The COVID-19 pandemic has forced an annual mass hosted by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to take place virtually instead of indoors as in previous years.

“We wanted to continue the tradition even though currently we are not able to be inside the cathedral and invite people to the Mass,” said Ann Sanders, liaison for the health care ministry from the Office of Life, Justice and Peace for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “We're going to be live streaming it so we can invite the whole archdiocese to participate.”

The 11th annual Healthcare Professionals Mass, known as White Mass because health care professionals often wear white uniforms, is set for remote viewing Sunday, Oct. 25 at 3:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

LA Archdiocese offers this White Mass gift | Submitted

“We’re seeing more of an interest in the Mass under the circumstances,” Sanders told American Catholic Tribune. “We set up a dedicated webpage on LA Catholics for health care professionals and we are receiving RSVPs as well as requests for gifts."

Although RSVPs are not required because the event will be live-streamed, to receive a gift, interested parties must order online.

“The gift that we are giving out this year is something we have not done before and the Archbishop will be blessing these gifts at the Mass,” said Sanders in an interview. “The gift can be ordered for any health care professional in the archdiocese regardless of what hospital, nursing home or clinic they work in. If a person that works in the health care field is another faith tradition and they want our gift, then we would be very, very happy to send that out to them as well.”

The gift is a replica of Our Lady of Guadalupe overseeing the corpse of Jesus Christ on the crucifix.

“Health care professionals will receive a blessing and gift as a symbol of gratitude for everything they have done for the community,” Sanders said.

In addition to changing the venue, the format of the Mass has changed due to the high number of coronavirus cases in California. The mass is dedicated this year to all the health care professionals in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. 

“Normally, we honor a particular individual or an organization and this year we were all in agreement that all of our health care professionals throughout the archdiocese have given so much of their time and their sacrifice in order to help our community be well and to serve the sick,” said Sanders. “We felt it was important that we honor all of our health care professionals and not single out any one organization or any individual.”

The California Department of Public Health website reports 867,317 coronavirus cases and 16,943 fatalities statewide as of Oct. 18.

“We mostly serve our Catholic hospitals for the archdiocese, however, we send chaplains and other health care professionals to our other hospitals,” Sanders said. “So, we really look out for everyone in the archdiocese and we are thinking about all of our employees in the various hospital systems, not necessarily just the Catholic hospitals, because they've all served so dedicatedly and selflessly.”