In-person daily Mass in Broward and Miami-Dade counties will resume May 26, with restrictions.

In-person restrictions: Social distancing, face masks required

In-person daily Mass in Broward and Miami-Dade counties will resume May 26, the Archdiocese of Miami announced this week.

In a letter to churchgoers, Archbishop Thomas Wenski outlined the restrictions and changes churches will implement upon their reopening, such as social distancing, restricted interactions and required faces masks.

“The coronavirus, COVID-19, has introduced new risk into our lives — and until a vaccine is widely available, we will be unable to eliminate completely the risks, but we must prudently try to mitigate those risks wherever and whenever possible,” Wenski wrote in the letter.

The first Sunday Mass will be open to the public on May 31, Pentecost Sunday, a Christian holiday. The Diocese of Palm Beach announced last week in a similar letter that it will resume Sunday Mass on the same day. Daily Masses in the Palm Beach diocese will start May 25.

Although Gov. Ron DeSantis did not order churches and other houses of worships to shut their doors to the public, many congregations in South Florida decided to suspend inperson worship. Now, as businesses and beaches begin to reopen with limitations, the Catholic churches and other places of worship are looking for ways they can do they same.

The Archdiocese of Miami suspended all Masses with congregation on March 16, but church services continued virtually with live-streamed Masses. In his letter, Wenski wrote that since there will be restrictions for churchgoers, livestreamed Masses will continue for the foreseeable future.

He urged the elderly and others who are sick or have underlying conditions to continue worshiping from home.

In the churches, individuals and families are expected to stay 6 feet apart. The letter also asks churchgoers not to hold hands or exchange the sign of peace, a ritual of greeting others in the church with handshakes.

Offering baskets will not be passed around. There also will be no holy water at entrances. Hymnals and missalettes will not be available, and surfaces will be sanitized between masses.

Those attending are asked to wear a face mask for the duration of Mass, only to be removed for communion. Priests and other ministers will not wear a mask while preaching

but will wear one while administering communion.

“If anyone disagrees about the necessity of wearing a face mask, I would ask that person to wear it anyway — out of respect for and charity towards their fellow parishioners,” Wenski wrote in the letter.

Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach wrote a letter last week outlining similar guidelines and precautions for churchgoers as the churches prepare to reopen a day before they will in Broward and MiamiDade.

“It is imperative for us to realize that while progress has been made, the pandemic is not over by any means and we are obligated to continue cooperating with each other to do what we can to ensure the safety of ourselves and others and to prevent its return,” Barbarito wrote.