DETROIT – The reopening of these parishes is something that members have been looking forward to since being told they couldn’t worship together because of the pandemic. Even though that’s about to change, safety is still the number one priority.
“It’s been two months. It’s been a long time coming for people to come back to the church,” said Parish Msgr. Gary Smetanka.
Usually the doors to the lord’s house are open. Yet through the pandemic some church-goers have been yearning for the holy spirit.
“We know a lot of polls have said that people during this time the last two months, faith has increased. We think that may be God is calling them again to maybe change their life,” added Msgr. Smetanka.
Smetanka is thankful we’ve made it to that at last. At least at Our Lady Star of The Sea and all the other parishes that fall under the Archdiocese of Detroit. But everything will be different in a sense.
“They’re invited to come back and the Archdiocese of Detroit churches will be limiting to 25% of occupancy or lower,” said Msgr. Smetanka.
“The faith is very strong. And some of the very senior citizens, and they’re the ones who have been perhaps missing going to church. Yet we’re encouraging them to stay home, especially if they have additional health conditions. If we see anybody having unusual amount of coughing, probably ask them to consider for the safety of everybody else to think about staying home next time.”
Of course, this is all depending on what happens if and when a vaccine is found. If that does happen, they’ll work to increase gatherings higher than 25% of the maximum capacity.
The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Michigan has risen to 51,915 as of Monday, including 4,915 deaths, state officials report.