Catholic churches welcome back worshippers, 1st time in months
As the COVID-19 crisis has brought life in Illinois to a halt for months, Consuelo Sierra’s only real connection to her church community has been through a livestream on YouTube.
Each week, she tuned in as the Rev. Stephen Bedenikovic said Mass to an empty church at Sacred Heart Croatian Parish in South Deering.
Finally Sunday, just days after the Archdiocese of Chicago gave churches the go-ahead to start holding in-person services, Sierra got to return to Sacred Heart Croatian.
“I feel like I’m picking back up where I left off,” said Sierra, who works in the health insurance industry and lives in Chicago’s East Side neighborhood. “I feel back at home.”
The archdiocese’s newly issued guidance allows churches to reopen but limits attendance to 15% of total seating capacity this weekend, with no more than 50 worshippers allowed for each Mass. Next week, seating can increase to 20% of a church’s capacity.
At Sacred Heart Croatian, every other pew was blocked off Sunday and about 20 parishioners distanced themselves throughout the open rows. At one point, Bedenikovic thanked parishioners for their continued financial support throughout the unprecedented shutdown.
“Bills come in just like yours,” said Bedenikovic. “And we have to pay just like you.”
Catholic parishes must now keep attendance records for contact tracing in case someone tests positive for COVID-19. And while churches are required to follow social distancing guidelines and have volunteers sanitize regularly, the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions have been urged to stay home for now.
Since Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order first went into effect in March, Sacred Heart Croatian has remained closed for services as public health officials and church leaders sought to quell the spread of COVID-19. Although Pritzker’s revised stay-athome order issued in late April allowed up to 10 people to congregate at religious services, Catholic churches in Chicago only reopened to the public this weekend.
“It’s a troubled world,” Bedenikovic told congregants Sunday. “We were locked out for a few months, and no one has ever experienced anything like this . . . There’s fear, uncertainty, people are afraid to talk to one another, get close to one another.”
After facing mounting legal challenges and outward defiance from some churches, Pritzker issued new guidance May 28 that doesn’t place a strict cap on attendance for houses of worship. Instead, the governor suggests houses of worship should gather at a quarter capacity and recommends “discontinuing singing, group recitation and other practices and performances where there is increased likelihood for transmission from contaminated exhaled droplets.”