Health Alerts

Archbishop Plans Eucharistic Processions to Cathedral for Outdoor Masses September 20

On Sunday, September 13, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone sent a memorandum to priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The memorandum is titled "Reopening for public Masses, Part 8." The memorandum begins, "By now you are probably aware that after months of restricting the Mass to twelve people outdoors in the City and County of San Francisco, Mayor London Breed has indicated that, effective tomorrow, she is going to ease some restrictions and in the more distant future possibly make other adjustments. There are three problems with her public announcements that I see...."  The Archbishop goes on to lay out in detail why the revised regulations are as defective as the prior ones:  "Regulations . . . cannot be so restrictive as to effectively ban public worship."  "The numbers are totally arbitrary." "Believers are being singled out for uniquely punitive treatment."  He goes on to share plans for Eucharistic processions on Sunday, September 20, in San Francisco that will walk from local parish churches to U.N. Plaza; from there the groups will process up to St. Mary's Cathedral to celebrate multiple Masses outdoors.

Read the entire text of his Memorandum of September 13 in PDF format.

 

Response to Comments by the Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Most Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone
September 19, 2020

Reference: “Pelosi to church: 'Follow science' on COVID-19 restrictions” by Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press, September 18, 2020 http://bit.ly/APPelosiStory

For the science I refer you to this public letter (https://bit.ly/ResponseToPelosi) signed by three prominent infectious disease specialists (including the former head of infectious diseases at Brown University’s medical school). Our safety protocols work.

There is no science that says only one person should be allowed to pray in churches such as the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, which seats 2,500 people. There’s only one explanation for such a rule: a dislike of the Catholic Church. 

The DeYoung Art Museum and other museums are being allowed by Mayor London Breed to open at 25 percent capacity: Why won’t the City and County of San Francisco treat Catholics—at a minimum--the same?

Here’s what I would say to City Hall: You aren’t hurting me. I celebrate the Mass every day. You are hurting hundreds of thousands of Catholics being denied the consolation of the sacraments in a time of great troubles. 

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PDF Download

Archbishop Cordileone Calls on San Francisco to Lift Unfair Restrictions on the Mass
August 31, 2020
PDF  English   |    Spanish

Today, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone released this statement calling on Mayor London Breed; Director of Public Health Dr. Grant Colfax; and San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón to ease unfair restrictions on public worship in San Francisco:

I am grateful that the Mayor and other government leaders in San Francisco acknowledge the importance of mental and spiritual health to the overall well-being of our people, in addition to physical and economic health. I am therefore calling on the Mayor and her public health officials to, at a minimum, remove the excessive limits on outdoor public worship.
 
Particularly for us as Catholics, attending the Mass and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in person is the source and the summit of our faith, and we have shown we can celebrate the Mass safely. As three major infectious disease specialists recently pointed out, "over one million public [M]asses have been celebrated following guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus…for Catholic churches following these guidelines, no outbreaks of COVID-19 have been linked to church attendance.1"
 
San Francisco is the only government in the entire Bay Area that restricts public gatherings to 12 people out of doors. Ours and others’ faith is being treated as less important than a trip to the hardware store, or a nice dinner out on the patio. This denial of access to safe outdoor public worship is a serious deprivation of our rights as Americans under the First Amendment and our spiritual needs as people of faith. One million public Masses without any Covid outbreaks demonstrates that it is just as safe in San Francisco as in other parts of the state, such as San Mateo County, to permit large gatherings for outdoor public worship with reasonable safety precautions.
 
1.   https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2020/08/19/evidence-based_guidelines_to_celebrate_mass_safely_are_working.html

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RELATED:  Benedict XVI Institute Launches Petition to Mayor Breed

The Benedict XVI Institute has launched a public petition on which Bay Area Catholics can voice their support for the Archbishop and demand that the Mayor lift unfair restrictions. “Let us have the Mass,” said Maggie Gallagher, executive director. “We need the Body and Blood of Christ. We cannot worship via livestream. Our faith is incarnational all the way down. We have shown Catholics can celebrate the Mass safely.  Enough is enough. It’s time for Catholic San Francisco to speak up!” 

New Instructions from Archbishop Cordileone on Continued Church Closures

1. The City had been allowing indoor retail at 50% capacity, but not allowed any indoor religious services at all.  The concern here from the perspective of health experts is that in a retail store, people enter to make a purchase and then leave, without spending much time indoors; it is much riskier for a group of people to spend an extended period of time inside the same space.  However, at larger retail outlets it is quite possible for people to spend an hour or more in the store, while we can keep our services to under an hour; moreover, the employees in the store are indoors continuously for many hours at a time.  In addition, a church can be a much safer place than a retail store, because it is a more controlled environment: the people are stationary; we can insure social distancing; we can insure that people are wearing face coverings; we can keep the doors open to allow air flow; we can sanitize high touch areas between services.
2. With regard to outdoor services, you are all well aware that pre-planned and scheduled street protests have been allowed to continue unhindered, while the limit of no more than 12 people still applies to everyone else, including us.  Yet here again, an outdoor worship service is a much safer event than a protest, since the people are stationary, social distance is respected, and the participants are wearing masks.

• Wear a face covering (it’s the simplest and most effective thing one can do);
• Watch your distance (when in a group, keep six feet apart);
• Wash your hands.