Priest friends reading this—I know you mean well, but please do not offer private Masses for groups during this #COVID19 pandemic. I know you want to serve. I know you want to follow in the footsteps of Sts. Aloysius, Damien Molokai, Teresa of Calcutta. To minister to the sick
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I know you are prepared to offer your own life like St. Maximilian Kolbe or Fr. Mychal Judge. I know you are willing to charge towards danger in order to offer the sacraments to the faithful. But please do not defy the orders of bishops/governments to hold gatherings for Mass.
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Because it's not just YOUR life on the line. A pandemic is fundamentally different than ministry to lepers or administering last rites on the battlefield. By celebrating group Mass amid #COVID19, Catholic priests risk the lives of the most vulnerable members of our communities
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Yes, you would be willing to lose your own life, and I admire that. But are you willing to risk the life of the elderly nursing home patient, the immunocompromised child, the migrant farmworker, all those vulnerable populations—i.e. the poor, the widow, the orphan
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Fellow Catholics—please, I beg you, do not attend private Mass gatherings right now. There is no safe way to gather as a group during the #COVID19 pandemic. I know this is challenging. It unites us with the Cross of our Lord whose sacrifice we celebrate this Holy Week.
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Fellow Catholics/Christians—we are called to radical, self-sacrificing solidarity right now with all those around the world who cannot attend church on a regular basis. Refugees fleeing war. Immunocompromised persons. Indigenous peoples living in remote regions of Amazonia.
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This solidarity demands that we put our own desires aside—no matter how virtuous—and focus on using the reason God gave us to follow the guidance of public health experts and be in authentic communion with all our sisters and brothers afflicted by the #COVID19 pandemic.
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