ROME — After an outcry from the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says he has signed an accord with church officials to allow resumption of public Masses during the pandemic.
Under Italy’s two-month lockdown decree, no Masses for rank-and-file faithful have been permitted, although some churches could stay open for individual prayer.
Faithful in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation will be able to attend Mass starting on May 18, the same day that many more retail shops are tentatively scheduled to reopen.
The Italian Catholic Bishops Conference said the protocol reached on Thursday includes measures aimed at protecting Mass-goers from COVID-19 contagion, including the sanitizing of churches and objects used in them.
Italy Will Resume Public Masses
Mass deaths to follow.
It was interesting as this all began: here in NM we were having a bad flu year anyway.
First no shaking of hands at the Kiss of Peace; then no holding of hands at the Our Father; then they turned off the Holy Water Fountain. Then the churches were closed.
.
I have been watching Mass on tv.
I miss going to Mass, but I don’t know what I will do when they open Maybe like most Georgians I will stay home ‘still’ and just wait.
I know a lot of you ‘here’ do not understand what people get out of religion. It would be hard for me to explain,
I think the US Catholic Bishops have acted responsibly by closing all churches at this time. I just don’t know when it’ll go back to regular.
It has been a long time since I’ve been to church but isn’t the usual protocol for Priest to either hand the wafer over or in more traditional rituals to actually place wafer in worshiper’s mouth?
Either way, well within 6 feet?
Do I have this right? Because if that’s right, it might be fatal.
The priest hands the wafer OR the priest puts the wafer into the mouth of the Congregant.
That is why they cancelled services ‘for the duration.’
It’s the deep inhale in crowded interior spaces that bestows the covid upon you, not the praying.