Around the Diocese

Coronavirus Resources and Information / Around the Diocese
 

Coronavirus-related news, events, and other items of interest from around the Diocese.

June 2021 to Present

Bishop: In the face of death, “We are people of hope”  June 11, 2021

BRIDGEPORT—Bishop Frank J. Caggiano remembered all those who died of COVID-19 and the living who continue to grieve them during a solemn and spare Vespers service Friday night on the solemnity of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

After processing into the St. Augustine Cathedral led by the parish altar-servers, all wearing masks, the bishop said that we are still struggling with the pandemic, something that we wish never had happened and hope that it will never happen again.  Read more →

May 2021

Bishop issues guidelines for the return to Mass  May 18, 2021

BRIDGEPORT—Bishop Frank J. Caggiano has announced new guidelines that will remove most COVID-19 restrictions as the faithful return to in-person Mass.

Those who are fully vaccinated will no longer be required to wear a mask during Mass, and the Churches will return to full capacity without the need for social distancing.  Read more →

April 2021

Norwalk church resumes in-person celebrations  April 3, 2021

NORWALK — An in-person stations of the cross service returned to St. Matthew Church on Friday, about a year after Easter celebrations were held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Parishioners of St. Matthew Catholic Church proceed with their annual outdoor stations of the cross in recogntion of Good Friday, April 2, 2021, in Norwalk, Conn.  Read more →

March 2021

COVID-19 Statement from CT Catholic Bishops  March 4, 2021

March 4, 2021

People should feel free in good conscience to receive any of the vaccines currently available (Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson) for the sake of their own health and the common good, which requires the prompt vaccination of as many people as possible.  Read more →


February 2021

This year’s Blessing of Throats: without crossed candles  February 1, 2021

BRIDGEPORT—Given the pandemic, the blessing of throats, usually administered on the Memorial of St. Blaise (February 3) will look a little different this year.

In order to ensure public safety the blessing of the throats will not be offered to individuals using candles, wrote Msgr. Thomas Powers, vicar general in a recent directive.  Read more →


January 2021

Heroic Witness and Safeguarding lives during pandemics  January 9, 2021

Throughout the coronavirus crisis, there have been countless “next-door saints,” as Pope Francis describes them. They include volunteers working with their parishes and Catholic Charities, who responded to the increased demand by the needy who were homeless, jobless and without food. They include priests in hospitals, nursing homes and churches who ministered to the sick and the dying. Some of them, following the example of St. Charles Borromeo, walked through their neighborhoods or flew above Fairfield County with the Blessed Sacrament, offering prayers and blessing to abate the COVID pandemic.

Msgr. Gregory J. Fairbanks, a church historian who is Dean of the School of Diaconal Formation at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Penn., says that during plagues and pandemics, heroism has been a common characteristic demonstrated by followers of Christ. And these periods of crisis have proven to be the times “when the greatest saints are born.”  Read more →


December 2020


November 2020

Use of COVID-19 vaccines is morally acceptable  November 24, 2020

WASHINGTON (CNS) — While confusion has arisen in recent days in the media over “the moral permissibility” of using the COVID-19 vaccines just announced by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna, it is not “immoral to be vaccinated with them,” the chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine and pro-life committees said Nov. 23.

Bishop Kevin J. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, addressed the issue in a memo to their brother bishops.  Read more →


October 2020

Some Parishes return to Phase 2 guidelines  October 30, 2020

BRIDGEPORT–  With a second wave of the coronavirus beginning to take hold across Fairfield County, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano has updated health and safety protocols for the Diocese of Bridgeport.

In a memo to all clergy issued today, the bishop noted that several cities including Bridgeport, Danbury, and Stamford have reverted to the state’s Phase 2 reopening guidelines in response to a growing positivity rate and an increase in hospitalizations.  Read more →

From Bishop Caggiano

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