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And we are changing again!
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On September 19th, we will begin hearing confessions at St. Vitus Church instead of St. Camillus parking lot. When you enter St. Vitus Church from 11:00 am until noon, you will celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation, not in the confessionals, but in the cry room, the priest sacristy or the main entry where the original baptismal font is.
According to the COVID-19 directives from the Bishop, we are not
allowed to use the confessionals. So we have chosen these places in our church to provide for social distancing and safe celebration of the
sacrament while insuring your privacy. Our seminarian, Merv, will be in the church to assist in guiding you to the appropriate areas where the priest will be available to hear your confession.
So, the last day we will be hearing confessions in the parking lot at St. Camillus will be Saturday, September 12th, the same day that we will begin Masses at St. Camillus and St. Vitus at 4:00 pm on Saturdays. If for some reason, we have to return to confessions outside, we will do so as we have in the past. It worked out very well for these several months and we know we can do it if we need to. But beginning on the 19th, we want to transition confessions back into a building so that we will be prepared to assist with the celebration of this sacrament throughout the winter months.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Again, it is important that you wear a mask when in the church building according to the Bishop’s directive. You will also be required to
remain 6 feet away from the priest and we will try to make it so that you have the opportunity to go anonymously or face to face in all three settings.
Thank you to everyone who assisted and volunteered to assist in the sacred ministries as we move into the buildings. After September the 12th, we will also have St. Camillus Church available for funerals as we have been having all funerals at St. Vitus Church. The reason we cannot open all of the churches at this time is due to the restrictions on the number of people permitted into the church building for ceremonies. It is still at 25% so in the smaller churches that is an even smaller number of those who could participate. There is also the problem of staffing for the sanitation of the church before and after the celebration of any liturgy. We also need to have people trained and willing to serve at every site for these liturgies. Until we have the numbers we need to be able to celebrate the liturgies appropriately, we cannot reopen those buildings.
Once again, thank you for your understanding, cooperation and volunteer service. Working together, we will be able to return to some sense of normalcy as this whole pandemic and presidential election continues to unfold. It seems that both are now intimately connected but, in any case, we have to do what we can to celebrate the sacraments while living in a surreal world!
God love you,
