The Tablet April 4, 2021
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN Jesus has risen, and the crowds are back in church!
A year after the COVID-19 pandemic closed churches, forcing Catholics to miss Easter Sunday Mass in person, the doors swung open this Easter, and parishioners came back in droves to worship together and share in the glory of the promise of the Resurrection.
Even with the 50-percent capacity limit on attendance at churches imposed by New York State as a COVID-19 precaution, churches around the diocese in Brooklyn and Queens reported large numbers of people in the pews on April 4.
“We had a full house at all of our Easter Masses, between 3,500 and 4,000 persons in total,” said Father Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez, the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Corona.