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A collage of photographs from his time on work experience was presented in the church as one of the offertory gifts during Requiem Mass.

Whidden, a tenor, sang an offertory song titled “The Anchor Holds.”

The service itself incorporated many Indigenous elements and peoples, including an emotional moment when a woman in Native dress wept in front of Francis as she brought him the offertory gifts.

However, through the fall, offertories have been off around 10 percent.

There are similar challenges in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., where in-person attendance is roughly a quarter of pre-pandemic levels and offertory revenue is down about 10% after plunging 30% early in the outbreak.