Cities varied and so did parishes on COVID-19 precautions in mid-May as vaccination against the deadly disease began to become more prevalent and statewide restrictions were eased on masks and social distancing.

That means Massgoers should check their parish websites and bulletins for up-to-date practices, parish officials said May 20, six days after Gov. Tim Walz lifted the statewide mask mandate, encouraging only fully vaccinated people to stop wearing masks if they felt comfortable doing so. The six feet social distancing protocol was to end May 28. Walz said he was following recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control.

“We’re going to be keeping masks on because it’s a Minneapolis thing,” said Julie Craven, director of communications and strategic initiatives at Our Lady of Lourdes. “But my hunch is that it won’t be much longer and that will change.”

Minneapolis had not lifted its mask mandate. Neither had St. Paul, which requires masks for licensed businesses and city facilities, but not for churches. Another Minneapolis church, the Basilica of St. Mary, offered its parishioners a six-point account of its recent protocol changes, posted May 20 on its website.

“In regard to facemasks, while I realize the CDC has rescinded this requirement for people who have been vaccinated, the city of Minneapolis has not rescinded its facemask requirement,” said Father John Bauer, the Basilica’s rector. “Given this, we will continue to require people to wear a facemask at The Basilica.”

Meghan Hathaway, director of communications at St. Hubert in Chanhassen, said the parish is loosening its mask protocols for Sunday and daily Masses to allow fully vaccinated people to attend without face coverings. But for the foreseeable future, the 5:15 p.m. Saturday Mass will require masks, providing those who want to continue that safety precaution full assurances they can celebrate the Eucharist comfortably, she said.

Craven suggested that everyone will need to be patient, as life lived in a pandemic since March 2020 continues to return to some sense of normalcy, thanks to vaccinations.

“We’re in the ‘muddle in the middle’ right now,” Craven said of varying expectations around masking and other protocols.

In a May 14 message to parish leaders, leaders of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis advised pastors to take each city’s local mask-related ordinances into consideration before changing mask-related policies.

“It remains the prerogative of the pastor to determine an appropriate timeline for introducing changes, taking into consideration that time that the faithful may need to adjust to a change,” a message from the archdiocese stated. “Please note that the Governor’s latest Order does not change social distancing guidelines; consequently, we are still required to maintain six feet of social distance between households until May 28.”

The archdiocese’s Office of Worship also issued a May 14 memo to all parishes and institutions with additional details on liturgical impacts of Walz’s latest executive orders, such as collection and distribution of the gifts and distribution of Communion.

The temporary dispensation of Catholics’ obligation to attend Mass on Sunday that Archbishop Bernard Hebda granted in March 2020, as the pandemic first gripped Minnesota, continues.