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Father Moisés Agudo, pastor of St. Peter Church, welcomes a family of parishioners on Oct. 4, 2020. (Photo by Zac Wittmer/San Francisco Católico)
October 19, 2020
Lorena Rojas
San Francisco Católico
María Luisa Wence, 90, and her husband, Miguel Moreno, 83, took the bus from Clayton Road to the Bart station in Concord that took them to the Mission District, to attend the 1 p.m. Mass at St. Peter Church the day of the reopening of the churches in the county of San Francisco, Oct. 4.
The Moreno Wence couple moved from San Francisco to Concord several years ago, but they are still parishioners at St. Peter Church in the Mission.
Since March, when churches were closed to indoor assemblies due to COVID-19, the Moreno Wence couple have not attended any of the outdoor Masses, they only have seen livestreamed Masses.
“Some friends who live in San Francisco told us that St. Peter had started to open the church and we decided to come to Mass to reconcile with God,” they said.
Wence has faith that the time will come when we will be free from the virus that causes COVID-19, meanwhile she recommends asking God for health for oneself and for the priests. She advises people who want to go to the Mass in church to trust that God will protect them.
“For us as Catholics it is necessary to hear the word of God here in the church. Of course, keeping a distance,” said Miguel Moreno.
St. Peter Church celebrated the first Mass following the hygiene protocol required by the Department of Public Health and the City of San Francisco.
At the main entrance they placed two stations for hand disinfecting and mask checking. Ushers led families or individuals to the pews. At the end of the Mass they directed the faithful through different exits to avoid crowds.
“I felt safe with the measures they are taking,” said Javier López González, 51, a St. Peter parishioner who lives in the Mission.
López González went to public Mass in St. Peter on the day of the reopening. He had not attended any of the Masses in the courtyard or in the parking lot of the Mission churches since the shelter-in-place started in March.
“I was excited that God gave me the opportunity to come back to church again,” he said at the end of the 11 a.m. Mass, presided by Father Moisés Agudo, pastor of three churches in the Mission and vicar for Hispanics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
In the homily for the first public Mass, on Oct. 4, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, Father Agudo said that St. Francis is recognized for many virtues, but what characterized him the most was his love for the Eucharist and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.
The church in San Francisco has been struggling in the recent months because it can’t celebrate the Eucharist inside the churches. The restrictions due to COVID-19 have been extended for almost seven months.
“Today we begin a new phase in San Francisco. Churches have been reopened with 25% of the capacity or a maximum of 100 people” at each Mass, said Father Agudo.
St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral also celebrated its Masses indoors with public on Sunday, Oct. 4. “It was a great joy,” Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone said in an interview with ESNE.
He added that the campaign “the Church is Essential” continues because the worship of God is the most essential.
“We accept the safety rules. This is very important. We have protocols that are very effective in protecting people, we already have evidence from scientific studies that say that the protocols work and protect people when they are at Mass. We want to do it very safely and we can do it,” the archbishop said.
In a memo to the priests on Oct.2, he said that the limit of 100 in the largest churches is still problematic.
During the Eucharist at St. Peter, Father Agudo asked for patience while the church returned to normality for now we must continue with the discomfort by the use of masks, he said.
Father Agudo added that he hopes that little by little fear will disappear, because “fear is not of God, responsibility is of God.”
The parishioners of St. Peter, St. Anthony and St. Charles in the Mission publicly demonstrated for several weeks their disagreement over the restriction of not celebrating Masses inside the church, only 12 people had been allowed at Mass in the yard or in the parking lot.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on Sept. 29 the authorization to gather inside places of worship.