C21 Resources Supplement Spring/Summer 2020, Parishes in a Time of Pandemic

S UPPLEMENT

PARISHES IN A TIME OF PANDEMIC THE CH U R CH IN THE 21S T CE NT U RY CE NTE R

S PR ING/S UMME R 2020

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The Church in the 21st Century Center is a catalyst and a resource for the renewal of the Catholic Church.

C21 Resources, a compilation of the best analyses and essays on key challenges facing the Church today, is published by the Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College, in partnership with publications from which the featured articles have been selected. c 21 center director

Karen K. Kiefer

managing editor

Elise Italiano Ureneck creative director

Angelo Jesus Canta the church in

21 st century center Boston College 110 College Road Heffernan House Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467 bc.edu/c21 • 617-552-6845 the

On the Cover St. Ignatius Church, © Boston College Office of University Communications, Lee Pellegrini ©2020 Trustees of Boston College

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PARISHES IN A TIME OF PANDEMIC Dear Friends: This supplement to the C21 Resources issue, “Catholic Parishes: Grace at Work” highlights and celebrates the work of Catholic parishes in the face of the Pandemic.

You can see the Spirit at work in the creative solutions and practices shared. Our parishes need our support now more than ever, so please consider donating online or keeping up your monetary commitment. We are all in this together.

Every blessing,

Karen K. Kiefer Director, Church in the 21st Century Center karen.kiefer@bc.edu

CONTENTS

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Pope Francis Envisions a Post-Pandemic Church

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5 ways parishes can arise to ‘new normal’ after

Joshua J. McElwee

pandemic

Thomas Dailey

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Creative Ministry in the Midst of Pandemic C21 Center

Fr. Walter Tappe and his Parish, St. Hugh Grenoble Catholic Church in Greenbelt, Maryland, were in need of reliable high speed internet in the parish.

Parishioners and friends did trench work, running a Cat6 cable from the rectory building to the church and installed a wireless access point. They were able to stream their first Mass without disruption.

Special thanks to Rez L., Chris J., Mike M. and Ken B. for their work on this project.

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Pope Francis Envisions a Post-Pandemic Church

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By Joshua J. McElwee pope francis says he hopes the global Covid-19 pandemic will help the Catholic Church better know how to be both an institution, with certain rules and regulations, and more free-form, able to respond to people's pastoral needs in creative ways.

The pontiff gives the example of an Italian bishop that called asking for advice about whether it was allowable to offer general absolution to Covid-19 patients in isolation in a hospital.

The prelate, the pope recounts, had been told by a canon lawyer that he could not do so, as absolution is generally given during confession, which requires face-toface contact.

"I told him: 'Bishop, fulfill your priestly duty,'" Francis states.

"I found out later that he was giving absolution all

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around the place," the pope says. "This is the freedom of the Spirit in the midst of a crisis, not a church closed off in institutions."

"That doesn’t mean that canon law is not important: it is, it helps, and please let’s make good use of it, it is for our good," he continues. "But the final canon says that the whole of canon law is for the salvation of souls, and that’s what opens the door for us to go out in times of difficulty to bring the consolation of God." Ivereigh, who has written two biographies of Francis, published his interview, providing Francis with a series of written questions, and that the pontiff responded with recorded answers.

The pontiff says he is praying more than usual, "because I feel I should." He says he is also thinking a lot about the coming post-pandemic period.

CNS Photo/Vatican Media

We have to learn to live in a church that exists in the tension between harmony and disorder provoked by the Holy Spirit.

"What will be my service as Bishop of Rome, as head of the church, in the aftermath?" the pope asks. "That aftermath has already begun to be revealed as tragic and painful, which is why we must be thinking about it now."

Francis speaks about the need for the church to be both an institution and more free-form in response to a question about what kind of faith community he sees emerging in how Catholics are responding to the pandemic.

The pontiff evokes what he calls "a tension between disorder and harmony."

"The temptation is to dream of a deinstitutionalized church, a gnostic church without institutions, or one that is subject to fixed institutions, which would be a Pelagian church," says the pope.

"We have to learn to live in a church that exists in the tension between harmony and disorder provoked by the

Holy Spirit," he says.

"If you ask me which book of theology can best help you understand this, it would be the Acts of the Apostles," the pope continues. "There you will see how the Holy Spirit deinstitutionalizes what is no longer of use, and institutionalizes the future of the church. That is the church that needs to come out of the crisis."

Joshua J. McElwee is the NCR Vatican correspondent.

This article originally appeared on National Catholic Reporter. Reprinted with permission. https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-envisions-post-pandemic-church-not-closed-institutions

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5 Ways Parishes can Arise to ‘New Normal’ After Pandemic

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By Thomas Dailey “ new normal ” is now commonplace. When extraordinary conditions last beyond the onset of some upheaval, how we respond turns into what we ordinarily do moving forward.

So it will be with a post-COVID-19 society. That includes how we live in and as the church.

For Christians, the idea of a “new normal” shouldn’t really be new. After all, the Easter season celebrates the most significant upheaval of all time — when the crucified Lord arose to new life. The Resurrection changed everything! Christian life ever since is predicated on this new reality. talk of a

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Pope Francis recently pondered how our Resurrection faith affects our approach to the current global health crisis. In his reflection, the pope presents a “plan for rising again” founded on Easter hope (which “cannot become infected”), realized in the community of disciples (because “no one is saved alone”) and leading toward an “alternative civilization of love.”

The pope’s lofty meditation inspires a “new normal” in terms of how we think about our common human existence. But can we translate this vision into the reality of church life? What might the “new normal” of a parish look like after the pandemic passes?

CNS Photo/Vatican Media

CNS photo/Ann M. Augherton, Arlington Herald

The extraordinary events of that first Easter can shed light on how we emerge from this 21st century crisis. To restore pastoral life, we need to re-engage our faith in the Resurrection to appreciate what our “new normal” will be. In terms of parish planning, what might this mean?

The biblical narratives relate numerous appearances of the risen Jesus to his disciples. Key to those encounters is a sense experience. They see him, they hear him, they touch him, they even dine with him.

Parishes may consider designing sense-experiences for the faithful to signal the change in our current state of quarantine. Lighting up parish buildings, ringing church bells, hosting musical concerts, offering “give-aways” of some sort — anything that can communicate a sense of “joy” at arising out of the crisis will draw parishioners together, even if they still have to distance themselves socially.

Tales of Easter turn on the disciples’ recognition of the risen Lord, and his transformed presence inspires a newfound appreciation of all that he had previously said and done.

Parishes might plan Masses or other celebrations to recognize particular groupings of the faithful, with prayers for those impacted by the crisis (the deceased or those still sick) and gratitude for those contributing to the common good during it (e.g., healthcare professionals or public safety personnel).

In the Gospel stories, the miracle of the Resurrection is often linked to a meal. In the breaking of bread at Emmaus, or at breakfast on the shore with the fishermen, the disciples encounter the risen Jesus when gathered together in his midst.

So, too, the parish community will again be able to gather in-person to encounter Jesus present in the sacraments. Parishes need to strategize about how this will take place given probable restrictions on the size of the congregation, necessary procedures for ensuring safe spaces, and ritual changes to account for social distancing.

In their final gathering in Galilee, the risen Lord commissions his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations.” That mission continues! Church buildings may have been closed, but doors to the church were opened even wider via social media.

Capitalizing on the innovative ways they reached out to people during the crisis, parishes must consider how to advance their evangelizing efforts with technology. So many more people were “present” in parishes electronically than had been physically that continuing to “go out” to them represents a missionary opportunity not to be lost. Engaging in robust digital communications to make disciples may be the most decisive feature of a parish’s “new normal.”

Finally, the first disciples’ experience of the Resurrection led to the formation of a “community of believers (that) was of one heart and mind” (Acts 4:32). In the “new normal” of the post-pandemic parish, the entire parish community will need to share responsibility. Patience and support will surely be required!

Parishes should seize this opportunity, to see themselves as more than producers/consumers of spiritual services and to become a vital spiritual community that bears witness to the Resurrection.

In Pope Francis’s meditation, the image of the stone rolled away from the tomb at Easter invites us to contemplate the painful reality of the current pandemic with a renewed outlook. With intentional planning, that outlook will inform the “new normal” arising in parish life — where believers, sort-of believers, and even non-believers may once again rejoice.

Father Thomas Dailey, O.S.F.S. is the John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics and Social Communications at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood, and a research fellow for the Catholic Leadership Institute in Wayne.

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Creative Ministry in the Midst of Pandemic Catholic priests and parishes are finding new ways to minister during the coronavirus pandemic. In mid-March, parishes across the country and around the world shut their church doors to stop the spread of the virus. But, it is true, “When God closes a door, He opens a window.” That window offered a new

LITURGY Parishes across the world canceled in-person Sunday Mass in response to the growing coronavirus pandemic. This new reality prompted parishes to offer livestreamed Masses, and Catholics flocked to their computers. Surprisingly, virtual viewership exploded in many parishes, creating opportunities for additional outreach and engagement. Pastors have reported receiving emails from former parishioners who have moved away or other Catholics from across the country that have tuned in and now feel a special connection to that parish.

perspective and a new way of imagining church.

We celebrate the efforts of priests and parishes that pivoted so quickly during challenging times, using their creativity to worship, pray and connect in the virtual world and also at a distance.

The Spirit is working!

Boston College livestreamed a series of Holy Week liturgies, from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. The Easter Sunday Mass, with celebrant William P. Leahy, S.J., president of Boston College, has been viewed over 80,000 times on YouTube.

Father John Tuohey poses in St. Charles Borromeo Church, Pittsfield, where parishioners sent in their photos so they could be “present” for Easter Mass.

Photo: iObserve photos/courtesy of St. Charles Parish

Brian and Katie Rutter watch a Mass that their pastor, Father Tom Kovatch, livestreamed from St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Bloomington, Ind. Photo: CNS photo/Katie Rutter

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EUCHARISTIC ADORATION While parishioners couldn’t go to Church for eucharistic adoration, priests, led by grace, began to find new ways to take Adoration to the people. Many parishes are offered opportunities for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, either by placing a monstrance holding the Blessed Sacra-

ment in a window and allowing the faithful to pray from their cars, by live-streaming eucharistic holy hours. Other parishes held processions in the streets and priests offered blessing from the sky. The Blessed Sacrament was with the people, to pray for protection, comfort and healing.

Father Dan Leary of St. Andrew Apostle Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland, led prayers for eucharistic adoration March 21, 2020 as parishioners remained in their cars.

Photo: Andrew Biraj/ Catholic Standard

Father Jay Mello held a monstrance and prayed while a plane flew over the diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts ŠOur Sunday Visitor Publishing.

1-800-348-2440. Used by permission. No other use of this material is authorized. To subscribe visit www.osvnews.com.

While most people are confined to their homes because of the coronavirus pandemic, they had the opportunity to see Jesus as Father Champagne led a Eucharistic Procession through town, praying the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, reading Sacred Scripture.

Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Lafayette.

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RECONCILIATION “If you can’t go to confession, take your sorrow directly to God,” said Pope Francis. However, the Holy See offered these guiding instructions for hearing confessions during the pandemic: “The diocesan bishop is to indicate to priests and penitents the prudent attentions to be adopted in the individual celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation. These should include assuring that proper

precautions are made in terms of appropriate distancing, that it occurs in a well-ventilated area, such as outside the confessional, the use of protective masks, and while always assuring protection of the seal of confession.” In turn, priests offered creative solutions to this challenge, and parishioners took advantage of drive-thru confessions and outdoor confessions.

Father Scott Holmer, of St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church, makes the sign of the cross while holding confession in the church parking lot, on March 20, 2020, in Bowie, Md. Holmer, who sits six feet away from those in cars, holds drive thru confessions daily in the parking lot.

Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images

A man who asked to remain anonymous kneels and prays before offering his confession Sunday to the Rev. Paul Marquis in a makeshift outdoor confessional adjacent to the parking lot of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Yarmouth.

Photo: Ben McCanna/ Press Herald.

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TOGETHER IN PRAYER The Catholic imagination is alive and at work, creating new opportunities to foster community at a time when many people feel alone, scared and confused. Virtual re-

treats, artistic expressions of the rosary and virtual faith sharing conversation groups were just a few ways people felt connected, finding hope beyond despair.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley offered a six-part Virtual Lenten Retreat as a way to spiritually feed, comfort us, and offer hope. This opportunity was a way to enter more deeply into Lent and grow in faith.

Photo courtesy of the Archdiocese of Boston.

Kathleen Leddy and Sally Rico, staff members at St. Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church, worked with a parish family, the Ayoubs, to honor the Blessed Virgin for Mother’s Day by creating an outdoor rosary for parishioners and neighbors to enjoy.

Photo: Recreational Drone Photographer Rez LaBoy

Hundreds of parishioners participated in virtual Faith Feeds sessions, using themed downloadable guides to have faith conversations.

Visit bc.edu/faithfeeds to learn more.

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The Church in the 21st Century Center Boston College 110 College Road Heffernan House Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467 bc.edu/c21 • church21@bc.edu • 617-552-6845

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