Now that the Province of Manitoba is allowing 50 persons to assemble indoors, it no longer seems necessary for me to send out invitations to persons assigned to the Saturday 5pm mass—in pre-COVID times we never had nearly that many come Saturday nights. Feel free to come every week.
Sunday morning 9:30am Mass will still be by invitation. Let’s pray that the Province raises the cap to 80.
I would discourage jumping between Masses; if you have signed up for Saturday night, come Saturday nights, and if you have signed up for Sunday morning, come Sunday mornings. Otherwise our ability to keep track of congregation size will become overly complicated. Thanks!
The Archdiocese of Winnipeg issued yesterday evening new protocols for the celebration of public Masses. They are effective “immediately”, though also only once each parish is able to comply. I aim therefore to resume public Masses in Ste Rose Tuesday June 2nd.
The protocols around social-distancing and sanitization are fairly strict, and numbers are limited at present to 25. It will take some time to come up with an implementation strategy. So, more details next week.
If you wish to read the new protocols, they are available here.
John Acosta at the Archdiocese asks us to promote a free online conference by the Chastity Project, Friday May 22 through May 24th. You can register here.
Christian Martinez, who edits the On the Way magazine for the Archdiocese, has sent out a general request for stories and anecdotes from Catholics in the Winnipeg Archdiocese about their experiences this covid-struck spring. He plans to publish some number of them in the summer issue of On the Way (which will come as a digital magazine this time around).
If you have a story or anecdote to share, please sent it to sterosedelima@outlook.com. No guarantee that it will make it into the magazine, but I’ll send it along.
Following the directives of the Manitoba government, the bishops of Manitoba have now extended the suspension of public Masses until June 1st. The celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation, which had been set in the Archdiocese of Winnipeg for Pentecost Sunday, May 31st, will be pushed back to a later date.
From the Archbishop:
The month of May has, by long tradition, been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, in a special way, to the praying of the Rosary. Earlier this week Pope Francis addressed the attached letter to all the faithful encouraging us to pray the Rosary. In the letter Pope Francis underlines that the current restrictions of social distancing could help us appreciate the spiritual importance of praying the Rosary together within the family. The Holy Father encourages "everyone to rediscover the beauty of praying the Rosary at home in the month of May. This can be done either as a group or individually: you can decide according to your own situations, making the most of both opportunities.”
In addition to encouraging all of us to pray the Rosary the Holy Father included two prayers to Our Lady that we can recite at the end of the Rosary. The first prayer is to the Protectress of the Roman People and the second prayer is especially appropriate during this time of COViD19.
I would ask all Pastors and Administrators to make this letter of Pope Francis known to your parishioners, encouraging them to pray the Rosary during the month of May.
The letter from Pope Francis with the 2 Rosary prayers is attached here. If you wish to print it, print it as a “booklet” flipped “short-side”.