Pittsburgh Diocese offers parishioners virtual updates

With weekday and Sunday Masses canceled due to the spread of the coronavirus, Bishop David Zubik and other priests of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh are turning to YouTube and social media to update parishioners on events taking place in their churches.

“This is going to be an important week for us here in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and maybe beyond,” Zubik said in a video update posted Sunday.

He outlined two upcoming prayer days — a day of fasting Tuesday and an extra special day of prayer to honor the Feast of Annunciation on Wednesday. He asked Catholics to consider praying with family and friends over the phone and online.

“Fasting is a day when we can ask the Lord to protect not only us, but the entire world from the pandemic and its devastating effects,” he said.

Parish churches across the diocese will ring their bells at 3 p.m. Wednesday for five minutes.

“The ringing of the bells has always been a reminder for people to come, and depend on God’s help ever more deeply,” Zubik said.

The diocese last week suspended all weekday and Sunday Masses. All first Communions and reconciliations, as well as confirmations in March, have been postponed.

Even parish fish fries — a Lenten season staple enjoyed throughout the community — have been canceled in an effort to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

Zubik is livestreaming Sunday mass on the diocese’s YouTube channel.

Individual parishes are also upping their efforts to reach out to their members online.

“At this time, it is important for us to stay connected to family, friends, and parishioners. In recent weeks, social media has become a valued tool for many in helping to keep us connected,” an email sent to members of St. Mary Magdalene parish that serves Catholics in Pittsburgh’s East End and in Wilkinsburg said.

St. Mary Magdalene’s pastor, the Rev. Tom Burke, recorded a Mass that was streamed on YouTube for parishioners on Sunday.

Other parishes in the region are starting similar efforts, including at the parishes called the “Shrines of Pittsburgh” — Holy Name and St. Anthony in Troy Hill, Immaculate Heart of Mary in Polish Hill, St. Nicholas in Millvale, and St. Patrick and St. Stanislaus Kostka, both in the Strip District.

Their administrator, the Rev. Nicholas Vaskov, has been streaming Masses and prayer services.

Vaskov had ordered a special camera to offer livestreams before the coronavirus outbreak and it has proven to be more useful than he expected.

“It’s comforting to pray together in a new way,” Vaskov said.

Watching Masses and other devotions online isn’t the same as attending church, but it can provide a sense of comfort to Catholics who now can’t go to church even if they want to, he said.

“I’m thankful it’s provided for that,” Vaskov said.

The pandemic presents a paradox, because although Catholics are called to come together weekly — Communion is by its meaning a sense of solidarity among people — but Christians are also called to love their neighbor, Vaskov said.

In this case, showing that love means staying apart, maintaining social distancing measures and abiding by civil orders to remain at home, Vaskov said.

“People understand that,” he said.

Bishop Ed Malesic, of the Greensburg Diocese, is also livestreaming Mass. The Greensburg Diocese has also suspended public Mass and canceled fish fries.

Attendance for baptisms, funerals and weddings in both dioceses is restricted.