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I want to continue listing some good advice on parish etiquette as we continue through Lent and approach Easter. These reflections were first presented by Barbara Budde in a pamphlet (which is no longer in print) for the National Pastoral Life Center. Let me mention some things that we could do to prepare well for the Sunday liturgy.

I was looking at a report giving the headcount for the weekend Masses from the first week of January until the middle of March. Most weekends the headcount for all the Masses is over 1,000. The last time we had headcounts like that since before March 2020. It is wonderful to see more and more people coming to Mass here at the weekend. As more people are returning to church now, I thought that I would devote the next several columns to the topic of parish etiquette at Mass. Barbara Budde, Director of Social Concerns for the Diocese of Austin, Texas, wrote a pamphlet on this topic for the National Pastoral Life Center several years ago. When the National Pastoral Life Center closed in 2009, I contacted Ms Budde to ask if I could use material that she had written in that pamphlet on occasions such as this. With her blessing I am sharing some of her thoughts on the topic of parish etiquette. Today I shall spend the rest of this column talking about some general remarks about cultivating good parish etiquette.

Last week I mentioned five things to know about the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s Safe Environment Policy. This week I want to mention five more things to know about the Safe Environment Policy of the Archdiocese.

Today I want to write about the Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s Safe Environment Policy. The Archdiocese of Washington (ADW) has had a written child protection policy in place since 1986. Cardinal Gregory recently commissioned a thorough review and update of our policy, which was published on December 10, 2024 and can be found on the ADW website. This updated version replaces the 2019 version.