The Catholic Diocese of San Diego expects all of its parishioners to wear a mask at its indoor public masses following the state mandatory indoor mask mandate.
The diocese announced the mask requirement on Dec. 14 in a letter from Auxiliary Bishop John Dolan to all pastors.
“We ask all parishioners, out of concern for their own personal health risk due to the new variant and the general concern for the health of others, to comply with the new requirement,” wrote Bishop Dolan in his letter.
The mask mandate will remain in effect for a month until Jan. 15, 2022.
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The Catholic Diocese lifted COVID-19 restrictions in June following 15 months of tight restraints.
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) officials announced the mask-wearing requirement on Monday citing a 47% increase in COVID-19 infection rates across the state since Thanksgiving. He said over that time, the statewide rate of daily new cases went from 9.6 per 100,000 residents to more than 14 per 100,000.
