Letter to the Parish from Fr. Pat, March 18, 2020

My dear Parishioners,
                                   
Hi from Fr. Pat. Just as I am sitting down to write these words a member of staff just said down the corridor, “I think I am walking in a fog.” None of us knows how to behave in this crisis. What are the right decisions to make? Do I really have to stay at home all day? Surely I can go to the Church. Maybe the Parish Coffee shop is open? I can hang out there for a few hours. I confess I never bothered with it before but now I need it desperately. Unfortunately, the Coffee Shop is closed. As the Pastor I have to make decisions that affect your lives right now. My bottom line is to think about public safety.

Yesterday I announced in Church that for the time being we will not celebrate public Masses in the Church. The first reaction was someone asked me about receiving communion. Another asked will the office be open?  General comment, I think we need to take this seriously. We are in a National Emergency. We don’t have a choice about how to behave. We are asked to comply with recommendations. I think the initial reaction of many people is to say that this is not happening. This is something that happens far away. Truth is we are in a time of crisis. We are not allowed to carry on as normal. As good citizens we have to think about the welfare of our community. The Bishop suggested that we leave our Day Chapel open. I am not going to do that. I don’t want the chapel filled with people hanging out all day praying for the world. You can do that at home. I am not willing to be the one who invited crowds to gather and become a danger to public health. The way I see it, twenty people gather in the Chapel. Later it is discovered that one of those is infected. That means the twenty of us have to be tested. We exhaust the medical system. Maybe one or two will have to be hospitalized. How many family members and friends become infected because of my foolishness? I am sure Jesus is very understanding about these things. My personal motto is this, how about we do the right thing and let Jesus take care of the paperwork. I think a lot of the desire to go to the church right now is not just about I need to pray in the chapel. I think it is about people feeling their isolation and wanting to be around fellow parishioners. For lots of people the parish is very much the center of their social life as well as their prayer life. I go and say my prayers. I go to Mass. I have some coffee. I visit. Then I go home contented.

I need to say something about the Masses. The city has prohibited gatherings of 10 or more. That means 9! For that reason we are going to live stream our masses in the parish for the near future. For your information, turn on the Parish web page around12.00pm/midday/Monday to Friday. The Mass will be celebrated live from our Church. I will even wave at you. On Sunday we will live stream the Mass at 9.30 a.m. That will be the only Mass available on camera on Sunday. (A little side note. You might see some people in the Church on/off camera. They might be there for technical help, sacristan, organist/singers. Let me be clear, we are not inviting anyone to come to the Church to witness Mass on camera. There are no invited guests. There are no favorites.)

For the rest of the time the Church will be closed. We will not be hearing confessions. People might call and ask Father to come to their house to bring them communion and hear their confession. That will be at the discretion of every priest. Be warned, I may refuse to come. I will come if I consider that a necessary thing. We might have our chat over the phone instead. I don’t want people inviting me to their homes because they want some company. Whatever weddings and funerals may come, we might have to pare the celebration down to the bare essentials. I don’t know right now. There are important decisions to be made in the future. I am just not there yet. There will be decisions about RE and Pre-School. Just right now, the infection is spreading and we are all told to stay indoors. The situation is changing every day. There will be some staff in the Parish Office, but we are not open for business. You can call. We will talk to you on the phone. We will deal with it on a case by case basis.  Let’s do the right thing and let Jesus take care of the paperwork.

With love,
Fr. Pat