andrew story

Their weekend services once again---- as some places of worship re- opened their doors...... we begin tonight with 44new reporter andrew garcia in evansville--- where churches are taking every precaution to keep*your family safe.

We are in the early part of stage three of the state's back on track plan, and on sunday, parishioners of st.

Benedict cathedral celebrated weekend mass publicly for the first time since march.

As a priest it was a joy to be able to celebrate publicly with the congregation and all though i couldn't see people with their mask but i think they were happy to be here and those who were able to felt comfortable here.

All the priests of our diocese have been working hard to prepare their churches, prepare their parishes, their people and i thank god that we've gotten to this point, that we're able to have public masses again.

In order to ensure the safety of people in attendance, the church had to put together a plan to make sure attendees could practice social distancing as well as providing them a clean and sanitized environment for the sign at mass on social distancing separating the pews here at the cathedral they put families together on the sides and in the center for those who are individuals.

So again preparing that and after now you see the volunteers beginning to sanitize the pews.

We've had communion by hand, we're encouraging people to take communion in the hand rather than by tongue just for their health and the health of our ministers.

And in the coming weeks the church will continue to follow the governor's reopen plan and relax certain habits only after consulting with health experts.

Being aware of those and trying to implement those as necessary, so it's going to be an ongoing process as we continue to work through this time and this pandemic and again taking the wisdom that they share with us the information and being able to formulate guidelines for our parishes.

Reporting in evansville, andrew garcia 44 news.

Late breaking tonight--a