After more than two months of distance learning and no public Masses being celebrated, teachers and parishes across the eight-county Catholic Diocese of Cleveland are stepping up their game with many becoming proficient in producing videos.
This sixth weekly installment of staying connected during the coronavirus pandemic features a look at a variety of video offerings from surprising a pastor with a birthday parade to a principal producing videos with a faith and fun perspective. There is also a video instructing the faithful what to expect when returning to publicly celebrated Mass and a clever one recreating art masterpieces.
Birthday surprise – St. Clare Parish, Lyndhurst
Having a birthday during the coronavirus pandemic stay-at-home order posed challenges for having a typical celebration. But Father Jim Cosgrove, parochial vicar, and the faithful of St. Clare Parish wanted to do something special for the pastor, Father Stanley Klasinski, on his big day, April 27.
So, with cooperation from the city of Lyndhurst, they organized a drive-by surprise birthday parade. Father Cosgrove thanked the police and fire departments, City Council and the mayor for their support.
A montage of the parade was featured in the April 29 edition of St. Clare’s “Drive-thru Pew,” hosted by Father Cosgrove, on YouTube. It has been viewed more than 900 times so far. View it here.
Dozens of cars snaked through the neighborhood before driving on to the parish grounds where they surprised Father Klasinski, as he emerged from the rectory. The weather was clear and dry with temperatures around 60 degrees as parishioners waved, honked their car horns, held up signs, greeted Father Klasinski and occasionally stopped long enough to hand him a card or a gift. He smiled broadly while greeting everyone.
“Our friends from the police department had to direct traffic because there were so many cars,” Father Cosgrove said in the video. You made his (Father Klasinski’s) birthday and his year. It (the surprise) meant a great deal to him. He definitely loves you,” he added.
Video fun and learning – St. Matthew School, Akron
John Czaplicki, principal of St. Matthew School in Akron, is doing his part to help lead creatively both with distance learning and maintaining a school community during this ongoing health crisis. The lack of daily interaction with staff, students and families is what he said was most difficult about distance learning.
So he decided to expand his monthly videos and to post more on his YouTube channel to stay connected with school families. Some were funny, faith-based pieces and some posed a challenge to students. In the challenge videos he encouraged students to answer a question and submit the answer to him by email.
Some videos included include guest appearances by his miniature horses, cat and Dottie, the singing chicken. The videos also feature prayer, facts about current saints, interesting updates on the latest Lego set he is building and other fun things to make students and their families laugh.
Welcome back – St. Julie Billiart Parish, North Ridgeville
Now that publicly celebrated Masses are resuming across the diocese, pastors are doing their best to keep parishioners informed of what to expect when they attend Mass in this time of pandemic.
Father George Vrabel at St. Julie Billiart Parish used an easy-to-follow video as a tutorial for parishioners. He encouraged them to view it before attending Mass and posted it on the parish website, Facebook page and emailed it to parishioners.
It addresses things like where to park and enter the church, seating arrangements and limited worship space capacity, observing social distancing, sanitizing hands, wearing a mask, no singing by the congregation, the procedure to follow for receiving Communion and cleaning/sanitizing the church after each liturgy.
Grizzlies Getty Museum art challenge – St. Gabriel School, Concord Township
Students at St. Gabriel School have been using a variety of platforms during their distance learning for the past two months.
One of the more interesting projects was the Grizzlies Getty Museum art challenge at home. Students were challenged to recreate some world-renowned art masterpieces. Their take on the artwork was posted next to the original and they were showcased in a YouTube video. Click here for the Grizzlies’ versions of these masterpieces.
Faculty and students also created a variety of other videos that can be viewed on their YouTube channel.
Share your story
Is your parish, school or organization doing something unusual to help others during this health crisis? Send the details, a photo and your contact information by email to ckovach@dioceseofcleveland.org for consideration in a future story.