A CHURCH IN CHANGE


Msgr. Rick Hilgartner presides at Sunday Mass, livestreamed on March 22.


Te delayed celebration will be ever more festive, but first we must surround them with the love of Christ and the full presence of the Church.


MSGR. RICK HILGARTNER


Baltimore, Maryland NPM Director of Ecclesial Mission and Identity, Pastor, St. Joseph Catholic Church


As a pastor, I was immediately faced with a broad range of questions. How will we manage pastoral care of the sick and dying (when access to hospitals and nursing homes is limited), sacramental catechesis, and the liturgy? How will this impact administration, staffing, and finance?


Te Sacred Liturgy, particularly the Eucharist, as the “source and the summit of the Christian life” is of primary concern, because it is in the


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Eucharist, the final sacrament of initiation, that people find their identity as members of Christ’s body and draw strength from this point of contact with the divine presence. What are we to do when we can’t do that together?


Immediately we began to look at what resources we had available to provide a means to support our community’s prayer, service, and learning in other ways. Tankfully our parish already had a well-functioning online presence with an active website and social media presence as well as a strong following.


We also have a robust email contact list which we make use of on a regular basis. People have come to expect to hear from us. And we have a staff that was eager to find ways to continue to serve and do our ministries in the confines of this crisis. Te missing link for us was the lack of infrastructure in the church building for recording or live-streaming the Liturgy. We made it a priority, though, and managed to have something together in time for the first weekend


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