St Francis and St Mary’s Catholic Church is making plans for its annual Kermis celebration, hoping to provide a sense of community for a parish dealing with low attendance. Father Edward Looney was progressive in making his services available during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can hear weekly mass at 8 AM each Sunday on 104.1 WRLU, and a drive-through blessing had cars lined up around the block Easter weekend. When attendance resumed at 25 percent capacity, Looney thought he would be turning people away.
St. Francis and St. Mary’s is not the only church that has yet to hit its attendance cap with traffic down compared to pre-pandemic levels. St. Mary’s of Luxemburg is reporting a similar trend.
