Vol. 3, No. 10 Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Please note: Due to potential exposure of an employee at the Pastoral Center,  t he Diocese of Tucson and St. Augustine Cathedral Parish offices are closed until April 1.
 
While our offices are closed, Pastoral Center employees are checking email messages and voice mail hourly. When you call a Pastoral Center employee,  please leave a message with your phone number so your call can be returned. For the general delivery message box, dial 0.
 
Our common mission
I hope everyone has been keeping up to date on the recent public health announcements from federal,  state and local officials to protect as many as possible from the coronavirus.  As you may be aware, our Catholic schools all are closed, and as explained above, so are our diocesan offices. My thanks to our parishes that are following the Level 3 Liturgical Protocols that I issued on Monday (March 16).  Here are the Level 3 directives:
 
Having taken into account recently issued directives from the Centers for Disease Control, as well as recommendations from our Governor and others, and in accord with the role afforded me by Roman Catholic canon law, I hereby issue the following directives.  These directives are motivated by an abundance of care and concern for our people as well as the greater community, and are substantially consistent with the directives of the Diocese of Phoenix and the Diocese of Gallup—all of which have Catholic parishes in the State of Arizona.  Please note that the issue of Catholic school operations has been addressed separately.  A formal statement addressing school issues is on our Diocese of Tucson website, found in the coronavirus section.

As of Monday, 3/16/2020, all parish-based public gatherings are either cancelled or suspended.  These directives are in place for the next three weeks, until April 6, 2020, at which time they will be reviewed and either brought to a close or extended. This effectively puts us a “ Level 3” in our response to the coronavirus challenge and includes, but is not limited to:

• No public Masses after today (3/16/2020).
• The Sunday Mass obligation is dispensed for all Catholic people residing in or visiting the territory of the Diocese of Tucson. Catholics are urged to observe Sunday in accord with our teachings, which may include spending additional time on Sunday in prayer, observing a Catholic Mass via television or internet, or other pious practices.
• Confirmations scheduled during this time period are suspended and will be rescheduled
• There are to be no public Church events or gatherings, such as parish religious education programs, Stations of the Cross, Communion services, Quinceañeras, parish missions, dinners, etc.
• Mass of the Holy Oils, “Chrism Mass,” will be celebrated privately with Holy Oils to be distributed privately to priests.
• Weddings should be restricted to 10 persons, and if Mass is celebrated only the bride and groom, if Catholic, are to receive Holy Communion.
• Funeral Masses should be restricted to 10 persons, and the congregation should not receive Holy Communion.

I believe these directives, while a hardship and deeply regrettable for us all, are sensible, substantially consistent with directives for the other Catholic dioceses in Arizona, and in line with the spirit of public health directives.

On a separate topic, local parish leadership is to make final decisions on parish offices remaining open or closing, in accord with local government directives and diocesan guidelines.  It is my hope that the work of parish employees and ministers may continue in some format and parish offices not close entirely.  Parish offices follow the same employment guidelines as other businesses and our Director of the Office of Human Resources at the Tucson Diocesan Chancery can be of assistance to pastors with questions about parish employment issues.
 
Third week of Lent
I encourage all of to continue to pray for the end of this illness season, and, in place of visiting your parish right now, continue to participate in Mass either online or through television. I am posting videos of Mass on our website homepage at www.diocesetucson.org
 Just click on the link to follow. If you would like to follow daily Masses, you can do so at many online or cable TV sites (see list below).
 - Catholic TV Mass in English and Spanish: https://www.watchthemass.com/ .
- Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception: https://www.nationalshrine.org/mass/
 - Catholic Faith Network:. A listing of Masses with direct links to sites: https://www.catholicfaithnetwork.org/
 
Heart of the Nation
Santa Fe Communications
Online Mass:  https://www.heartofthenation.org/online-mass/sunday-mass#/
 
TV stations
Channel 58.1 : Sundays at 7:30 a.m.
Comcast: Channel 8, 7:30 a.m.
 

A few days ago, I posted a prayer on my Facebook page.  You can find that at Tucson Bishop Edward Weisenburger@diocesetucson.org

 
The USCCB also is providing a printable prayer card with a prayer to our Lady of Guadalupe at