While archdiocesan churches are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, pastors and staff are trying to keep in touch with their parishioners by streaming daily Mass, sending emails or posting online videos.
On St. Patrick’s Day, 479 people tuned in online for the 9:30 a.m. Mass at St. Joseph’s Church in Eldersburg. Typically about 40 attend weekday Mass.
“We have people in Korea watching us,” noted Karen Spivey, director of mission support. In addition to streaming Mass, the pastor, Marianist Father Neville O’Donohue, and other pastoral staff members record a daily video message and send email blasts to keep in touch.
“We are focusing first on meeting their spiritual needs,” Spivey said.
That’s true around the archdiocese. St. John’s in Westminster held drive-through Sacrament of Reconciliation. The faithful remained in their cars while their confessor listens to their confessions from a safe distance.
Father Mark Bialek, pastor, said response via email and social media to the announcement for the March 18 sacrament was encouraging. He starred in a how-to video, produced by Emily Alster, the parish communications coordinator, that was posted on the parish website. Father Bialek said he was inspired by a similar reconciliation opportunity offered at a Bowie parish.
“It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity to offer the sacrament in a safe environment.”
“If it’s successful, we’re going to continue it,” he said, noting that he’s trying live-streamed rosary and Stations of the Cross as well as Mass to keep connected.
Daily 8 a.m. Mass and Sunday Mass at 10:30 a.m. are livestreamed at St. John’s as well as the rosary, Holy Hour and Stations on Fridays, all announced on the parish’s Facebook page.
“It’s a way of bringing people together. It’s still being parish even though we’re in our own homes,” he said.
“We’ve become a virtual parish at this point,” he added.
In Crofton, Father Paul Sparklin at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church opens the church for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after Mass is celebrated without the faithful. Booklets for Stations of the Cross and the Divine Mercy chaplet are available for private devotions, he said.
“We’re still in business,” Father Sparklin said.
St. Andrew by the Bay’s website includes the familiar COVID-19-related cancellations, but it also includes a prayer for spiritual communion.
Father Jeff Dauses, the pastor, said Masses are livestreamed on its Facebook page.
He is heartened by parishioner response to the first livestreamed Mass. Parishioners responded by sending in pictures of their children gathered around, watching the online liturgy.
“We’re all learning very quickly these days,” he said.
Holy Family Parish in Davidsonville had originally hoped to keep its church open for private devotions—but Father Andy Aaron said he and the staff worried how to keep such a big church disinfected well enough to be virus-free.
Instead, the parish is livestreaming weekday and Sunday Mass, Stations on Fridays and a weekly message on Tuesday afternoons.
Father Aaron said he hopes that helps people stay connected.
“You don’t want to cut yourself off completely from the parishioners,” the pastor said.
Jesuit Father James Casciotti, pastor of St. Ignatius Church in Baltimore, took to video March 16 to report that some things continued as usual. Radio Mass, was, as always, offered at 9:03 a.m. Sunday morning on WCBM 680AM— though this time without a congregation. Volunteers who make sandwiches to feed people on the street in Baltimore City as part of the Loaves and Fishes program still showed up Sunday afternoon.
“I miss you guys already,” he said in the video. In addition to addressing the offertory collection, he noted that weddings and funerals—with restrictions of fewer than 10 people, including the celebrant and other ministers, and appropriate social distancing—are still allowed.
Details for these and many other virtual worship services can be found on parish websites and Facebook pages.
For more on the Archdiocese of Baltimore response to the pandemic, visit www.archbalt.org/coronavirus.
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