The Queensland Government has announced the following upcoming easing of restrictions in Queensland from 6pm on Friday 4 March 2022:

• Masks will no longer be required indoors, except in hospitals, residential aged care, disability accommodation, prisons, public transport, airports and on planes. Therefore masks are not required at parish Masses and in parish offices. Masks are still recommended to be worn when you can’t socially distance. Current practices of hand sanitisation should remain in place.
• Places of worship will no longer have capacity limits, and this will include funerals and weddings.
• The Rite of Reconciliation can be made available as per pre-Covid arrangements
• Parishes can immediately resume all forms of food service. As a matter of caution, parishioners should minimise the shared handling of serving tongs, milk jugs etc to reduce risk of transmitting the COVID contact with shared utensils. Hand sanitizer should be made available.

Please note that we are still following the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference instruction that in the Ordinary Form of the Latin Rite, the Body of Christ should be administered only in the hand and the chalice should be received by the celebrant alone. The Sign of Peace should still be limited to saying “Peace be with you” with a nod or bow; no hand-shaking or hand-holding should occur here or at the Our Father.

This is welcome news for our parish communities. We will continue to monitor government protocols as the above instructions could be subject to change in response to COVID-19.

We extend our sincere thanks to the parishioners across the Archdiocese for their extra efforts and good will over these past two years.