Andrea and Pete Barrett held hands as they walked into St. Casimir Church in St. Paul May 31 for the first time in more than two months, and their hands remained clasped throughout the Mass.

“I’m so deeply grateful to be able to be here and to receive Christ in the Eucharist,” said Andrea, 53. “I have missed that so much.”

They and their three youngest children, Matthew, Max and Maria, were among a larger congregation allowed at public Masses in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for the first weekend since public Masses were suspended March 18. For now, attendance is capped at 25 percent capacity to continue helping stem the tide of the novel coronavirus.

Andrea said she had been attending Mass daily online, but that was not the same.

“Each time we come to the spiritual communion, I just had this… heaviness and sadness of not being able to receive him (Jesus) sacramentally,” she said. “And to finally be able to do that means everything, it really does, because he’s the center of everything.”

Similar scenes played out in parishes across the archdiocese, including St. Albert the Great in Minneapolis and St. Michael in Stillwater. At St. Albert, Mass was held against a backdrop of destruction due to rioting, arson and looting in its neighborhood as people reacted to the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American, as he was pinned to the ground by Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer who is white and has been fired and charged with third-degree murder. The church campus is mere blocks from the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct building, which demonstrators burned May 27.

In his homily for the May 30-31 weekend, Father Joe Gillespie, the Dominican pastor of St. Albert, focused on the theme “welcome home.” As Father Gillespie talked with parishioners after the Saturday evening Mass, helicopters whirled overhead. But he said it was good to look out and see people in the pews again, after celebrating Mass before a camera each week since March.

To stay under 25% church capacity, St. Albert assigned people by last name to one of its three weekend Masses. On Saturday night, 11 people attended the parish’s first public Mass following the lifting of the state’s stay-at-home order. It was small, but that didn’t bother Father Gillespie.

“I kept thinking of the parallel with early Christian communities, where Mass was celebrated with maybe no more than 20 people, 30 people, maybe at someone’s home,” he said. “So that homecoming feeling would be what I was seeking.”

After Mass, parishioners Karen Bohaty, 69, and Mary Daugherty, 61, chatted with each other from across the street. “It was awesome” to be back, Daugherty said.

“To be here,” was important, she said. “Father Joe has been surrounded by tear gas for the past three nights and smoke. And be able to come and see that it’s OK,” she said.

“It’s nice to be back,” Bohaty agreed.

Some parishes celebrated public Masses when they first became possible May 18 with up to 10 people in a church. But St. Michael in Stillwater wasn’t one of those churches.

In fact, parishioners had not worshipped in the church since December because of a renovation project. Until public Masses were suspended, they attended Mass at the parish social hall or nearby St. Mary’s a few blocks away.

So when the doors opened May 27, parishioners not only enjoyed the resumption of public Mass, they were able to see the inside of their beautifully renovated church.

One element is a new painting representing the Holy Spirit on the sanctuary’s domed ceiling, which replaced a plain surface. Resuming public Mass with broadened participation just before Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church, wasn’t lost on the parish pastor, Father Michael Izen.

“The fruits and the gifts of the Spirit struck me as I was praying with these readings (for Pentecost, May 31) that … we obviously need peace, whether it’s peace from the virus or peace from violence,” he said.

Parishioners were chomping at the bit to get back to Mass, Father Izen said. Attendance has been strong, although it has not approached the 25 percent limit.

Parishioner Annie Berthiaume, 35, said she has seen her older children’s longing to attend Mass in person. For one, her 8-year-old daughter has been waiting to make her first Communion. “I had mixed feelings when I saw (how they felt) but, honestly, seeing that longing in my children is a gift,” she said. Berthiaume and her husband, David, have six children, ages 12 to nine months.

Before the restrictions, Berthiaume attended Mass every Sunday and most weekdays. She is grateful that even when public Mass was suspended, she never felt separated from God. “I felt my relationship with him remained the whole time, but what I noticed most is that Mass is such a ‘real event’ that you can’t replicate it. I miss this encounter I have with him. There’s absolutely no substitute for it.”

Berthiaume also said she is grateful to Archbishop Bernard Hebda and others who worked with Gov. Tim Walz to broaden access to public Mass, and for those involved in developing protocols and guidelines to safely re-open churches.

The opportunity to again worship God with his community was beautiful and a blessing, said Jon O’Malley, 44.

St. Michael staff did a good job using the means they had to keep parishioners connected the past few months, he said, including use of Flocknote. “But there’s nothing that can take the place of the communal aspect of the church in coming together. Like Father said in his homily, there’s an aspect to the Eucharist that you can’t get virtually.”

O’Malley added that, “You come to appreciate the richness of the saying, ‘You don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it.’”

Parishioner Tom Hooley, 57, returned to the renovated church May 28, for his son-in-law’s confirmation. “That was very powerful,” he said, “and kind of a return to normalcy a little bit. It was different but it was one more thing that’s back to goodness.”

FREEDOM TO WORSHIP

A May 23 executive order from Gov. Tim Walz permitted faith-based gatherings at 25% church capacity, with a total limit of 250 people, beginning May 27. That order was broadened slightly June 5, effective June 10, to 50 percent capacity, but retained the 250-person cap.

The May 23 order followed two days of meetings with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and other faith leaders, after Minnesota Catholic bishops announced May 20 that they planned to move forward with Masses at 30% capacity, despite the governor’s limitations at that time of public worship to 10 people indoors or outdoors because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bishops found the May 23 guidance reasonable and modified their plans to align with it.

“Out of the discussion, we certainly always recognize legitimate authority and reasonable regulation, and while recognizing that it’s our responsibility to determine how it is that we regulate the liturgy, we think that’s a very reasonable regulation given the state of COVID-19 in our state,” Archbishop Hebda told The Catholic Spirit.

In a May 23 letter to the faithful stating that the bishops welcomed the new executive order, Archbishop Hebda emphasized that resuming public worship is optional, and parishes should not reopen for worship unless they feel comfortable doing so, and are ready to meet safety and public distancing guidelines.

To resume public worship, parishes must adhere to strict health and safety procedures, including social distancing, he said.

“We know that Governor Walz and his administration are trusting that when faith communities gather, they will do so consistent with public health guidance. Our commitment as Catholics to the common good makes it natural for us to pledge to be good citizens when we gather for worship,” he said. He also released his message via video.

Prior to the May 23 executive order, the bishops, along with a group of Lutheran churches, had planned to resume public worship beyond the 10-person limit because they believed they could do it safely within the health parameters outlined by the state, but under which some other aspects of public life, such as restaurants and malls, had been given greater flexibility.

Prior to the end of Walz’s stay-at-home order, they tried twice to get feedback from the Walz Administration on the plan, but with no concrete timeline for the capacity expansion of faith-based gatherings under another executive order Walz announced May 13, the bishops announced they would move ahead without waiting for the governor.

Walz’s announcement of the May 23 executive order followed President Donald Trump’s May 22 announcement that he is deeming houses of worship “essential” and calling for governors to lift restrictions on worship.

In a May 22 interview, Archbishop Hebda said he didn’t see the Minnesota bishops’ plan as an act of defiance of the law, but rather an assertion of the rights given to them by the law. The decision should not be interpreted as a sign of disrespect for the governor’s authority, he said.

“We obviously have a great respect for legitimate authority, and there is a moral obligation to obey the just law,” he said. “Here the question is, where is the defiance? We are blessed to live in a country that guarantees the free exercise of religion. Because my perception … is that perhaps those rights weren’t considered in the drafting of the executive order.”

At a press conference announcing the new order May 23, Walz said he aimed to find a balance between Minnesota’s economic interests, freedom to worship and keeping Minnesotans safe. He acknowledged that for many Minnesotans, not being able to gather with their faith communities has been difficult, and that worship has a special role in helping people cope with the pandemic. But, he was adamant that Minnesotans take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“I want to be clear to Minnesotans: The worst has not yet past in terms of infections and infection rate, and we’re learning more every day,” he said. “We are our brother’s keeper in this case, to making sure that what we do is going to have an impact on greater Minnesota.”

 – Maria Wiering