Learning from months of pandemic Masses, Baltimore archdiocese adjusts policies on music, greetings

As the coronavirus pandemic enters its seventh month, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is adjusting some of its safety guidance on celebrating Mass, including allowing priests to greet parishioners while wearing a mask and permitting small ensembles to provide music.

Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Adam J. Parker said the changes were made to allow for a more normal church experience for parishioners while still practicing safety precautions.

“Based on our experience of the past four months of celebrating Mass again in person, we realized that there were some things that we could do and do safely following the science and our experience,” Bishop Parker said.

The recommendations were made after consulting with pastors, Bishop Parker said. One of pastors’ top requests was to be able to greet parishioners in a safe way.

Priests can now wave to parishioners as they enter and exit the church. Still, precautions remain: Priests will wear masks and practice social distancing and they will discourage people not to linger in large groups.

“The general sense from the pastors was that they wanted the Mass to appear as normal as possible and not only as normal as possible but also as joyful as possible as well,” Bishop Parker said.

One of the biggest adjustments to Mass because of the pandemic has been the music. Julie Grace Males, director of the archdiocese’s office of divine worship, said the adjustments have been difficult but necessary.

Since June, usually a single cantor has led liturgical music, and parishioners have been discouraged from singing.

“The science indicates that the coronavirus is most easily spread through droplets from the breath. And because singing sustains the breath longer and usually uses more force, it would indicate that the possibility of spreading the virus more easily,” Males said, explaining why the archdiocese, like most places of worship, has discouraged singing.

Males said musical groups of three to four people will now be able to lead the music at Mass. She said singers would be spaced more than six feet apart and would only remove their masks when singing.

“It will bring a greater musical sophistication in terms of the opportunity for harmony and just a sense of community versus just a solo artist.,” Males said. “Even though the congregation can’t sing, it helps make it feel a little more natural, a little less about one individual and more about the community.”

Males emphasized that individual parishes should use common sense when determining how to provide music at Mass. She said the pastor should make sure safety protocols are in place, taking into account the unique dimensions of each church.

Other changes include permitting processions down the center aisle of the church and allowing altar servers to participate in Masses. Altar servers will be required to wear masks and maintain the proper physical distancing.

Bishop Parker said the biggest takeaway from the past few months of celebrating in-person Masses has been the importance of wearing masks. He called masks the “number one preventer” of the transmission of the virus.

“We have very gratefully not experienced outbreaks that can be traced to Catholic Masses. And that would be true not only here in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, but quite broadly,” Bishop Parker said. “So as we’re looking at the various safety protocols, we’re listening to the recommendations that come from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), especially about things like in-person classroom instruction and what’s safe to do, what’s not safe to do.”

Bishop Parker said the experience of the past few months and these adjustments should give most parishioners confidence that they can return to church and worship safely.

“What we are trying to do, most of all, is to encourage healthy people to come back to Mass,” he said. “There are obviously vulnerable populations out there. But for people, even with children, who are healthy and are able to come, then we believe that we have a safe environment for worship.”

Email Tim Swift at tswift@CatholicReview.org

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