Catholics share joy over return to live Mass
Diocese had been livestreaming until the lifting of restrictions
It was a such a strange time, Amelia Gamble said, reflecting on those stay-at-home weeks when the very center of Catholic life, the Mass, was off-limits.
In person, at least. Like many of the 260,000 Catholics in the five counties of the Allentown Diocese, the Whitehall Township woman and her family tuned in to the daily livestream Masses offered by Bishop Alfred Schlert and other clergy, who said the church’s ultimate prayer on behalf of the isolated faithful.
Thank God for the internet, said Gamble, an
active parishioner and cantor at St. John the Baptist in the Stiles section of Whitehall, imagining how miserable she would have been had technology not given her at least a taste of the Mass, to which she and others were able to return when the diocese eased restrictions last weekend.
Even so, she noted,”watching it is great but not the same. It didn’t feel right. It wasn’t like going and participating and receiving Communion and so forth.”
Schlert, abiding by Gov. Tom Wolf’s directive closing down most businesses and all schools as the coronavirus pandemic hit Pennsylvania, canceled public Masses on March 16.
Houses of worship were exempt from the order, but all Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, and the overwhelming majority other faith communities, adhered to it.
Bishops in the U.S. and around the world took heat from people who said the Mass was every bit as essential as access to grocery stores, but by and large the faithful gritted their teeth and waited it out, even as the shutdown canceled Masses for Easter, the holiest time on the Christian calendar.
The faithful’s days in the desert ended June 1, when Schlert lifted restrictions on Mass. But that doesn’t mean things are back to normal. Masks are required and churches can only be filled to 25% t capacity, so parishioners can maintain social distance. That means some may be turned away at the door.
Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said that doesn’t appear to be an issue so far.
“From what I’ve heard, everything went smoothly,” he said, sizing up the first Sunday Masses on June 7. A number of churches held Mass outside, and at least two — St. Jane Frances de Chantal in Palmer Township and St. Thomas More in Salisbury Township — held parking lot Masses in which parishioners remained in their cars, listened over an FM radio feed and had “driveup Communion.”
The Rev. George Winne, assistant pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Allentown, is thrilled the hiatus in public Masses has ended. Attendance on the first weekend “was about 30 to 35% of normal,” he said. “I think there are still a lot of people who don’t realize they’ve started again.”
Another factor expected to keep attendance low, at least initially, is age.
Most parishes have large elderly populations — people who are most at risk from the coronavirus and are wary of public spaces, even with precautions in place.
Gamble said her church is doing its best to make returning parishioners comfortable. Every other pew is closed off, and the others have markers spaced every 6 feet, the recommended distance to avoid infection. Gamble now sings from the choir loft instead of the cantor stand. Communion is distributed after Mass to make the process more orderly.
“For us, it’s just a matter of following the rules and doing what we’re told,” she said.
Gamble hopes the state’s transition from the current yellow phase to the less restrictive green phase of reopening will bump up attendance.
She called the halting of
Mass “a necessary evil,” and appreciated the lesson her pastor, the Rev. Gerald Gobitas, discerned in the experience.
“He said when you are in the habit of going, you start to take some of these things for granted,” she said. “So this slowdown forced us to not do that.” We rely on the support of our subscribers to fund our journalism as we continue to cover the coronavirus crisis. If you’re not already signed up, we hope you will consider subscribing. Already a print subscriber? If you haven’t already, please activate your digital access.