Now that the “stay home” orders have been lifted for the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans, we are resuming public Masses. St Stephen Church will look a bit different from the last time you saw it because we are limited in how many people can attend Mass. What that means is that two-thirds of the pews have been “roped off,” so that you can stay 6 feet away from the persons in the pew in front of and behind you. It will be your responsibility to maintain that same distance from those who are in the same pew as you. We are asking singles to please use the side aisles to allow groups of related people to use the main, larger pews.
To allow the distribution of Holy Communion to be done in a safe manner, we will only have two ministers distributing. One will be in the normal position at the entrance to the sanctuary, and one will be at the break in the pews. Please take your time leaving your seats so as to avoid crowding those in front of you and return down the aisle against the wall and then through the side pews back to your pew.
So as to make sure that we do not get too many people at each Mass, we are using a sign-up system called “Sign Up Genius.” It will allow 100 to sign up at each of the 4:00pm Vigil, 8:00am and 10:30am Sunday Masses at St Stephen Church. It will also allow 100 people to sign-up for the 5:00pm Sunday evening Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church. Here is the link:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040A4FA8AC29ABF49-masses
After going to the page, first click the Mass you want to attend, and then click the blue “Submit and Sign Up” button below. You will be directed to a page to insert your name, but you don’t have to submit any other information. If you know of anyone who doesn’t use the internet, you may sign them up yourself, or ask them to call the office at 899-1378.
For your protection, all of our churches are being thoroughly sanitized between the Masses.
Due to the continuance of the global COVID19 pandemic, the Archbishop continues to dispense all Catholics in our Archdiocese from the obligation to attend Holy Mass, especially those who are most vulnerable. Please do not attend Mass if you have any symptoms of illness, including coughing, shortness of breath or a high temperature. We want to keep everyone safe!
In Christ,
Msgr. Christopher H. Nalty
