Your Excellencies, Bishops of the US Catholic Church, please reinstate public Masses.

In a sincere acknowledgement of your roll as our shepherds , we, your sheep, humbly acknowledge your efforts to protect and serve us. However, while we recognize the need for protection from worldly illness, we correspondingly appreciate the undeniable and incomparable need for spiritual sustainment in times of malady. It is with this grave understanding that we send this petition.   

In an effort to responsibly recognize the public safety concerns inherent in a viral pandemic, while at the same time recognizing the supremacy or our Lord as the "Good Physician" and the value and merit of the Holy Mass for the spiritual, psychological, and physical well-being of the Christian; we, the lay faithful, believe there is an acceptable path forward allowing the reinstatement of public Mass while mitigating the potential risk to the immediate and greater community. 

Reinstatement of public Masses could be ensured while upholding all compliance with current local and state restrictions. With an increase in the number of Masses and a strict adherence to group size limitations, the lay faithful can ensure lawful compliance. Ticketing or numbering systems may be used to guarantee compliance during every Mass. In all state and local containment protocols, grocery stores remain open with certain restrictions because they are considered essential. This is the very rationale under which Mass should remain accessible. Holy Mass is essential.

Other potential courses of action could include outdoor masses, restricting the distribution of the sacrament, blocking doors open so as to avoid touching handles and other vector surfaces, and initiating an every-other-pew policy. As this virus requires droplet precautions, hand-hygiene and cough cover is the most effective protection, but we could also initiate a terminal clean between Masses to thoroughly disinfect all surfaces.  Mask distribution is another possible precaution to prevent droplets from spreading from their source. 

With courage, resolution, and insight, Pope Gregory the Great continued Masses during the Justinian Plague of the 6th century.  During this COVID-19 pandemic, many Polish Bishops are asking for a greater number of public Masses, not fewer.

Canon 212.2: "The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires." Your Excellencies, we beg you, please reinstate the public Mass. Feed your flock.

May God bless you and keep you safe.

In Obedience, Yours Truly in Christ,

The undersigned