Sacred Heart uses reservations for Christmas Mass
Service part of year of adaptation for parish
They aren’t going to be typical Christmas masses at Sacred Heart Parish. Fewer people, more space, no hymnals and reservations. Reservations.
Normally, the most popular services of the year, Sacred Heart adjusted its Christmas Masses to COVID-19 the way its adjusted just about everything since March.
“It’s like a monkey wrench has been put in everything,” said Rever
end Loren Kalinowski.
During normal times, Christmas services are full, even standing room only. This year, they added a mass and the reservation system to ensure attendance doesn’t swell beyond physically- distant capacity.
The reservation system isn’t new for the church. In fact, one was implemented after Memorial Day after some of the early attendance restrictions were lifted.
The early restrictions were part of restrictions handed down to all churches in Sacred Heart’s diocese, he said. Sacred Heart formed a committee to implement those, including figuring out which pews they could use and which parts of the church needed to be roped off.
One early challenge was obtaining supplies to sanitize the church in between services.
Warmer weather brought a decline in reported cases. Following Memorial Day weekend, attendance was permitted to increase to 25 percent of capacity. That’s when the reservation system was put into place.
They didn’t need it. While Sacred Heart was adapting to the pandemic, so were many of its parishioners. Attendance of the previously lightly attended weekday Mass services doubled, and some people just stayed home.
“There are today still some people who don’t feel comfortable,” Fr. Loren said.
Technology has provided a way to reach those people. The parish, which has broadcast its Sunday Mass services on cable access for years, started streaming them over Facebook Live.
Catholicism leans heavily on rituals, many of which require in- person attendance.
Some rituals — weddings, funerals — are common to faith groups. Weddings and baptisms were delayed, attendance to funerals cause difficult choices in who was allowed to attend.
Others required adjustment.
Communion was moved to the end of Mass, so people could receive it right before leaving. This helped keep people separated. It also, for the time being, only consists of a wafer to minimize the risk of spreading virus through many hands touching the cup that holds the wine.
They also had to adapt confirmation, where people — usually younger — are made full members of the faith. Traditionally, this is done during a large gathering of family and friends and performed by the bishop who oversees all churches in the diocese.
Those are now taking place individually during a weekday Mass and without a bishop.
Some changes were less about time and place, but about including a protective layer.
While visiting sick parishioners, Fr. Loren said he started out wearing a mask and gloves, even while anointing them with oil. It’s a ritual intended to allow a sick person know that not only is his/ her clergy with them, but so is God.
It’s supposed to be intensely personal, but the protective gear gets in the way a bit. Since cases started increasing in October, his required to now also wear a face shield.
He can’t shake hands, attend events or hug people, the kind of personal attention that is vital to attending a church.
“I miss that,” he said. “It’s the sociability. It’s being with your people.”
Some things that aren’t part of Catholic rituals were just canceled this year, including the parish’s fall harvest festival, which in previous years has allowed the community to gather together outside of Mass.
They’ve also had to leverage old technology to keep in touch with parishioners, especially older people who don’t have smartphones and aren’t on Facebook.
Letters, mailed via the post, are going out to parish members, providing an old school way to keep people up-to- date.
One place new technology has proven effective is in youth programming and at Sacred Heart Academy, the private school associated with the parish.
A new youth minister has hosted virtual get togethers and outdoor events, to provide youth in the parish an opportunity to get together and socialize.
In the academy, they’ve had to keep students within their class groups.
Teachers asked for, and received extra large screens for their classrooms that permit students who opted for virtual learning to see their classmates attending in person.
All of this came with a money cost. Although the bishop handed down instructions on how to get through the pandemic, those didn’t have money attached to them.
The academy received additional funds from its foundation to help it stay open. They also received some key private donations, and have some students from homes experience financial difficulties stay at the school through a tuition assistance program.
Sacred Heart participated in the federal Paycheck Protection Program, a low-interest loan passed by Congress last month intended to help employers keep people on payroll in exchange for loans that in many cases are forgivable.
It allowed the parish to maintain full employment and purchase cleaning supplies.
“It worked out tremendously for us,” Fr. Loren said.