churches are open for prayer, all those elderly people who come to Mass every day are going to be right down there praying the rosary.
 
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Our Archbishop has cancelled all public Masses until further notice and dispensed the Sunday obligation. Churches are open for individual private prayer.
 
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Neithan said:
Our Archbishop has cancelled all public Masses until further notice and dispensed the Sunday obligation. Churches are open for individual private prayer.
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The Archbishop has done the same in the only archdiocese in our province. The neighbouring diocese has done the same. Not a word from our diocese yet, though we are the only one with 3 confirmed cases.
 
Today our bishop announced that Holy Week and Easter Masses will be celebrated without the faithful in attendance. Granted, a miracle could happen between now and then to make attendance possible – but barring that…
 
All masses and confessions are canceled till Easter for now. Toledo diocese.
Last mass was Sunday…
 
We still have confessions. More times listed, in fact. So we can stay away from on another.

No Masses. But the Church is open.
 
Word is just out – Diocese of Birmingham (AL) is now completely shut down thru the day before Palm Sunday (effectively, only two weeks and a few days).

D
 
At first, the only preventative measure put in place by my diocese (Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth) was to suspend the distribution of Holy Communion under the species of wine until further notice.

Then, things changed drastically; as of Monday, March 16, all public liturgies were cancelled until further notice, with forthcoming information regarding Holy Week, funerals, and weddings. We have yet to receive any further information about these things.

Priests are still offering masses privately, and are continuing their other pastoral duties. Today, in fact, the Associate Pastor of my parish will be hearing confessions for two hours. I believe my parish is also live-streaming mass on Facebook once a week.
 
It feels like most dioceses have suspended Mass for the time being.

This is certainly changing the way the rest of the year is going to look at the parish. It is unlikely that those in RCIA will get to enter the Church at Easter Vigil. Even 1st Communion for the kids is looking like it will need to be pushed back.

We’ve been figuring out how to live stream Mass and other things. It’s a work in progress. 😝

This is going to affect a lot of parishes financially, too. Without the Sunday collection, there is very little income coming in. When parishes finally do open up, there will be some who will give for all the weeks that were missed. But I’m going to bet that not many will do so.

Pray for everyone impacted by this, especially the sick, the vulnerable, and those who are losing income due to so many things being shut down.
 
I certainly agree with the suspension if public masses. But I do not agree with the suspension if confessions. This can be made safe.

Our Bishop has said confessions are to continue and churches are to remain open.
 
Yeah, our Masses are officially suspended now, but confessions will still be happening (with directives to set it up so we all stay away from each other) and Adoration is still happening at the parishes that offer it. In at least one case they are moving the Adoration into the big church space since there won’t be Masses in there and it will allow people to sit farther apart from each other.

I even found one parish still having Stations of the Cross.
 
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They are still giving confession to anyone who is sickly near dying ofcourse …I trust the authority of the church. We have a wonderful bishop. Our governer is taking g serious measures to slow spread and recommending no one leaves home unless in necessity. I’m surprised it moved this fast.
 
On the evening of 22 March the Australian Prime Minister directed that places of worship close at noon the next day, saying the expectation was that it would be for at least six months. “Religious gatherings, places of worship or funerals (in enclosed spaces and other than very small groups and where the 1 person per 4 square metre rule applies).” From Update on coronavirus measures | Prime Minister of Australia . On 24 March he clarified the “very small groups”: “Weddings with a maximum attendance of no more than 5 people and where the 1 person per 4 square metre rule applies. Funerals attended by a maximum of no more than 10 people and where the 1 person per 4 square metre rule applies.” From Update on coronavirus measures | Prime Minister of Australia
There is an article at Coronavirus data shows which countries have it under control. What did they do right? - ABC News looking at Covid-19 statistics for various countries which highlights how Singapore’s measures have been impressive.
 
Titivillus said:
Did not see this one until today
Bishop Zubik is dispensing from the obligation to abstain from meat on Lenten Fridays with the exception of Good Friday. “As you are aware, many of the shelves and cases in our supermarkets are sparse if not empty. This is a time when pastoral necessity has informed my decision effective today,” the Bishop said.
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While I am not scrupulous about maintaining Friday abstinence through the year (I prefer to do so, but don’t get bent if I fail for one reason or another), I found it disturbingly easy to slip into eating meat this morning.

I knew I was doing it.
I knew I was allowed to do it.
But still…
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