Bishop O’Connell, dozens of parishes to celebrate Holy Week and Easter liturgies via livestream

At a time when all churches in the Diocese of Trenton are closed to Mass-goers because of coronavirus restrictions, Catholics are invited to commemorate Palm Sunday and the arrival of Holy Week April 5 as a virtual experience via video livestreaming. 

All Masses and services throughout this most solemn week of the Church year will be conducted without a congregation, as instructed by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M.; the faithful are encouraged to participate reverently as families from their homes for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Additional restrictions and adaptations to preserve the health of the public  are in place during this special week, and include:

• Palms will not be blessed and distributed in any churches of the Diocese on Palm Sunday because of the risk of contagion. Palms will be blessed and made available at a later time yet to be determined.
• The Chrism Mass, traditionally celebrated on the Monday of Holy Week in the Diocese during which the oils used by the parishes throughout the year for conferral of Sacraments are consecrated by the Bishop, has been postponed.
• The individuals who were preparing for full Communion in the Church during the Easter Vigil will receive their sacraments at a later date due to the coronavirus restrictions.
• Holy Communion can only be distributed to the faithful as Viaticum for the dying until further notice.

Bishop O’Connell will celebrate liturgies for Holy Week and Easter via live video stream that will transmit on the Diocese’s youtube channel. In addition to the Bishop’s schedule, several dozen parishes in the Diocese will also livestream their Masses and liturgies on their local websites. A list of parishes that have announced their livestream schedules is available here.
The schedule for Bishop O’Connell’s livestreamed events appears below (All Masses are celebrated without a congregation.):

• Mass for Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord  -- April 5 at 11:30 a.m.
• Holy Thursday/Mass of the Lord’s Supper – April 9 at 7 p.m.
• Good Friday/The Commemoration/Celebration of the Lord’s Passion – April 10, 3 p.m.
• Holy Saturday/The Easter Vigil – April 11, 7 p.m.

The faithful may also view a video originally recorded for national television in 2017 of Easter Sunday Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord, celebrated by Bishop O’Connell in St. Catharine Church, Spring Lake.  The video may be accessed at any time on youtube.com/trentondiocese.
Other sites to view the live streams include:

• facebook.com/TheCatholicDioceseofTrenton
• dioceseoftrenton.org (from the home page)
• trentonmonitor.com (from the home page)