Resumption of public Mass

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there were 6 masses instead of the usual 3 with 2 priests. therefore, the congregation is approx. 600.
 
For small parishes, this would be a solution.

Sadly, there are literally not enough hours in the day(s) from Sat Vigil to the end of Sun with the capacity of our building vs number of our attendees.

Mass with fewer people, will assume 45 minutes. It will take time to disinfect the Church pews/bathrooms between each mass. Simply allowing people to enter Mass (counting them in, getting them all to wear masks, showing them where to sit takes time, so, we’ll l allot 90 minutes between Mass start times.

With distancing, we will seat 100 people in our building.

Sat: Let’s assume Vigil/Anticipatory Saturday start time is made more flexible by the Bishops.

4 PM
5:30 PM
7 PM

Sunday:
8 AM
9 AM is our weekly Q & A with priests, it is broadcast live.
10:30 AM
12 NOON
1:30 PM
3 PM
4:30 PM
6 PM

Priest has no time for food, he does wall-to-wall Masses.

What do we do about visitors? We have no way to know how many or which Mass. Do we simply leave maybe 10 seats open at each Mass for visitors?

That means adding another Mass on Sunday.

Parish has to pay people to work approx 12 hours on Sunday doing cleaning (I cannot fathom folks volunteering to be janitors during this pandemic).
 
I wonder that during these difficult times, if it might be possible to accept a week day mass as fulfilling your obligation.
 
The obligation is still dispensed in many dioceses. Our Parish has added Masses on the weekend and daily. Those who want to go to Mass can go to any Mass they choose.

In our diocese the obligation is dispensed for the elderly, the sick, those with young children, and anyone who does not feel safe yet in coming to Mass. So basically it is a personal choice.
 
I haven’t heard anything about reopening yet but its interesting to read your ideas and what’s happening there so it gives me some idea of what is likely to happen here. Keep it coming.

I’m a welcomer (usher in your language) so I guess my job will be to tell people ‘no more room at the inn’ … we don’t have a big church and do have a huge amount of elderly in our congregation so I wonder how that will work? I guess a plan will emerge in due course… I am also wondering how the Eucharist fits in to all this once seating is sorted …it boggles the mind. We do and have always had daily mass.
 
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Penitent60 said:
there were 6 masses instead of the usual 3 with 2 priests. therefore, the congregation is approx. 600.
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That is along the lines of what I was wondering.

We have between 1900-2300 most weeks, split between 2 priest across 5 masses (6 including a small Spanish language Mass). We are waiting for guidance from the health department, but suspect we will be only allowed to seat 120 - 150. We had considered how we could use a modified version of our Christmas/Easter overflow to pickup another 60 - 75 seats, but since they use cloth covered stackable chairs it is doubtful we can meet CDC cleaning requirements (soap and water followed by disinfectant).
 
TheLittleLady said:
I expect to see the obligation suspended for a long time.
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Very likely. We were talking in a meeting last night that we will likely only see a window between mid-June to mid-September where we can provide masses under the “new normal”. We strongly suspect that the governor will shutdown churches during the flu season from October through February.

Current reports are saying this pattern might extend through 2022, so people will have to get used to the idea that they will not attend mass regularly for the next 2 years.

The real scary question will be how many never return.
 
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Gorgias said:
That presumes 100% normal attendance at 1/3 seating capacity, though, right? Do you think you’ll get those kinds of numbers?
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Yes, that’s at the midpoint of a normal week. The priests are really trying to see what they can do to accommodate everyone they can so we first looked at what that would look like; basically undoable. The pastor really doesn’t want to have to go to something like assigning families to one Sunday a month if we can avoid it.

We are also looking at alternative numbers and trying to asses what percentage of various groups might actually come. Like many parishes we have the dichotomy where a high percentage of the most likely to want to come every week are also the most vulnerable (elderly couples or windowed people). The question is if we have 300 people that are 65+ that come every week, how many of them would come versus staying home.

We are also trying to factor in how many will not come to mass out of concern of catching the virus. I live in a fairly libertarian part of the state where maybe 1/4 of people wear a mask when out and about. Parishioners also tend to be vocal about their feelings about being locked down, so we don’t know what percentage will come and we might have some come more often as type of protest to the governor’s order.

All in all its a complete guessing game since we are not being given clear guidance. I work in the same county where I live and my office can open at 50% capacity on Monday, but the health department has churches grouped with bars and theaters so we are pretty low on the government’s list of information for reopening.
 
Usige said:
Yes, that’s at the midpoint of a normal week.
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That’s my point, though. It’s not going to be a normal week, when we come back.
Usige said:
We are also looking at alternative numbers and trying to asses what percentage of various groups might actually come. Like many parishes we have the dichotomy where a high percentage of the most likely to want to come every week are also the most vulnerable (elderly couples or windowed people). The question is if we have 300 people that are 65+ that come every week, how many of them would come versus staying home.
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Right. That’s the tough question. And it seems to have no real answers yet, other than “we’ll wait and see.”
 
Gorgias said:
That’s my point, though. It’s not going to be a normal week, when we come back.
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Oh, I agree. We just used it as a starting point to say what would be required. We also expect that the rules might be in place through 2022 so trying to see what might be possible after the rabid fear starts to drop off.

Father says he would rather have 10% more space than needed at a given mass so that we don’t have to turn people away that just show up if we can. His concern is that if we turn some people away that it might be several years before they come back; if at all. He’s not concerned with those who attend faithfully, but rather those who are lukewarm and just don’t think the hassle is worth it.
 
Usige said:
The real scary question will be how many never return .
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I think it’s going to be quite a shock. We still haven’t tallied the losses for the Trump election and the latest round of child abuse scandals, and now this. A large number of the parishes in the US were running on fumes as it was. A lot of the gray heads are going to opt for “early retirement”. A lot of the young people who were working their way towards the exits will stay away, too. That puts a heavy burden on those of us who will stay.

It will probably take a year or two for things to return to “the new normal”, but I expect to see a lot fewer familiar faces in the pews.

We just had half of the parishes in our diocese closed ten years ago. I’m afraid more closures will be in store once the dust settles.
 
Jbrady said:
We still haven’t tallied the losses for the Trump election and the latest round of child abuse scandals, and now this. A large number of the parishes in the US were running on fumes as it was.
…
We just had half of the parishes in our diocese closed ten years ago. I’m afraid more closures will be in store once the dust settles.
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I suspect that has a lot to do with the area one lives in. My diocese is much more red than it is blue, so Trump’s win likely did nothing but increase our numbers. We’ve certainly had some parishioners leave because they felt our clergy were to stringent, but the parish still has had good growth over the last 15 years.

Many of our parishes in my deanery have a lot of small children and we built a new nave during the last recession to go from seating for 350 to the main nave now seats close to 700 with overflow for another 200+. Regular Sundays masses have between 60-90% capacity used. We just had to add another 80 parking spaces last year.

I just looked at our giving for April and we are at around 70-75% of normal despite not having any masses in the last 7 weeks. We expect it to be lower for May, but we’ll have a better idea where we are trending in a few weeks.

There are certainly parishes in the urban center of the main city that are struggling. They tend to be smaller and more elderly. When we were doing our sacramental practicums guys in my area had no problem assisting at baptisms and weddings, but funerals were not as frequent. I assisted at two weddings and two baptisms on a single day Saturday last spring. Candidates in the urban center had the opposite issue, plenty of funerals but few weddings or baptisms.

Those are the things we are trying to keep track our eye on. I suspect that we will see some parishes recover more quickly and others that were already struggling that will be folded together.
 
Were the folks you are referring to more than six feet away? As noted by Usige, those homemade masks do not definitively stop any transmission. Also, per the signs on the entrances to the church, were masks required?
 
My archdiocese announced masses will be starting again this weekend. 🎉

There are all kinds of details, but they did provide two short videos, some some short texts, and for those who really want all the details, a PDF. 😄

Love that they are emphasizing caring for oneself and others, and even giving instruction on how to receive Holy Communion. I don’t know if I’ll be going to mass this weekend, but it does my heart good just to know we are moving that direction!
"Safeguarding the health and welfare of others,
not just oneself, is the moral duty of Christians."
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And I’m just so glad that there will be public masses again!


 
Appointment software will solve this. Easy to do. Where I am, there are plenty of weekly Masses to accommodate everyone.
I will gladly attend a Weds 615am for those who must go on Sunday.
What is needed is deference and cooperation among people. We can do this as long as we don’t get strident about “our” Mass.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Parish has to pay people to work approx 12 hours on Sunday doing cleaning (I cannot fathom folks volunteering to be janitors during this pandemic).
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With adequate training and supplies, why not?

It’s their parish, right?
 
I just read the guidelines for resumption of public Masses at my parish. Only 25% capacity in the church, all Sunday Masses will be in the new church (the bigger one), and the 5 pm Saturday Vigil, the 8:30 a.m. Mass, and the 11 a.m. Mass will have overflow at the hall if the church is at capacity. (No idea what they are doing at the 12:15 Spanish Mass or the 5 p.m. Sunday Mass) HOWEVER, there, they will be able to watch the Mass, and will be brought Holy Communion. We are asked to bring our own hand sanitizer (the parish has it, but maybe not enough), and we’re not sure when confession is going to happen again.
I will tell you, whilst it is not ideal (and probably won’t be for a while), it’s nice to actually know what is going on. Lest I forget, members of the same household can sit together.
 
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