I will describe Vigil Mass at my local parish. Every third pew left untaped, numbers posted at seating locations next to the aisles, which one was invited to occupy. Said Mass, a lector but no server. At Communion time, celebrant distributed hosts at one’s pew. One was instructed to take the host in one’s hand, leaving mask on until priest had passed by, then remove it and consume the host. As there were about twenty-five people present (in a church that holds at least four hundred) this was a speedy process. Churches are restricted to 30% of capacity. Masks are not mandatory. Registration is not required. This parish is first come, first served, although other models are used elsewhere.A friend in Utah, which has never been an epicenter of the outbreak but has now paused its reopening, has reported generally similar conditions. Exactly how many pews are roped off, exactly how the maximum attendance is calculated, whether and how reservations are taken, whether masks are required, all will vary slightly by parish and diocese, but restrictions of some sort along these lines seem almost universal, while some parishes and dioceses haven't reopened yet.
The question is how long this state of affairs will last, or indeed if media-induced panic over a "second wave" could result in reimposed closures and lockdowns. Certainly our pastor uses the word "temporary" frequently to describe conditions at the moment, but it's hard to know when authorities will actually relinquish control over attendance and social distance. The goalposts in fact continue to be moved:
Even if there is a “second wave,” it doesn’t mean anything in and of itself.As Mike Rowe has put it's hard enough to keep track of the cards as they're dealt, but a bigger worry is we don't even necessarily know what game is being played.For one thing the Centers for Disease Control has long predicted that coronavirus cases would increase as the country reopened, for the simple reason that the lockdowns were never intended to stop the spread of the disease, only to slow it down. Remember? Flatten the curve?
The point of the lockdown was to give the country the time to ramp up testing, look for treatments, and increase medical supplies. By curbing the spread, health officials could more readily identify hotspots and conduct contact tracing, and the health care system could cope with any increase in demand. Which, as Kudlow points out, is exactly what’s happening now.
What’s more, the increase in coronavirus cases matters only if they are going up faster than expected, and whether this is resulting in a second wave of deaths.
Neither of those appears to be true.
