FAITH KNOWS NO DISTANCE. The Archdiocese of Jaro in Iloilo City responds to the coronavirus pandemic in faith, which churchgoers express in prayer and action, both personal and communal. At the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, parishioners attending Sunday’s Mass observe social distancing to avoid spreading the coronavirus disease 2019. IAN PAUL CORDERO/PN
ILOILO City – At the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral yesterday, the Sunday Mass was quite different.
Each pew, which could normally seat between eight to 10 people, only accommodated a maximum of two people.
The normally jam-packed cathedral was thus less crowded and more airy.
People attending the Mass, too, were wearing facemasks and had to undergo a footbath before entering the cathedral.
It was like this, too, in other parishes under the Archdiocese of Jaro in the provinces of Iloilo and Guimaras and the suffragan dioceses of Bacolod, San Carlos and Kabankalan, all in the province Negros Occidental, and San Jose in Antique.
Churches yesterday opened the Masses to the public over two months after shutting their doors due to the quarantine that the government ordered to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
According to Reverend Father Angelo Colada, director of social communications of the Archdiocese of Jaro, parishes were following the public health safety protocols recommended by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Archbishop of Jaro Jose Romeo Lazo, and various local government units.
“Together with the expertise of our health professionals and government efforts, we respond to the pandemic in faith which we express in prayer and action both personal and communal,” according to Lazo in March when he suspended Masses.
Among the protocols that churches now enforce are the following:
* observe physical distancing by accepting only 50 percent of the church’s normal congregation capacity
* place marks on pews and floors to guide the faithful where to sit and stand, thereby ensuring proper physical distancing
* wear facemask
* make available footbaths and hand sanitizers at entrances
* no kissing and touching of religious icons and no dipping of fingers into the holy water font or stoup
* no kissing during the exchange of the peace greeting
* no holding of hands during the recitation of The Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father”)
* during communion, the Eucharist should be received by hands
“Subong kay ‘no mask, no entry’ kita, nagapanabon gid sila sang bâbâ nila. Pero kun naga- communion by hand, kuhaon or buksan ang mask para kan-on ang Blessed Sacrament,” said Colada.
During communion, the faithful followed the markings on the floor as guide where to stand and keep a safe distance from others. There was jostling to get ahead of others and reach the priest first.
Colada said the number of Sunday Masses – and Masses in other days of the week – that a church could celebrate would be determined by the parish priest.
In fact, said Colada, some parishes started opening churches for Masses as early as May 17 “pero wala nila gin- announce publicly. Kon sin-o lang ang mga tawo nga nagkadto sa simbahan, gin- welcome sila .”
Other parishes, on the other hand, decided to wait for the end of the general community quarantine on May 31 before reopening churches for public Masses, said Colada.
He also stressed that, as part of the quarantine protocol, people 60 years old and older and those 21 years old and younger are not obliged to go to churches to hear Mass.
They can just watch Masses being livestreamed in the internet or on social media platforms such as Facebook.
But more than anything else, stressed Archbishop Lazo in March, the faithful must not cease praying.
“Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth,” he quoted Psalm 124, 8.
As a people of God, “We ask the Lord for His divine assistance to guide and protect us. This moment of crisis is a moment to strengthen our faith. Prayer casts away all fears.”
He exhorted the faithful to pray the following daily: the Holy Rosary, Litany of the Saints, devotion to San Roque, “the powerful saint implored during times of plagues”; and the Oratio Imperata against COVID-19./PN
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