My dear parishioners of Our Lady of Fatima Church,

After further investigation, we will have to limit our Masses to about 60 congregants (give or take) to observe the necessary 6-feet of social distancing required by our authorities.  I advise you to come early and I apologize if you are turned away because we are already "at capacity."

Please note that I caution high-risk categories of persons, especially young children, against attendance for the time being, firstly, for your own safety, but also to allow other parishioners access to the limited seats.  Again, if you have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus or have any flu symptoms please do not come to Mass.

Hopefully, things will return more to normal soon.  I'll keep you informed going forwards.

Be assured of my prayers for you and your loved ones.

Fr. Paul

My dear parishioners of Our Lady of Fatima Church,

Most of you are probably already aware that we will resume our public Masses on the weekend of May 17th with our normal weekend schedule.  However, we must do so under restrictions placed on us by Bishop Taylor and our state’s civil authorities so let me share with you a couple of things for your consideration and ask your cooperation.

First, we must continue social distancing and Bishop Taylor has directed us to limit our numbers to 25% of our church’s capacity.  So, at Our Lady of Fatima, we will limit the number of congregants for a given Mass to 75 persons, give or take based on some persons sitting compactly together as a family.  I suggest you arrive early, enter through the front doors of the church and cooperate with the ushers who will offer you hand sanitizer and seat you appropriately.  If you have been exposed to COVID-19 or have any symptoms please do not come to Mass; you are dispensed.  I regret that we will have to turn some persons away once we have reached our maximum capacity.

Secondly, all persons 10 years of age or older must wear a mask throughout the Mass and remove it briefly only to receive Holy Communion, which must be received only on the hand - gloves must not be worn while receiving Holy Communion.  (Bishop Taylor recommends that if your not inclined to receive Communion on the hand that you make a Spiritual Communion instead.  He also advises only communicants approach the priest in the Communion lines - no blessings.)  Please bring your own masks if you have them.  We will have only a limited supply on hand to be given to those who do not have their own but we may very well run out of them quickly.

You will undoubtedly notice quickly that we have removed all the missalettes and song books from the pews so Masses will be without music and shorter.  You may bring your own missals with you but leave nothing in the pews afterwards.

The first weekend will be telling as to how things will proceed in our parish, and, based on how it goes, I will be willing to consider other alternatives, e.g., offering Sunday Masses on weekday mornings, offering an extra Spanish Mass on Saturday evening, etc.  We’ll figure it out as we go along.

Other things to consider:  we must continue social distancing at the end of Mass so the ushers may dismiss you pew by pew and ask you to proceed directly to your vehicles.  Our restrooms will be limited to one person at at time.  Between Masses we must do our best to sanitize the church - we could use volunteers after Mass to help with cleaning and sanitizing.  Finally, Confessions thirty minutes prior to each Mass will be suspended for the time being.

I encourage you to read the full document of the Bishop’s Restrictions and Options for Worship on our parish website or Facebook page or at dolr.org.

We can resume our public Masses with everyone’s patience, understanding, and consideration.  Please contact me or the office staff if you have any concerns or helpful suggestions.

Yours in Christ Jesus, our Risen Lord,
Fr. Paul