I’ve spoken in homilies about my great uncle Frank and great aunt Martha who lived three doors up from me as I was growing up. Uncle Frank was my father’s uncle, Auntie Martha my mother’s aunt. Everyone is related. Their oldest grandson died this past week—David. Dave and I went to St. Florian’s together. We are the same age—I the oldest son of my father who was the oldest son of his father, Dave the oldest son of his father who was the oldest son of his father. Strange parallel in our lives. When I went to the seminary Dave joined the Army. When he got out he married Bev. They had two sons, Jared and Justin. Dave was diagnosed with cancer at the same time my mother died. These past few months Dave has been at home. Unfortunately none of his five siblings could visit him. His sister called to tell me of his death. Dave was one of the kindest, gentlest men I’ve ever known. And, he had a strong faith. Not a goofy oppressive faith, but a faith which brought him to church every Sunday with a smile on his face. He was a good man who made the world a better place. The hard part for me? He died with a full head of hair a fact he pointed out to me whenever we met.
This week I think we developed a plan to begin having public masses again. A letter will go out to all parishioners the second week of June explaining the process. No one has to attend Mass. Everyone is dispensed until there is a vaccine. Individuals over 60 and certainly over 65 are strongly encouraged to not attend. To begin with we will have one Mass a week, on Saturdays at 4. We will see how that goes. We are hoping to start public masses in July. We can take up to 100 people but of course everyone will have to wear masks. You can only sit with people with whom you live and no one is allowed to visit with anyone. Kind of sad. We’re opting to have a Saturday evening Mass so it can be put up on the web and people can watch Sunday morning. The guidance coming from the health department remains that the only safe way for churches to operate is digitally. Funerals remain restricted to 9 people plus the officiant.
This morning on our walk the mayor and I spoke about the cancellation of Prescott Daze and the consequent cancelling of St. Joe’s Fall Festival. The people who work hard with Carol Mercord to pull that off have some alternative plans. They will be getting those out to the parish soon. The fall festival brings in close to $30,000 a year and we really cannot afford to lose that income. We have teacher’s salaries to pay. By the way, the teachers are on a twelve month contract. We have about a $50,000 a month payroll which includes benefits and taxes. So, I do hope all of our parishioners are continuing their weekly or monthly contributions.
It’s been gloomy this week. Yesterday the mayor and walked in the rain and got soaking wet. As the mayor likes to remind me, “You’re not sweet George, you won’t melt.” And I didn’t.
Please tune into our mass this week. G