COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (WOWT) -- It's the first Sunday since Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds eased coronavirus restrictions and allowed churches to reopen.
But one pastor says their doors will stay closed until there is a vaccine.
“We usually, on a Sunday, we’ll have between 900 and 1,000 come to church over those four Masses,” said the Rev. Charles Kottas, a pastor at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Council Bluffs.
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But this Sunday, even though Reynolds gave the green light for churches to begin opening, the four Catholic bishops of Iowa pumped the brakes.
“As you can see, there is no one here,” Kottas said. "There will not be any public Masses. Governor Reynolds said you can do that but our biggest concern is how do you sanitize a church."
With 300 or 400 people attending Mass at once -- sanitizing every pew or door handle between services would be nearly impossible.
They don't want parishioners getting sick.
“We try to protect everyone. It would be a sad day for our church if someone came to church here, contracted by somebody who had COVID and got very sick,” Kottas said.
As much as Pastor Kottas would love to have church on Sundays -- the Iowa bishops and doctors in their parish say it's best to wait until there is a vaccine.
"Bishop (William) Joensen and the other bishops said that hopefully, we'll have a vaccine. And God love President (Donald) Trump for shifting to overdrive and saying we gotta do something. And so hopefully with his push and the other labs and so forth, we will develop a vaccine very quickly,” he said.
For now - he'll continue with their services online.
“There have been days on our Sunday Mass that we have had over 2,000 hits from people watching it,” Kottas said.
He reminded people, “Take care of your faith and take care of each other. And we'll get back together and we're going to have a wonderful time when everybody is back in church."
Kottas tells 6 News -- one of their struggles right now is with finances.
But they have been told the church will receive money from the Paycheck Protection Program.
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May 04, 2020 at 01:49AM
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Despite eased restrictions, Iowa Catholic churches wait for vaccine - WOWT
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