Coronavirus On LI: Diocese Cancels All Funerals, Weddings

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY — The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced this week that all funerals, weddings and other services at Catholic churches across Long Island are canceled. Masses were canceled last week, but some other services were allowed to continue.

The change is in response to new executive orders from Gov. Andrew Cuomo banning all gatherings in the state to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which as already infected more than 30,000 people in New York.

Though Masses were canceled last week, services like funerals and weddings were allowed to continue, so long as gatherings were kept small. This is no longer the case. All services in churches are canceled until further notice. Confessions are also no longer allowed to be scheduled.

While services are canceled, the churches themselves are not closed. Many are still open for private prayer, so long as social distancing precautions are met. Emergency sacraments may still be conducted, and graveside services are available — but both are dependent on proper social distancing.

Catholic churches on Long Island will also not be distributing palms for Palm Sunday. The diocese said that the palms will be blessed on Palm Sunday, and then made available at a later date.

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Though Masses are canceled, the diocese will livestream services online from St. Agnes Cathedral. Mass streams will begin at 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays. You can watch the Masses here.

Individual parishes may also livestream their services. The Catholic Faith Network televises Masses daily on Optimum channel 29/137, Verizon FiOS TV channel 296 and Spectrum channel 162/471.