Note to St. Anthony Allston Parishioners

Click Here to Continue on to Parish Website directly. 

A NOTE TO ALL REGARDING CHRISTMAS:

DUE TO THE CORONA VIRUS RESTRICTIONS OUR MASS CAPACITY IS LIMITED ONLY TO 25% OF CAPACITY. YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN OTHERS IN ATTENDING MASS VIRTUALLY BY GOING TO OUR LIVE STREAM ON YOUTUBE OR BY GOING TO CATHOLICTV.COM. 

THIS IS FOR OUR PROTECTION, YOUR PROTECTION, THE PROTECTION OF THE PARISHIONERS AND THE PROTECTION OF OUR NEIGHBORS. 

THERE IS NO CURRENT OBLIGATION FOR ATTENDING MASS AT ANY TIME  DURING THIS PANDEMIC IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.

 

Our weekend routine continues as the new normal. Parishioners may want to register either before attending Mass or after they attended and you can find the registration here:

Right Here

We will have bulletins available weekend. Bulletins have to be received individually by someone with a gloved hand. 

In a few weeks you will learn of a new website ,we will have for the parish details to follow. 

 

The Cardinal's dispensation to attend Mass is still in place, so it is not obligatory to attend. Again this is to encourage people to know that if they do not feel comfortable attending Mass yet, that that is ok to miss mass and watch it online or at catholictv.com. This is especially true if you are in any of the at risk categories. Again I will refer you to Dana G. Smith's article on the latest discovery of the virus. 

Wearing a mask at Mass will be required for sometime so if you do not have one, please do not attend.

Hand sanitizer continues to be important. We will have some available but we cannot supply lots of it in order to ensure we can make sure our supply does not run out. So please bring your own hand sanitizer. 

Families that live together may sit together. Those who do not live together must sit alone in a bench. That is again due to social distancing. It is for the protection of others.

If you have a fever or you are coughing. Please do not come but stream the Mass online. 

Distribtion of the Eucharist will continue as it was over the weekend and that went smoothly.  

As before: If you would like to register for Mass to let us know that you are coming you are free to do so. Right now I am not requiring it because that would require me to turn away those who do not register. However, I will leave it as an option. This will also help us to keep a list of our parishioners and to contact you if there is a problem or someone had the virus who attended. 

Register for Mass using this form!

Please  check out the video by the Archdiocese on how to attend Mass

Tomas Pueyo writing on Medium has an excellent article on exactly the issues we are dealing with in church congregation. His question is really not should we open the church but how to open the church. He gives an excellent explanation of the exact issues we are addressing and need to address. 

Please see his article at Should We Reopen Churches? 

Meanwhile: Dana G. Smith also on Medium has an excellent article that explains why this virus is so unique. I highly recommend you read it and Mr. Pueyo's words. 

Please see her article at: Coronavirus May Be a Vascular Disease Which Explains Everything. 

I will be putting together two meetings this week one with the English language pastoral council and the other with the Brazilian Pastoral Council working out our plans for opening next week. 

Again feel free to call me if you have any concerns. 

 

Streaming will continue indefinitely. 

Remember, Mass attendance is still not required and I will only recommend those who are most willing to come and not susceptible to the virus. Therefore, anyone who is immune suppressed or in any of the susceptible categories certainly does not need to come. A slow opening is better than none at all so take your time. 

Please also check out the video by the Archdiocese on how to attend Mass. 

 

 

 

 

 

What guidelines do parishioners need

to observe while in church?

If parishioners can bring their own bottle of hand sanitizer to the church, they should. Otherwise, they can use sanitizer provided by the parish and positioned at the entry to the church.

 

 

All members of the congregation need to wear masks, with a few exceptions:

• Children under the age of two should not wear masks.
• Parents should judge for children between the ages of two and five whether they should wear a mask.
• All people who claim an exemption because of health can forego wearing a mask. They do not have to provide documentation.
• The priest and others with him in the sanctuary do not need to wear masks in the sanctuary as long as strict socially distancing is maintained. They do have to wear masks when assisting with the distribution of Holy Communion.

 

With reasonable exceptions allowed, there should be no public access to the sacristy while the church is open.

 

There will be no social gatherings either before or after Mass.

 

What do we need to do during the Mass to keep it safe?

There should be no processions at the Masses, including no offertory processions.

 

There should be no altar servers.

 

Choirs will not be allowed.

 

Congregational singing will not be allowed in these early days. Fully respectful of the very important role that music plays in our liturgies, and also respectful of the public health concerns, the congregation should be instructed not to sing, either by announcement or by signs. There can be a cantor and an instrumentalist, who would provide music during the Mass (perhaps limited to the psalm, the Mass parts, and a song at Communion).

 

Masses can have a priest, a deacon, a lector, an instrumentalist, a cantor, and whatever volunteers are necessary to ensure the safe flow of people. If there are to be two communion stations (only in a large church), an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist could be used if there is no deacon.

 

Any priest, deacon, lector, or volunteer who has a respiratory infection of any kind should not attend Mass.

 

In the sanctuary, the priest, the deacon, and the lector must respect strict social distancing. They should not wear masks in the sanctuary.

 

There must be no passing of the basket for the offertory. Instead, a basket could be present at the main entrance and people could put their offering into it on their own. Parishes should promote the use of “90-Days Now for your Parish” (link here) as a way of helping parishioners to get started with online giving or use their local online giving solution if that is already set up.

 

During the consecration, hosts to be distributed should be placed on a second corporal to the side, so that they are not directly in front of the priest.

 

There should be no holding of hands during the Our Father.

 

There should be no invitation to participate in a sign of peace.

For the distribution of Holy Communion:

• There will be either one or two communion stations, depending on the size of the Church.
• It should be announced that parishioners may well decide not to receive Holy Communion if they feel the risk is too high, and that decision will be honored and respected.
• There will be no distribution of the Precious Blood.
• The communicants and the priest will wear masks.
• Neither the priest nor the communicants should wear gloves during the distribution of Holy Communion.
• Congregants who are not coming forward to receive Holy Communion or a blessing should still get out of their pews at the beginning, so that no one will have to climb over anyone else.
• The priest will have a table next to him with hand sanitizer.
• The priest will hold the consecrated host over the communicants’ outstretched hands and drop the host into their hands without touching their hands.
• Communicants will receive the consecrated host in their hands, step to the side, lower their mask, consume the host, replace their mask, and return to their pew.
• In the case of unintentional contact, the priest will sanitize his own hands immediately.
• If the priest himself is a member of a vulnerable population, a deacon or a trained lay minister should distribute communion.
• The people should return to their pews by a different route, to avoid contact with approaching people.
• There will be tape on the floor to show where to stand as a communicant approaches to receive communion. There also will be tape on the floor to show where to stand to demask and consume the host, and arrows showing how to return to the pews.
• There should be a couple of minutes after Communion for silent prayer, before the final prayer and dismissal.

 

Participants at Mass would be encouraged to leave the church within a couple of minutes of the end of the Mass so as to allow for time for cleaning the church before the next Mass. Row by row exiting, directed by the trained volunteers, is encouraged.

 

If a Parish cannot offer Mass safely, following these guidelines and all of the checkboxes on the State document, they should not offer Mass.

 

The Vicars Forane will have regular conversations with the Pastors and will report regularly to the Vicar General with regard to compliance.

 

 

Check List: What needs to be in place

before we start to have Mass?

✔Church deeply cleaned, according to methods outlined in the Risk Management document

✔Hymnals and missalettes removed

✔Volunteers in place to assist with traffic flow

✔Signs clearly posted, letting people know:

• That they must wear masks
• Where they can sit
• No congregational singing

✔Socially distant seating marked out

✔Hand sanitizer available

✔Holy water fonts empty

✔Markers on the floor indicating the direction of traffic flow and spacing off six feet in places where people might be in lines

✔Some method in place to restrict the number of people who enter the church to below 40% capacity, and no more than the number of socially distanced seats available

✔Plan and volunteers and materials in place to clean church between Masses

✔Permission of Regional Bishop or Episcopal Vicar if starting Mass before May 31