#Archbishop Dolan celebrates first in-house Mass at St. Pat’s since March

Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan on Sunday celebrated the first in-house Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral since mid-March, when the coronavirus began gripping New York City.

“Yesterday, the cathedral was completely sanitized,” the Catholic leader, who walked onto the altar in a white mask, assured the smattering of worshippers in the pews for the live-streamed service.

The Manhattan church had tweeted out video of cleaning crews in hazmat-like suits sanitizing it Saturday.

“I sometimes think we’re getting ready for surgery instead of Mass. But it’s essential, isn’t it,” Dolan told the worshippers, who were required to wear masks and stay 6 feet apart from non-family members for the famed church’s first public Mass in two and a half months.

Crowd capacity was limited to 25 percent for the service, although church Msgr. Robert Ritchie indicated that there were fewer people in attendance, saying in his opening remarks, “Obviously, there is no problem [with social distancing] today.

“We hope at some time we will have many, many more actual parishioners,” he said.

Ritchie asked worshippers to pray for a church usher who died Saturday, as well as his cousin, who passed away the same day. The archdiocese did not immediately respond to a question from The Post as to whether either man died from COVID-19.

No programs were handed out at the beginning of Mass, and the priests wore masks as they gave out Communion.

“It’s just been so haunting these last 14 sundays, including Palm Sunday and Easter  Sunday and Penatcost, to offer Mass in an empty church,” Dolan said in his closing remarks, noting that services had only been live-streamed up till this point because of the virus.

“That’s why I’m so overjoyed to see you all this morning.

“The church, of course, was never empty,” Dolan said of St. Pat’s when it was closed to the public for Mass. “The church was filled with the love of God.

“Thank God we have a lord who brings us together.”