May 22 Message from our pastor:

Public Mass to Re-open - Archbishop Jackels has announced that the public celebration of the Mass and sacraments in parishes of the Archdiocese of Dubuque can begin the weekend of May 30-31^st. He repeated again that Catholics of the archdiocese are not required to return to Sunday Mass and holy days since the obligation remains dispensed until further notice. That could be until a vaccine is available.
People in the following circumstances are in fact urged to stay home and away from Mass:
If you…
·       Are sick, or have recently been sick, or have an underlying medical condition
·       Are frail due to advanced age
·       Are nervous about contracting COVID-19
·       Live with and/or care for someone sick, elderly, at risk, or with COVID-19
·       Work at or regularly visit hospitals or care facilities where there are COVID-19 cases

Live-Stream from Epiphany Continues - Until the obligation to attend Sunday Mass is reinstated by our archbishop, our area live-stream from Epiphany will continue.

Mass at Sacred Heart – We hope to offer a reopening Mass the weekend of May 30-31^st as public Masses re-open in the archdiocese and our parish. If we have adequate parishioners to help welcome and seat people, we will have our Saturday, May 30^th Mass at 5:30 p.m. .
Please know and understand that the requirements for health and safety will introduce many changes.
Social distancing requirements alone will only allow for less than 18 households to attend each Mass at Sacred Heart, Manly.


What Do I Need to Bring to Mass? The Archdiocese of Dubuque and this includes our parish, as well as current health requirements give us direction:
Bring the following with you to Mass…
·         Facemasks to be worn from your arrival outside church until you return to your car. Any one of 1^st communion age or older must wear a facemask. Infants and children under the age of two should not wear masks since they are not capable of removing them. For children ages two until 1^st communion age, masks are encouraged but not required. So for the rest of us (priest included) we must require wearing a facemask.
·         Personal bottle of hand sanitizer for use before receiving communion. Note that sanitizer will be available at the door as you arrive, but you will need this before receiving communion during Mass.
Two things, that’s it. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. It is also charitable of you for others. We welcome you and others back to Mass! We all contribute towards the safety of others by following these policies. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!

Enter the Church by the Side Entrance (Yes, the one by the lift!) - We need you to enter by the side entrance. Sorry, but for the present you cannot enter the church for Mass by any of the other doors. Each family unit will be directed to the available seats. Once we reach capacity, we are sorry but we cannot admit more. We'll see how long this works without turning people away. Future alternatives include moving our weekday Mass to an evening time to make a Mass time more available to those who work and/or establishing a reservation system. 

Your Help Is Very Needed! – Re-opening Mass to our parish means lots of changes. The most obvious and biggest challenge for us will be having an adequate number of parishioners to serve as hospitality ministers and ushers. We will need FOUR or more people at each Saturday Mass for this role alone. More help can make this process go faster. Maybe in time we will not need as many, but for the foreseeable future, we will! Can you help us? Your role would be to help in greeting people as they arrive for Mass and guiding them through our new seating process as we maintain necessary distancing and helping with the necessary dismissing of people to maintain the necessary distancing. We need your help beginning 30 minutes before Mass (and likely a short time after). In addition, the general criteria for attending Mass apply for those in this helping role. You should not help in this role:
If you…
·       Are sick, or have recently been sick, or have an underlying medical condition
·       Are frail due to advanced age
·       Are nervous about contracting COVID-19
·       Live with and/or care for someone sick, elderly, at risk, or with COVID-19
·       Work at or regularly visit hospitals or care facilities where there are COVID-19 cases
These are the basic guidelines we must work with to assure the health and safety of our parishioners at Mass. We will help prepare and train you. Please contact Mike Romig if you can help. 

Will Space Be Limited at Saturday Mass? Unfortunately, it will be limited. The health and safety of those coming to Mass is our biggest concern at this time. We are obligated to follow social distancing requirements. That means that at Sacred Heart we can only provide seating for less than 18 household units. That means that people who live together can be seated together, but anyone from another household will be seated 6 feet away. Some households such as a single widowed person may be as small as one person. Families where everyone lives together may be 5 or 7 people in a household.
Shortly before each Mass, hospitality ministers and ushers will seat households one by one until the available spaces are filled. Then unfortunately, we cannot seat any further households at that Mass. The hard part is that then, we would have to turn people away.
There are a couple of fortunate things though. First, many parishes throughout the country have had low numbers of people returning initially. People need to feel that they are safe. Second, remember that Catholics remain exempted from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for the present so it is okay and no sin in staying away.

Is All of This Really Necessary? Yes, it is. Social distancing seating, the use of facemasks, sanitizing hands, keeping distance when talking with others or waiting in line, communion only in the hand and sanitizing and cleaning surfaces are civil and/or church requirements. If we cannot do this, we would not have Mass at all. It is a mistake to judge all this in terms of one’s freedoms or HAVING to do something. In fact, that approach is at best self-serving and at its worst, kind of childish.

We have the opportunity to return to Mass. That is great news! If that means anything to us, we should be willing to do all these things and even more. Don’t forget this is also about charity. We take care of others when they realize we make every sacrifice of this for them and their health and well-being. I am so looking forward to celebrating Mass with you again!

- Father Neil