Effective December 22, 2021

Christmas Eve prelude songs will begin at 3:35 p.m. Church doors will open at 3:15 p.m.

Christmas Day prelude songs will begin at 9:45 a.m. Church doors will open at 9:15 a.m.

When the church reaches capacity, the doors will be locked – so please come early.  Also, holding spaces for others will not be allowed once the prelude songs begin.

Anyone who is not vaccinated needs to sit in the designated area and wear a mask.

Everyone is urged and expected to wear a mask.

Effective Sunday, August 8, 2021

Covid-19 Update:  The parish safety committee is recommending all parishioners wear masks for Sunday Mass. We encourage everyone who can to get a vaccination. Three rows on the east side of the church are available for masked-only parishioners who need to maintain distancing. Staff, ushers and minsters will wear masks. Ushers may implement some of the previous COVID-19 protocols.

Effective Sunday, June 6, 2021

The safety sub-committee for St. Sebastian and St. Catherine Churches met on Tuesday, June 1, to discuss updates to our COVID-19 safety protocols for Mass attendees. These changes to our safety protocols will be effective June 6, 2021 and reflect the safety committee’s most prudent manner of implementing recent CDC, Archdiocesan and Municipal Health Ordinance updates. 

The committee recognizes that people have differing feelings about these updates and have different risk tolerances. It has been and continues to be the goal of the committee to suggest the safest plan, taking as many considerations as possible of persons’ feelings into account. Last week’s hand-poll regarding comfort of not wearing masks was consistent for all three Masses, namely, more than ½ of our Mass attendees feel safe to not wear masks and to forego social distancing. 

The committee is also committed to ongoing education of our community on the science of these matters. To this end, it is extremely important for everyone to understand that the highest risk of contracting COVID-19 is for unvaccinated persons. If you are not vaccinated and do not belong to a group of persons who cannot be vaccinated, the church highly recommends (for your wellbeing and for the wellbeing of all others) THAT YOU GET VACCINATED. We must try to do all we can to protect children under age 12, those who are immunocompromised, and those with health conditions prohibiting them from getting vaccinated. 

After careful consideration of all scientific health documentation as well as comments from parishioners, the safety committee feels it most prudent to rollout changes to the protocols over the coming weeks – NOT changing all at once. 

These are the new changes:

  • Mask-wearing is mandatory for all persons not fully vaccinated (2 plus weeks); Mask-wearing for all others is optional (but recommended).
  • Social distancing is mandatory for all persons not fully vaccinated; social distancing for all others is optional (but recommended). 
  • Regarding mask-wearing and social distancing: Ribbons will remain on the pews, providing some degree of distancing. Masked persons may sit throughout the entire church. Not wishing to segregate persons who must wear or who choose to wear a mask and prefer to sit with other masked persons, an OPTIONAL [“high-risk”] SEATING AREA for masked persons only will be the back half of the pews on the east side of the church. Persons not wearing masks should not sit there. If you are not masked and notice a masked person seated somewhere other than the east side in the back, please respect their space. 
  • All doors to the church will now be open. You may enter and leave the church at any time. Ushers will NOT dismiss people, pew by pew. 
  • The Communion procession will stay the same for now. Please come forward to receive Communion in the hand. Bow before receiving, if you are wearing a mask- say AMEN with your mask still on – then lower mask as you depart to receive Communion. 
  • The church will not be sanitized after each Mass. Concerned persons may use handwipes to sanitize your area. 
  • Singing is now encouraged for those fully vaccinated.

These protocols have NOT changed: 

  • Communion is under one species only – the consecrated host.
  • The Sign of Peace remains “no contact”.
  • For now, ropes remain in place for “every-other-pew” seating.
  • Holy water fonts will still be empty.
  • The collection will continue to be taken at the exits and not by passing a basket.

As you have been most cooperative during this past year regarding COVID safety protocols, we hope that you will enjoy the loosening of restrictions and abide by these changes. If you are still not comfortable returning to full normalcy, we hope that we have kept in place enough protocols and created the optional “safe space” for you during this time of transition. We are always open to your thoughts and questions. Contact: Carole Poth at cpoth@saintcatherine.org or call the front office to be connected to voicemail.