Good afternoon and happy Wednesday!
Out of an abundance of caution, Fr. Jerry is self-quarantining until he receives the results from a COVID test he had taken yesterday. There was a seminarian who tested positive for COVID-19 who attended the seminarian retreat held at Sacred Heart last Wednesday that Father Jerry had direct contact with. He currently is asymptomatic and hoping for the best outcome but chose to self-quarantine for the safety of all of us. Additionally, Fr. Canisius left yesterday for Cameroon to bury his father and connect with family and will be out of the country until the end of August. Therefore, we will have a shortage of clergy presence at Sacred Heart for a short time and will continue to celebrate sacraments the best we can manage. In the meantime, we are cancelling the 8 AM Daily Mass on Saturday, July 25th and Confessions in English from 3-4 PM on Saturday, July 25th. We offer tremendous thanks to Fr. Jim Proffitt, Fr. Steven Roth, and Fr. Maurice Akwa for filling the gaps this week and we thank you all for your understanding as we work through this unexpected situation.
In addition to keeping all of our clergy in prayer, please keep those coming into the Church on Friday night and those being confirmed on Saturday morning in your prayers.
The lack of a Mass sign up worked well last week and we will continue to skip that step as long as possible. We appreciate the continued willingness of all to follow the instructions of our minister volunteers.