PHASED OUT?

As businesses and services across New York State cautiously reopen their doors, the same can’t be said for churches and other places of worship.  

And it may be quite some time before they do.

According to a WHEC (NBC-Rochester) report May 13, the governor’s office told the station’s investigative reporter that churches fall under Phase 4 of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s four-phase reopening. 

Cuomo was asked a question during Thursday’s press conference about churches and other places of worship looking for “guidance .. on when they can start to reopen” since they are not mentioned anywhere in the reopening plan. 

“It’s less about being a church, a temple or a mosque, it’s more about a gathering,” Cuomo said. “And that’s going to be basically according to the guidance on large gatherings. But look, large gatherings have been where this first started. We had the first quote-unquote ‘hot spot’ before they even called it a hot spot, we had the first big cluster in New Rochelle in Westchester. 

“There was no reason for it to be in New Rochelle, a suburban community. It was because one infected person went to a couple of events around a religious ceremony. But the last thing you want is 100, 200 people in close proximity. That is the last thing you want … that’s the issue on churches, temples, mosques. It has nothing to do with religion, it’s the gathering.”

It is just the kind of answer that will leave clergy and parishioners more frustrated than ever. Cuomo talked about large gatherings, which would obviously fall under the last phase, but what if churches reopened with a maximum of 20 people, socially distancing, wearing masks and gloves with other strict, safety precautions in place? There is still no guidance on if churches, under those settings, could reopen in Phase 1, 2 or 3. If you are strictly putting churches on a Phase 4 opening, it could be months before public Masses start again. 

“The Cuomo administration has not offered any official guidance to houses of worship as to when they can begin to reopen. Catholics and others are trying to glean information from his press briefings absent real dialogue, which would be really helpful all around,” said Dennis Poust, director of communications for the New York State Catholic Conference. “Every diocese in the state has begun planning what reopening will look like, and we are beginning to see a template develop from other U.S. dioceses and dioceses around the world as well. So having an idea of the timeframe that the governor envisions would be very helpful to that process, and would give the faithful something to hold on to.”

The four-phase plan breaks down like this: Phase 1 (retail and wholesale trade, with curbside pickup, and manufacturing)  Phase 2 (professional services, retail, administrative support, real estate, leasing and renting), Phase 3 (restaurants and food services) and Phase 4 (Arts, entertainments, recreation and education). It is also important to remember that certain metrics need to be met for each region to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and so on. If they are not met, the region must stay at its current phase or go backward.

New York State also has set seven metrics for regions to meet to start reopening under a four-phase plan. The North Country, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Central New York and Mohawk Valley regions have met all the criteria and began Phase 1 on May 15. The Capital Region, which includes Warren, Saratoga, Washington, Schenectady, Albany, Rensselaer, Greene and Columbia counties, has met six of the seven metrics, and was expected to begin Phase 1 this week. For the counties not meeting the seven metrics, the state-at-home order (PAUSE) has been extended to May 28. 

Regardless of what phase churches fall in, the Diocese of Albany is well into preparing its reopening plans.

“The Diocese is currently planning for the eventual reopening of our churches, which we hope will be sooner rather than later,” said Mary DeTurris Poust, director of communications for the Diocese of Albany. “We are looking at both liturgy and logistics in order to restore the sacraments while protecting public health. We know how critical it is for local Catholics to be able to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist. At the same time we also want to ensure that our parishioners are safe, especially our most vulnerable members.”