Parishes are seeing increased Massgoers

(Above: File photo from March 2020 by Maureen Austin)

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

It’s been nearly a year since the coronavirus pandemic changed the way in which priests celebrate the sacraments and minister to their parishioners. Many priests acknowledge the toll of forced isolation and long hours, both on themselves and their parish families.

But, with COVID-19 cases flattening and effective vaccines beginning to roll out, there is renewed hope that the next six months could see a return to more normal Catholic worship and fellowship experiences, they say.

The Clarion Herald interviewed the deans of the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ 10 deaneries – regional clusters of parishes – to see how they and their fellow priests are doing 11 months after the mid-March 2020 cancellation of in-person Masses, followed in ensuing months by a variety of restrictions on congregational size due to virus spikes.

Here’s a snapshot of coronavirus ministry by deanery:

Josephite Father Henry Davis
Corpus Christi
Cathedral Deanery I
“People don’t want to come to church and have a big celebration for funerals. We’ve been mostly doing graveside. But, as I say that, people are slowly coming back. We have our regulations with masks, and that’s been working. When we visit the sick, we’re bringing people Communion. I visit the sick every other Sunday as well as those who feel they can’t come. Some of our elderly parishioners jump up and down when I come knocking at the door – ‘Oh, my pastor’s coming to see me!’ I bring them the bulletin and the Clarion Herald and give them the Lenten schedule. All of our eucharistic ministers are taking precautions. We’re here to bring them Jesus and give them whatever comfort we can. 

“Every day, attendance seems to go up – we’re about half our normal capacity – but we won’t have 100% back until everybody is more comfortable and gets the vaccine. I told people I got my second shot. 

“In terms of finances, we’ve definitely taken a hit. Some people don’t have jobs. But one of the fortunate things is that we did a stewardship campaign recently and people are in the habit of giving online, and some people are sending their tithes through snail mail. Some even drop off their donations. On the first weekend of the month, we deposited close to $7,000, which is normally about $10,000. We’re off a little bit, but we do have peaks. I even helped a lady, after confession, how to pay by phone! She wanted to pay for candles, and her money was in her phone. They didn’t teach me any of this in the seminary. I’m learning on the fly.

“As far as the rest of the deanery, everybody’s hurting. Our Lady of Guadalupe has been hurt by the Hard Rock Hotel collapse. St. Augustine is like a two-edged sword. They have been getting a little bit of blessing from their building fund, but they get a lot of attendance from tourists, and that’s taken a hit. The cathedral is hurting because they get their attendance from tourists. 

“But I’ll tell you, the people have been very faithful. They’re hurting, too, but they want to pay their tithes. We have had a lot of funerals. We average between 60 and 80 a year. I’ve been busy.  

“We did receive PPP money, and that did help out. We have a little savings, but we’re trying not to hit that too much. We’re not where we should be, but we’re not destitute." 

Dominican Father John Restrepo
St. Dominic
City Park-Gentilly Deanery II
“I’m not sure about the other parishes in the deanery,  but here at St. Dominic we’re down about $2,000 to $3,000 in the collection, but it’s still better than we expected. I thought it would have been a lot worse. What is saving us are the ACH (Automatic Clearing House) direct deposits. We also have parishioners who don’t come to Mass but come by and drop off their envelopes.”

Father Michael Schneller
St. Francis of Assisi
Uptown Deanery III
“We had a deanery meeting on Jan. 20, and as I recall, some parishes in the deanery were experiencing maybe a 20% decrease in collections. That hasn’t been the case here. We’ve had a significant increase in giving online since the pandemic hit. For example, looking at figures for the six-month period from last July to December, we collected a little more than $32,000 in online giving, and right now, we’re over $43,000.

“Our church attendance is good for the times we are in. I would say we might be down about 20%. We’ve had some of our ministers of Communion and our lectors not come back yet. The biggest challenge for us is our Parish School of Religion. We’ve had to do Zoom meetings, and that’s been a real difficulty, especially with teenagers. Our RCIA has just started back meeting in person. I think everyone in the deanery is affected by attendance right now.”

Father Luis Rodriguez
St. Clement of Rome
East Jefferson Deanery IV
“Generally speaking, we’re getting closer and closer to what normal is for us. We still have some restrictions on gatherings. Some groups have not met during all this time. Some of the smaller groups – especially if there are some seniors – don’t want to meet. Slowly, but surely, councils and other ministries that may meet with some regularity have been coming back to life. 

“As for attendance, it’s been very good. Christmas was kind of odd. We had the spike with the virus, and we did not have the large number of people at Mass. I heard from some of the guys that at Christmas there were no ‘out-of-the-door’ experiences. But we do find more people coming back. Weekdays are very much back to normal. For our six Sunday Masses, I’d say we get a nice crowd for three or four of them. We’re not close to normal, but we’re getting there. Probably Sunday Mass attendance is about 70%.

“We’re the largest deanery in the archdiocese with 18 parishes. At our deanery meeting in the fall, only one parish was getting collections that were back to normal or even better. Everyone else was experiencing lower collections. When the pandemic hit, we were working on online giving, and then we decided we’d better do this. Our online giving has been well received. I can’t say that many use it, but we’ve gone from having nothing online to having regular use. And people have still been getting their envelopes here.

“What is out of whack is the number of young people – even devout, regular attendees – who have not been back to church, but then you might see them in crowded places like Sam’s or Costco. All this while some seniors have been back in church for months, and some of them are not the healthiest. I think it’s going to help when the archbishop lifts the dispensation for attending Mass.”

Father Stephen Dardis
Holy Family, Luling
St. John-St. Charles Deanery V
“All in all, it’s obvious people are struggling in a lot of ways. The biggest concern for me, and from what I see from other people, is that people are scared but they are also divided. We’re not immune to the polarizing effect of every issue that comes up lately, and COVID is no exception. We’re trying to appeal to both sides of the spectrum. We’re doing a lot of social-distancing events. We’ve been doing adoration nights for men and women, with about 100 people in the church on a Sunday. On a regular Sunday Mass, we might have gotten 300 or 400. On a good Sunday now, it’s probably about 200. 

“As for collections, honestly, people have stepped up, especially with the online giving. Before COVID, we promoted online giving, and it’s taken off. Collections are maybe a little less than normal, but what’s really hurting are the big fundraising activities. Those kinds of things are not happening. But we’re blessed to have a lot of people helping with our Facebook page, and we’ve sent a few mass mailings to all parishioners with an image of the Divine Mercy. We’ve also done about four robocalls.

“Other parishes in the deanery are saying pretty much the same message. Everyone was hit hard early on, but people are coming back. Some of the people who weren’t able to give their regular envelopes, those same envelopes came together in June and July. People do love the church.”

Father Buddy Noel
Our Lady of Prompt Succor/Holy Guardian Angels
West Bank Deanery VI
“At Holy Guardian Angels and Our Lady of Prompt Succor, we are bouncing back. Our collections are reasonably back to normal, probably about 75%. And we haven’t had to cancel any Masses. Our adult faith formation and all of our religious education are back. I guess we all are just a little reluctant to have too many large gatherings. We’re still hoping to be able to do more of that as the virus comes down and stays down with the help of the vaccine. I keep hearing a lot of comments about the vaccine. I have mentioned in the Prayer of the Faithful: ‘We give thanks to God for the scientists who have the God-given wisdom to produce such a thing in such an unbelievably short time and get it into arms.’

“We will still have Stations and Benediction and a couple of Lenten presentations in the church. We haven’t done a lot of Zoom sessions because a good number of our parishioners are just not that tech savvy. In lieu of that, we’ve had a very active ministry outreach.

“I get the general sense that there’s a little frustration. Most of our parishes are getting by, but maybe not as well as we would have hoped. I definitely am starting to see a few more faces. We have a smaller number of catechumens this year, four or five, but people have come. That’s four or five that we didn’t have before. When you’re initiating people into the church, that’s exciting.”

Father Eugene Jacques
Holy Name of Mary
Algiers-Plaquemines Deanery VII
“We’re blessed to have a huge church, so nobody has felt packed in. I would say we’re about 80% of where we were before COVID, and the collection is at 80% or even better. People have been very faithful. Even when they didn’t come to Mass, they’ve been mailing it in. What hasn’t happened have been the Scripture classes and the little kids’ meetings. CCD has become home-schooled, but maybe that’s good for the parents to have the responsibility to teach the kids. The KC is having fish fries – take-out only. 

“This is a very small deanery. St. Patrick in Port Sulphur is tiny to start with. If we have daily Mass and 15 used to come and now there are eight, you can still have Mass. But if you had five and now there’s two, it can be a lonely place. And the guys who have schools are always worried that if one kid gets sick, you have to shut down the class.

“One thing I have had to let go right now is greeting people after Mass. I come into Mass from the back and leave from the back. I think there’s a concern about people wanting to grab your hand and a lot of people take off their masks outside. So, some things are lost social-wise.

“When things got worse three months ago, we lost some people. Now we’re starting to see a few more come back. I think it will really help when the teachers get their vaccines.”

Father Marlon Mangubat
Our Lady of Prompt Succor
St. Bernard Deanery VIII
“I just had COVID, and I’m recovering from pneumonia. I’m feeling OK except for my oxygen saturation levels. I was diagnosed on Jan. 16 and spent three days in the hospital. I had no loss of taste or smell – just fever. The quarantine was bad for me. Instead of losing weight, I gained weight!

“We’ve had a slight dip in weekly collections – maybe about 8% – but we have many generous donors.

“Judging from our last deanery meeting, almost everybody had a slight decrease in collections, and, of course, we’ve had to cancel or postpone fundraisers. I think most of the parishes have seen about 70 to 80% of their parishioners coming back to church, but many people are still hesitant about taking the vaccine. Because I had COVID, I have to wait three months before I can get the vaccine.”

Benedictine Father Charles Benoit
St. Benedict
West St. Tammany-Washington Deanery IX
“I caught coronavirus the week after New Year, but I’ve recovered. My fever never got over 99.6. I lost my sense of smell and had a really bad cough and was tired, but I’ve been pretty much up and about for two weeks.

“St. Benedict has been doing very well. We had gotten back up to 65-68% Mass attendance compared to a year ago, but then after the Christmas spike, we jumped down to 45-50%. The past week we were at 60%. At our December deanery meeting, the deanery was close to 60-65% Mass attendance from our pre-COVID numbers.

“As for collections, I did an analysis of the first six months of last fiscal year – July 1 to Dec. 31, 2019 – compared to the first six months of this fiscal year (2020), and we have a 12.5% increase in collections. What I’ve heard is that those parishes that have gone above and beyond taking care of their parishioners and social distancing have done well.

“Msgr. (Frank) Giroir at St. Anselm (and his associate Father Pedro Prada) are doing eight Masses a weekend – four in the new church and four in the old church and social distancing, and his collections have been pretty good. Some of the things that have been affected are the extra fundraisers he does. My understanding is St. John the Baptist in Folsom is not having Mass in the church, which is small, but they’re using their church hall, and their numbers are pretty good. I think the people are responding when the parish has been doing social distancing.

“About 15% of our people are giving online, and a lot of people mail or drop off checks. They’ll even write me a note about something I said in my homily when they watched online.

“I’m not sure what will happen (after the dispensation is lifted). I’ll be honest, one of the concerns of the priests is that people have gotten maybe too comfortable. In my case, a lot of people are starting to come back, maybe not every week, but we’re starting to see different faces again.”

Father Wayne Paysse
Our Lady of Lourdes
East St. Tammany-Washington Deanery X
“I’m very pleased, and the people have adjusted for the most part. There are some who have more challenges and concerns, which is understandable. I always try to see the glass as half full. Overall, people are starting to come back to Mass. I understand that everyone has to live in their own skin.

“I’ve been very impressed that people continue to be generous with their offerings, either through the mail or through electronic giving. Sometimes we will collect in a weekend anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000 in electronic giving. We need about $24,000 a week, and we’re off around $5,000, depending on the week. This past week, we were only short about $1,000 to meet our goals. So, people have been very generous.

“This has caused us to really engage in social media. Every week, we send out an e-blast to all the parishioners we have email addresses for. We give them a synopsis of the week and announcements, and we attach the bulletin electronically. People are grateful to be informed and connected to the parish. We also started using Flock Note to send out texts. And, I always remind people at Mass to pick up the bulletin and the Clarion Herald on the way out.

“As for attendance, I think we are about one-third down. But when we have a Sunday Mass that is tied to one of our grades in the school, we get a lot more people.

“I get the feeling from other pastors in the deanery that they are just happy people are still coming to Mass. In the beginning, when we stopped Mass completely, people were telling us they really needed to receive the Eucharist. In a way, as horrible as this has been, it’s been a teachable moment and a time for us to reflect on the significant fact that the Eucharist truly is the center of our lives and the center of our faith.”

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