‘Dinosaur’ priest embraces new possibilities technology brings to church
March 2020 was a very anxious and apprehensive time in the lives of parishioners and priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Churches were closed because of the pandemic, and the obligation for attendance at Sunday Mass was rescinded by Archbishop Pérez.
At that point, my life changed drastically since I always had celebrated holy Mass every single day in a church with a congregation present. Then, we are told to celebrate Mass but without a public, without parishioners, which by the way is very unusual, strange and peculiar for priests.
We were told to go viral. I was confused since I am really a dinosaur when it comes to technology.
I teach Spanish at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, and I am the professor who is known as “talk and chalk.” I do not use any kind of technology — no films, tape recorders, projectors, etc. My world is so ancient to the seminarians that after telling the class that I was “Father Talk and Chalk,” a student proceeded to ask, “What is chalk?”
However, my first reaction was to call a local IT man — someone who knows about technology. He was wonderful and came to provide me with a camera to video our Masses since our doors were closed shut. From that time, I taped two Masses every day in the chapel in the rectory — one in English and one in Spanish since I have a bilingual, multicultural parish.
When my parishioners after about six months were allowed to return to Mass, I moved the camera to the inside of the church. There I began to tape my Masses.
Some parishioners, and even until today, were hesitant about returning to church during the pandemic.
So, every day now I continue to tape Mass and continue to do so for those who are afraid to come to church, those who are ill, those who are homebound, those in nursing homes, etc.
After taping in both languages during the pandemic, I realized the large number of Spanish-speaking parishioners returning to Mass. As a result, now I say Mass on Tuesday and Thursday in English and Wednesday and Friday in Spanish.
Each day, the gospel is read in both languages and the preaching is done in English and Spanish. On the weekends, my Masses on Saturday evening are both taped since the first one is in English and the second one is in Spanish. Of course, these Masses count for the Sunday obligation as they are the Vigil Masses.
I continue to tape Masses almost every day. Many English-speaking parishioners have not returned to the church yet. They continue to be timid about coming to church. My Spanish-speaking congregation has returned to all Masses with a vengeance. My Spanish Masses are jammed.
However, I continue to tape for the Spanish-speaking congregation since some parishioners are ill and homebound. In fact, some are still recuperating from having COVID.
In addition, the newest part of our church is that the taping is available for all festivities. For example, Mass was taped for Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration on Dec. 12 since it is a great religious and social commemoration of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico and some people missed it. Christmas was also taped.
The biggest asset to our taping is that for all parishioners weddings, anniversaries, quinceañeras and funerals are taped for those who might be far away in another state in the United States, but also for those in other countries since my congregation is so multicultural. For weddings the taping provides the entire family both here and in Latin America a chance to celebrate together. This taping is especially worthwhile and important for funerals as those abroad can also participate in the wake and funeral Mass celebrated at St. Patrick Church.
So, as you can see my world has changed, and I have had to change, too.
I am no longer a dinosaur since I have had to learn about technology, cameras, videos, sound, etc. However, I am still in the “toddler” stage of learning and working with technology, but with time and patience, perhaps I will soon be able to become like my students and be “fluent” in technology.
Gloss