Rozanski (Springfield, MA) has canceled all Masses and parish activities.

Try the Eastern Rite parishes, or if there is an Anglican Use Ordinariate Parish nearby. Neither are part of the Diocese and are run by different bishops.

Over here, schools and public gatherings have been canceled with the exception of Mass and the stations of the cross. I will continue to hold choir practice as long as Mass continues.

@CharlesW, well, there's our Bishop, right on cue.
How incredibly frustrating.

Mass is still on, but he suspended reception on the tongue. We'll see how that goes at Latin Mass next week...

I remember the Trad days before V2 when the Catholic hospital never gave communion on the tongue for health reasons. That's not anything new.

This just in for the Archdiocese of Boston: https://www.bostoncatholic.org/news/march-13-2020-cardinal-authorizes-temporary-suspension-mass-response-covid-19-outbreak

"Until further notice Holy Communion is to be distributed only in the hand. Those who prefer Communion on the tongue must understand that this practice puts the person who ministers Communion, the recipient, and the person behind them in the Communion line, and so ultimately the whole community, at risk." - Diocese of Hamilton

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The Corona Virus Scare is spreading very quickly. Well, there went our Compline series....at least with an audience. I sent this note out a couple hours ago to the 240 addresses on our mailing list:

In response to the Corona Virus Scare, The Episcopal Diocese of Northern California has bade us cancel all church services that include large, closely packed gatherings, like Sunday morning services; Bible studies; Stations of the Cross; Morning Prayer, and Compline due to an abundance of caution.
However, this does not preclude us from recording Compline with no audience and sending it out as an mp3. At the moment this looks like our path. The mp3 recording link may appear on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Trinity-Compline-Choirs-183931914983523/
as we're still workiing out the details. To keep situational awareness, be sure to 'like' our page which will automatically keep you connected to the goings on.
We need the healing balm and unique late night connection with the Almighty that Compline provides now more than ever.
Thanks for your understanding.
Trinity Compline Choir
Voces Angelorum
Illuminare
Renaissance Man
Amalgam

Pray with your hands by doing useful things.

The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is THE most useful thing, followed by prayer. Yes, we must corporal works of mercy, but not without prayer. It’s time stop living like Practical Athiests.

I’ve created a booklet, Hymn and Prayers to Our Lady in Times of Pestilence and Disease. We will be using it after our Mass on Sunday and Inhave distributed it to other priests to use as well. I’ve attached the file below and hope to get it more use.

Medical opinion seems to be that the virus is mostly passed by contact, and airborne transmission is minimal. I can sanitize my hands as I enter the church but after twenty minutes of intermittently touching the pew or seat (on weekdays) or those and the hymnbook for forty minutes (on Sundays) the effect of that cleaning on my hands will be negligible. My tongue on the other hand will be exposed only to some incoming air.
In the OF it would be lawful, I think, for the priest to sanitize his hands after receiving the Sacrament and before distributing communion to the faithful. I conclude that receiving in the hand is much much more hazardous to my health. And I say that as someone who is perfectly happy to accept the norm in any community I regularly visit.

the argument that it's healthier to hand someone something is based on nothing.

This is all above my pay grade and I don't get to make those decisions. I usually don't receive when I am playing because I can't give communion the attention it deserves.

If I cannot receive on the tongue, I will reverently genuflect before the priest holding the host, receive a spiritual communion with head bowed and a simple SOTC, and then stand and return to my pew.

Québec bishops have cancelled all public Sunday Masses and liturgies. Presumably sparsely attended weekday Masses are not affected. The government has banned all assemblies of greater than 250 people.

The abbot of my abbey of oblation has decided to isolate the abbey from the public. All outsiders are not allowed in. A wise move: three monks are in their 90’s, many in their 70’s and 80’s, and several are frail with underlying health problems.

And of course the choir I sing with has cancelled activities until further notice.

Ora

The Archbishop of Boston doesn't legislate for his suffragan bishops in Fall River, Worcester, Springfield, Burlington (VT), Manchester (NH) or Portland (ME). He's just the metropolitan of the province.

Sadly, not from my bishop, who believes RS is outdated:

“This office would like to clearly communicate that a parish cannot ban the reception of Holy Communion on the tongue, nor may an Ordinary or Extraordinary minister refuse a person requesting Holy Communion on the tongue.
[Cf: Redemptionis Sacramentum 92. “Each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue at his choice.”]”

https://d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net/12494/documents/2020/3/Further Considerations March 2020.pdf

Our parish keeps hand sanitizer in key spots so it can be used when needed. Also, the Deacon and priests have access to it before distributing communion. However, all this may be kind of pointless since none of us get to make the decisions as to how communion will be received.

It has just come out that the bishop has dispensed everyone from any obligation to attend tomorrow. Mass will still occur, but no one is required to be there. I'm going anyway even if I have to play for 10 people.

Archdiocese of New York has cancelled Masses for this weekend too.

Kathy,

My province has test 5648 people approximately, with 29 tests coming out positive. That’s 0.5% and people are acting like they’re doomed to catch it if even someone breathes on them despite being told multiple times that it’s prolonged exposure that is a risk.

In re propagation through the air: "The percentage of airborne droplet nuclei generated by singing is 6 times more than that emitted during normal talking and approximately equivalent to that released by coughing." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38808-z

This is why maintaining social distancing is so vital. As CG-Z just said, the CDC wants 6'. Our loft is sadly much too small; you can jam 24 chairs in and maybe stand 30, but it's always cheek-by-jowl. Our rehearsal space is likewise too small to give everyone more than a 2' circle to stand in

So last night we determined that effective immediately, weekday rehearsals must stop, and all singing will be by a rotating schedule of groups of 5-6 singers from within our choirs – 6 plus organist/conductor is the max for the loft, and seems to me to be a good upper limit for widely-spaced untrained voices. We will meet 45 minutes before Mass, prep the psalm, Gospel acclamation, Communion antiphon, and something at the offertory. Tomorrow will be certain of the sopranos; mercifully one of the anthems already planned is based on a hymntune, which appears in the soprano throughout, and the organ can take the rest. Then next week, my chant schola will take Laetare, and Lent V we'll have representatives of the ATBs.

My singers have been very appreciative and supportive of this decision and think it's a good idea. They're the salt-of-the-earth types who would skip their mother's funeral and walk barefoot in a blizzard to church if I told them we should be singing, but they are glad to still be able to sing in a safer way.

This is in addition to usual advice about washing hands, staying away if sick or exposed to a sick person, obligation to hear Mass suspended by our bishop if one is ill or concerned for health, etc.

What really pushed me to worry and make this change was the realization that persons can contract and spread COVID-19 without experiencing any symptoms, and thus the former advice to stay away if feeling badly wouldn't be enough to prevent transmission within the choir.

It was just announced that all county schools are closed. Probably we will see more restrictions from the civil authorities, and who knows what else from the Diocese, so I don't know if this plan will function past tomorrow morning, but for now, everyone is happy, and I can sleep a little bit better.

This and the following 2 Sundays have seen a dispensation, though Mass will continue normally, for the time being, in my diocese.
I was the (a capella) cantor (which includes hymn-leader) at the Vigil, and I could hear a lovely bass voice harmonizing from the pews. Simplicity can really be lovely, no matter the frustration of losing practice time and polyphonic music.

Our early mass this morning was down 35 or so in attendance. Our main mass was off over 100 and the choir was halved. So yes, we did suffer a drop in people. The half choir we had sang beautifully.

This all developed so fast with this virus it makes me wonder if it has been around longer than we have been aware of it.

Some of the Trads have been rather insulting and hateful to the bishop on social media over the no communion on the tongue edict. I wouldn't blame him one bit if he cancelled all Trad masses until this epidemic is over. I mean, yes you can disagree with him, but do it respectfully.

IF (and I have no way of verifying this) it is true that the minister of communion is no more likely to have his (or her) hands contaminated by the tongue of communicants who receive that way than the hands of those who receive that way, what follows?
Those whe receive on the tongue are vulnerable ony to the ministers handling of the host - ONE route. Those who receive in the hand have that infection route PLUS contamination from their own hands and whatever they have picked up since entering the church - a SECOND route.
It would be difficult to characterise this in terms not impugning the common sense of the ecclesistical authorities, so I will refrain from comment. And the premise may be false.

https://wdtprs.com/2020/03/usa-pres-trump-declares-sunday-15-march-to-be-a-national-day-of-prayer/

At the moment we are continuing as usual, a bit depleted today, but I think that was the Filipino families having a special celebration in the next parish. There are no known cases yet in the (very small) country, 24 tests all negative. I mentioned the situation in Singapore to a parishoner who comes from that part of the world, and he told me he his brother was in immediate charge of the response to SARS, which hit them badly. and is now quite senior in their Ministry of Health. After SARS they made sure they had vigorous intervention planned, which includes police tracing all contacts, and a lot of home isolation, as well as hospitalisation and intensive care for those who need it.