Catholic Diocese of Lexington prepares to resume public Masses with some changes in place
Catholic churches in Lexington will begin holding public Masses again May 30 and 31.
The Catholic Diocese of Lexington said Masses will resume on the weekend of Pentecost at parishes in Lexington, as well as in Ashland, Campton, Hazard, Jackson, Lawrenceburg, Morehead, Mount Sterling, Owingsville, Richmond and Winchester.
Other parishes in the diocese, which covers 50 counties in Central and Eastern Kentucky, will reopen by May 23 and 24.
Lexington Bishop John Stowe announced the reopening in a letter accompanied by a list of reopening directives and guidelines for parishes posted on the diocese’s website Friday.
“I do not want anyone to mistake the resumption of public Masses as a sign that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, because it is not,” Stowe wrote.
“Please note that this is not simply a return to how we celebrated before the outbreak of the pandemic,” he said later in the letter. “Churches will only be able to admit 33 percent of the occupancy of the building and social distancing will need to be maintained at all times.”
Stowe strongly urged people who are elderly or more vulnerable to coronavirus to continue to attend livestreamed services rather than in-person Mass.
And the diocese encouraged elderly and vulnerable adults who insist on attending Mass in person to come on a weekday rather than Sundays.
Stowe issued a dispensation allowing area Catholics to forego attending Mass because of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March. He said in the letter Friday that the dispensation will remain in effect until further notice.
“No one should feel it necessary to risk their own health or the health of others to attend mass at this time,” he wrote.
Stowe said all the churches in the diocese “are working to implement the directives that need to be in place to resume public worship.” The diocese said its directives incorporate the guidelines issued by the state for houses of worship.
Some of the changes worshipers should expect at Mass, according to the directives: no holy water in the fonts; no physical contact during the Lord’s Prayer or Sign of the Peace; no choirs; song books and other items removed from the pews; no bulletins; no passing of offering plates or baskets; and hand sanitizer used before distribution of Communion. During Communion, only bread will be distributed, and it will be placed in the hand of the person taking it with no words spoken.
Congregants and ministers are to wear masks, though ministers may remove them when they are speaking or singing as part of their ministry, the directives state.
And social distancing is to be practiced at all times, including when parishioners are entering and exiting the church.
The diocese is encouraging parishes to set up a system for handling the requirement to limit attendance, such as attending “alphabetically by household name,” offering electronic sign-ups or having a “first-come first-served” policy.
