Dear Parishioners

As the number of Covid-19 cases spike, I remind you that we all have an obligation to make sure we are not needlessly exposing people to this disease. The Bishop has given us permission to miss Mass, and we should take advantage of that if we think we may have any illness since we cannot be sure what might be the flu, a cold or Covid until it is too late. This is an extremely communicable disease and although we take precautions, the biggest factor to protecting others is to simply not be around other people. If someone comes to Mass sick, then even if just a couple other people catch it, that will lead to an exponential growth in new transmissions as they encounter even more people. That’s why if we prevent even one case, we will prevent many more. So, if you feel ill at all, please stay home. It is bad enough if someone comes to Mass who is not showing any symptoms. It’s really bad to just ignore symptoms that you know you have, especially since older people and people with pre-existing conditions are so much more susceptible to this disease. Even if you are young and of good health you should still be concerned because we do not know the long-term damage this disease causes. I am especially worried that Fr. DeSaye and I might get sick and then we would have to shut down all Masses for 2 weeks.

If you still want to hear my homily for the week and pray Mass, then please go to our Facebook page and watch the Mass there. (You do not need a Facebook account to do this.) On top of that, I also keep everyone informed with a weekly email to anyone who wishes to be on the parish’s mailing list. You can find information about how to sign up at the top of our parish’s website.

Visit our website:

https://holyinnocentschurch.net/

Visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/HolyInnocentsNeptune/ videos

Lastly, another thing you can do to remain safe is to not do anything risky outside of mass. These include: not attending large gatherings of people, always wear your mask in public, wear your mask correctly (cover both your nose and your mouth), wash your hands frequently (for at least 20 seconds) and try to stay six feet away from other people as much as possible. I know we are all tired of these precautions and want them to be over. But this virus is spreading rapidly again, and we need to be more alert than ever.

God bless!

Fr. Carter