President's Message

St. Mary's H1N1 (Swine) Flu Preparedness

• H1N1 (Swine) Flu Response Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4
  
• St. Mary's Current Plan of Action
  
• Pastoral Precautions
  
• St. Mary's Emergency Notification Procedures
  

CDC and Texas Department of Health H1N1 (Swine) Flu Updates

Message to Parents

Incident Management Planning

H1N1 Pastoral Precautions

St. Mary’s University will follow the recommendations by the Archbishop José H. Gomez regarding pastoral precautions in light of the H1N1 pandemic.

• Only the consecrated Host will be distributed at communion and not the precious Blood.
• Communion ministers will distribute Communion on the hand and not on the tongue.
• Bowing to surrounding persons at the Sign of Peace is encouraged instead of shaking hands and hugging.
• All ministers will be required to sanitize their hands before and after distributing Communion.
• The use of Holy Water fonts will be temporarily suspended.

For more information regarding the H1N1 virus from the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, go to the following links: www.usccb.org/liturgy/swineflu.shtml or www.archsa.org.

In addition, the Archbishop has requested that during this flu season, if you are feeling sick, you are not required to attend Mass. While we want to pray for those that are sick, let us also follow the advice disseminated that helps us uphold our moral duty to protect the health of others. To assist with fulfilling your prayer wishes, you are invited to submit requests via the St. Mary’s Office of University Ministry web site. The prayer requests will go directly to the University Chaplin, The Rev. Kip Stander, S.M.