May 14, 2020

Greetings,

Last Sunday we received news of when we may return to the public celebration of the Mass. Next Monday, May 25th, the first public Mass will be held in church at 9:00am. There may be further plans for that day but as of this writing we have not had time to fully think that through. Keep an eye out for more details.

The bishops of Ohio have dispensed with the obligation to attend Mass for the time being. So whereas we will have Mass, if you have any concerns or fears about attending, you may pray at home with a clear conscience. In fact, it is recommended that those who are in at risk categories or are sick, or perhaps tending to someone in such a category not attend Mass. Also those with a temperature are asked to remain at home.

While it is true that the State of Ohio cannot enforce the wearing of masks at Mass, the bishops have mandated this practice and so it will be mandatory (as all public places may mandate) except for the brief moments of receiving Communion. There will be a few masks available at the door of the church but please try to bring your own as they will be limited.

This week will be a time of figuring out what the roles of ushers, servers and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion will be, what the church will look like and how things will operate. We do know that Communion from the chalice will not yet be restored. Because of the nature of universal law, communion on the tongue (especially at the extraordinary form of the Mass) must be offered, but at the ordinary form of the Mass, it will be asked of those who choose to do so to come after those who receive in the hand. (This is as instructed by the diocese.)

There are other challenging things to figure out such as how we will adhere to social distancing, how we will figure out how to stay below 50% capacity, if there will be additional Masses and how on earth we will keep our large church clean between each Mass. (We may need A LOT of volunteers spread out over time and days if we are going to achieve this.)

By the time you read this, we will have an additional week to pull everything together and inform you of what you need to be prepared for if you intend to come back to Mass. The primary source for this news will be our Angelus Letter. If you are not receiving this letter, please contact the rectory offices at 330-836-2233. Also call this number if you wish to volunteer to assist in keeping our church open and to have the possibility of having all of our Masses.

IN OTHER NEWS:

DRESSES:  Thanks in part to your donations and work, this past week we were able to send about 100 homemade dresses and an additional amount of shorts for boys to extremely poor parts of the world where clothing is a luxury particularly for children. Ian Kelly delivered the clothing to Fr. Andy Turner who will personally deliver them. Thank you for your prayers and efforts in this.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck