California priest apologizes for holding Mass while sick with coronavirus, without mask
A Catholic priest who tested positive for the coronavirus last month after holding Mass at a Northern California church — while feeling sick with what he thought was a cold — apologized this week to his parish and the community.
Father Hector Montoya, pastor of St. Peter Catholic Church in Dixon, held Masses starting June 8, the first day the Sacramento Catholic Diocese allowed parishes in the region to do so. He continued to hold them through June 15. Three days later, the diocese sent a news release saying it learned Montoya had tested positive for COVID-19.
The diocese wrote it was “deeply concerned by this news and extremely disappointed that some of the required precautions appear not to have been followed.”
“In particular, we are told the priest and deacons did not wear face masks during Communion, as is required for the safety of parishioners,” last month’s news release said.
Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto had approved parishes to resume public Mass as early as June 8, with the diocese releasing its own set of health and safety protocols in late May after working with local counties’ health officials. The rules included increased sanitation, removal of shared items, adherence to social distancing and the “encouraged use of masks by all congregants.” State leaders had not yet mandated mask use in most indoor circumstances at that point; they did so across all of California starting June 18.
In a pair of similar letters, first to his church’s parish and then to the Dixon community, Montoya announced he is feeling “very well” in his recovery from the virus but acknowledged that he “did not follow all the guidelines provided by the diocese,” including the requirement to wear facial coverings during Communion.
He said about 250 people in total attended services the weekend of June 13-14 and were potentially exposed.
“It was never my intention to put anyone in danger which I now realize I did,” Montoya wrote in the letters, which were posted Monday and Thursday to St. Peter’s Facebook page.
He also admitted he felt sick with cold-like symptoms that weekend, but pressed on with Mass anyway.
“Once I started having cold symptoms and not feeling well, I should have immediately stopped celebrating Masses,” he wrote. “I regret that I did not do this. I will not make this mistake again.”
In the more recent letter to the community, dated Tuesday, Montoya wrote that none of those tested so far — two deacons, other church staff and “many” parishioners who attended weekend Mass — were positive for COVID-19, the potentially deadly respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.
It wasn’t clear exactly how many of the 250 exposed were tested, or when those results came back.
“I apologize for failing in my duties as a pastor and a good neighbor,” Montota said in his letters.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered places of worship statewide to once again suspend indoor, in-person services due to surging COVID-19 activity across most of California.
St. Peter will hold Mass this coming Sunday in its parking lot, the church said on Facebook.
How bad is COVID-19 situation in Dixon, Solano County?
Solano is among more than 30 counties currently on the state health department’s watch list for those with elevated COVID-19 activity. It’s on the monitoring list due to rapidly increasing hospitalizations, with 55 patients in Solano hospital beds as of Thursday afternoon’s update from the county.
The Solano County health department’s COVID-19 data dashboard also shows its 7-day average for positive test results at 8.4 percent, which exceeds the threshold of 8 percent that automatically puts counties on the state watch list. That metric, which can be used to better track the actual spread of the virus while accounting for increasing capacity for testing, was close to 2 percent from mid-May through early June in Solano.
The county as of Thursday reported just shy of 2,500 total coronavirus infections, 440 of which are considered active, as well as 31 fatalities since the pandemic started. More than 130 of the cases have come in Dixon.
At roughly 20,000 residents, rural Dixon is Solano’s second-smallest city, behind Rio Vista. Its 133 cases represent an incidence rate of 672 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the course of the pandemic. That’s nearly the same as that of Vallejo and more than 60 percent higher than that of Vacaville, where the rate has been 415 infected per 100,000. Those two cities in Solano County each have more than quintuple Dixon’s population.
For comparison, Sacramento County as a whole has reported an incidence rate of roughly 435 cases per 100,000 residents since the health crisis began, with just over 6,500 confirmed infections among about 1.5 million residents.
This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 12:27 PM.
