St Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Ripon Wisconsin

The Archbishop has issued a New Catholic Comeback matrix effective May 20, 2021.  The following is what he has “opened” up and is subject to the local health department directives if there are any in the area.  The full document is available at the www.archmil.org   

Effective Immediately!

Sunday and Daily Mass/Wearing of Face Masks - “No restrictions except where local orders remain in effect. Make accommodations for people who want to continue social distancing and/or wearing of face coverings.”  The ropes will be removed and we ask everyone to respect those who continue to wear masks and want to social distance.  An usher will no longer dismiss you from the pews at the end of Mass but again we ask that you respect others who want to continue to social distance.  . The CDC recommendation is that those who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear masks but those not fully vaccinated are expected to continue to wear masks indoors   Fr. Davies and myself are fully vaccinated and Esther will be soon.

Reception of Communion  -  We are to maintain reception of Communion under one species. Reception of Communion is recommended in the hand only,  as alternating distribution between hand and tongue is not allowed.

Hand Sanitizer  -  Hand Sanitizer will still be available in the church for everyone’s use as they wish.

Holy Water Fonts  -   We can start using them but at this time we are waiting for the touchless ones we ordered which should be here by the end of this month.  We will get them installed as soon as possible and holy water will be available as you enter the church.   There is Holy Water in the receptacle in the back of the church for you to fill your small bottles as needed.

Cleaning/Disinfecting  -  High touch area’s need to be cleaned if the area is going to be used within 72 hours, so the church will need to wiped down after 4 pm Mass doing the high touch areas.

Parish Events, which would include Festivals, Funeral dinners, parish picnics etc.   - We can have them we just cannot have self-serve food options.  Food needs to be plated and those plating need to use gloves.  So Octoberfest has been tentatively scheduled for October 17^th with Tuba Dan.

We have gone through many changes this past year, and I thank everyone who stepped up to follow the guidelines and implement them.  We thank the Archbishop for taking the lead in helping us maneuver these past 14 months.  Many things we have implemented will remain.  Live Streaming will continue but we need some volunteers so let me know if you can help.  We will train!

Thank you again!

Diane