St. Denis Parish

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” 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.

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