Page 263 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

PASTORAL LETTERS

As you implement the protocol locally, which includes posting your opening hours
and mass times; observing the frequently mentioned measures of hand-washing, physical
distancing and mask-wearing; refraining from congregational singing; and disinfecting the
premises between celebrations, all these efforts help to reduce the risk of transmission
through contact and the discharge of respiratory water droplets.

I would like to thank the Diocesan “Deconfinement” Committee for developing
the documents and facilitating the webinars. The process entailed a considerable amount
of work for the team members. Implementing the protocol at the local level will equally
require a considerable amount of work for parish and religious community teams. How-
ever, when you see people eager to enter a church once again and to pray there, it makes all
the effort worthwhile. When you see people whom you have never seen before come to
church attracted to the faith, one realizes that, though we are sailing into the unknown,
God never ceases to stir hearts.

The doors of your heart never closed, and I thank each of you for all the work you
have done and continue to do. Let us continue to keep in mind those individuals and
families who are still confined at home, by reaching out to them in a thousand-plus ways.
Let us grow in our readiness to meet, to reach out and welcome, to accompany and to lead
others to Jesus Christ. The People of God are thirsty.

May God guide us in standing together for the Mission, to be a Church close to
people, and at the same time, a Church that reaches out with open arms and doors.

On the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul,

† Christian Lépine
Archbishop of Montreal

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 263