Dear Faithful of the Archdiocese of Louisville,
May God bless you during this holy season of Lent! With this letter, I bring two important messages to you:
1)
the availability of live streaming by many parishes and for Holy Week/Triduum liturgies
and
2) the importance of supporting your parish.
Please know of my prayers for you, especially as we prepare to enter Holy Week. Like you, I grieve that we will not be able to celebrate our holiest time of the year together, but we can connect virtually. I encourage you to keep up with all of the streaming Masses on
www.archlou.org/Covid-19
, and I thank so many of our pastors and parish staff for their pastoral creativity. We will be live streaming the Chrism and Triduum liturgies from the Cathedral of the Assumption, and I encourage you to join me virtually. Go to
www.cathedraloftheassumption.org
for the link.
If you are able, please continue to support your parish during this time when the public celebration of the Eucharist is suspended. All parishes prioritize pastoral care for the people of the Archdiocese, but in order to do this, parishes need to maintain their ministries and infrastructure. Salaries and benefits are our largest expenses, and we are working hard to pay our employees by extending unlimited sick leave. As you may know, Church employees are not eligible for traditional government-provided unemployment benefits.
Some of you already give online to your parishes. Thank you for continuing your stewardship during this time. If your parish provides an online opportunity for stewardship giving, please take advantage of what your parish has in place. Other parishes do not have a mechanism for online giving. Thus, we have created an online portal through which you can donate to your parish:
www.archlou.org/parish-giving
. All donations will be forwarded to the parish you indicate. For those who can, we also invite an extra gift to some of our parishes that are in great need.
To those facing economic distress because of this pandemic, I invite your prayers as we pray for you.
Please join me in praying for those who are ill or have family or friends who are ill. I extend my deep thanks to healthcare providers and first responders who risk their health to serve us, to those workers serving the community by providing essential services, and to our priests and pastoral leaders who continue to reach out to those in need. Together, we will respond courageously to advance the common good during these difficult days.
Thank you for your generosity. I hope that all of you have a blessed and holy Easter.
Sincerely yours in our Lord,
