Catholics across Perth and beyond now have the opportunity to attend Mass daily, following the commencement of a livestreaming project.
The daily Masses are livestreamed from Monday to Friday at 12.10pm via the Archdiocesan website and social media platforms and are celebrated by Cathedral priests including St Mary’s Cathedral Dean Rev Dr Sean Fernandez, Fr Richard Rutkauskas, Fr Conor Steadman, Fr CJ Millen and Fr Garner Vergara Jr.
The livestreaming of the daily Masses – an initiative of the Office of the Archbishop and Archdiocesan Communication Office, with support from the IT Department – has been in place since the Fifth week of Lent, at the same time Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a ban on all ‘non-essential gatherings of persons of 100 people or more in indoor areas from 18 March.
Following the ban, Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB temporarily suspended all public Masses across the Archdiocese of Perth – which went “beyond the strict requirements of the government” – to combat the spreading of COVID-19 pandemic in Western Australia.
In a Pastoral Letter published on 19 March, Archbishop Costelloe understood that his decision, which he took seriously, would likely to cause “great distress to some, and perhaps many”.
However, Archbishop Costelloe assured Catholics across the Archdiocese of Perth that “even though we cannot gather at the moment to celebrate Mass together we are not deprived of the presence of the Lord”.
“We know that he is with us, closer to us than we are to ourselves,” he said.
“We know that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (cf. Hebrews 12:1), who always accompany us on our journey of faith.”
Fr Fernandez, who celebrated the first daily livestreamed Mass on Tuesday, 31 March, welcomed those who attend virtually and invited them to count their virtual presence as real participation.
“I still invite you to see this as real participation to listen to the Word of God because it is addressed to us wherever we may be, whatever our circumstances [are]; to bring your prayers to this mass and to see this is a moment of spiritual communion with the Lord who is with us always,” he said.
To access livestreamed daily Masses, click here: http://perthcatholic.org.au/Our_Archdiocese-Archbishop-Videos.htm or https://www.youtube.com/catholicarchdioceseofperth or www.facebook.com/perthcatholic