Mousinho de Ataide
It is now three to four months that Coronavirus is scaring Goa. Though many have been diagnosed as infected and therefore are in different stages of treatment, all have been cured and not one has been proven and declared as having died due to this virus. Many more have been quarantined on the fear, founded or not, of having been infected and of being capable of infecting others. They are freed from isolation only after a cumbersome process. Lockdown of life and activities, with consequent restrictions and sufferings of people, is rightly or wrongly considered to be the necessary evil to combat the virus. Goans, known for their patience, have abided by them and are groaning from within, especially when these restrictive and obstructive measures are eloquently proclaimed and ruthlessly implemented late dark hours of the night, as if this could not have been done under the broad daylight.
Goa is sitting on a tinderbox of a variety of viruses, e.g. HIV, Hepatitis, TB, Dengue, Encephalitis, Malaria, Rabies, some of them fatal. We have a history of sometimes having defeated them and at other times of living and coping with them, causes being ascribed to preventive vaccines or therapeutic medicines as well as to acquisition of immunity, individual or communitarian. Nothing prevents us from hoping that in the course of time we will be successful against the new entrant COVID-19.Let our hopes be a reality soon.
It is a paradox that concomitantly with the new upsurge of cases rigours of the lockdown are being mitigated: Shops, markets, beauty parlours, factories, businesses, offices are opened, transport is functional, and exams are being held. As per my knowledge, libraries and places of worship are an exception. Libraries are repositories of culture and places of worship represent religion. Culture and libraries are not the concern of this article, and places of worship other than those of the Catholic religion are also not, because my knowledge of religions other than my own is limited.
•Catholic religion is a structured one, with the contents, the form and the place of its worship being regulated by the leaders of the religion. The latter are in a much better position to maintain discipline, order, social distancing in churches and chapels during religious services than the Government agencies, even by use of police force, are to maintain social distancing in shops, markets, fairs, public places ,etc. And, if the latter can be opened, there is no reason why Catholic churches and chapels cannot be opened even for the Sunday Eucharist or Mass. The Bishop can issue instructions on how to hold a Mass with people in attendance without any danger to health, and parish priests and chaplains can well be imaginative and innovative in this regard. Some following suggestions come to my mind:
•To start with, there could be public Masses on Sundays. They could be slowly extended to other days. Time for celebrating Sunday Mass starts from Saturday evening.
•There can be multiplication of Masses in a Church, so that small numbers participate in each Mass. The parish priest can arrange distribution of people, helped by leaders of Small Christian Communities.
•Masses can also be celebrated in all chapels.
•Goa has an abundance of priests, diocesan and religious, working in parishes and in institutions, old and young. All of them could well be called in for celebration of Masses.
•Dragging while celebrating a Mass is to be avoided. No introductory words, no Prayer of the Faithful, no long hymns, only one Reading besides the Gospel, a short homily of not more than five minutes, announcements to the minimum. The aim should be to end one Mass within thirty minutes.
•Socializing before or after Mass should be avoided.
•Everyone should wear a mask and keep safe distance one from the other. There should be ushers showing and fixing places.
•Volunteers can be there at the door of the church pouring one or two drops of the sanitizer liquid on each entrant’s palms. Parish priests can bless the sanitizer bottles, so that they can act also as a Holy Water. Priests and others, who distribute Holy Communion, also should use sanitizer.
•Holy Communion should be strictly received on hand, never on tongue.
•People should be in the church the minimum necessary time to take part in the Mass. They should enter the church some few minutes before the Mass and disperse soon thereafter.
•Only Mass may be allowed to be celebrated publicly in churches and chapels, not the other acts of worship, e.g. Rosary, Novena Prayers, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Charismatic meetings.
Mass is the highest and most important act of Catholic worship, sacramental reception of the Eucharist being an integrating element thereof. Hence watching Mass on TV is not a substitute. Participation in the Mass is obligatory on Sundays and highly recommended on other days.
Business people opened their business, transport owners began plying their vehicles, etc, because they urged the Government to allow them, convincing it that this was necessary for their livelihood and not necessarily harmful to public health. Should not our Bishop, if he has not done it, urge the Government to allow opening churches and chapels for Mass on Sundays, convincing it, on one side, that it is an exercise of the fundamental right to practise our religion, and, on the other side, assuring it that the Church is capable of maintaining social distancing during the celebration of the Mass and preventing any contagion? The Church can confidently give this assurance, because it is well capable of fulfilling it.
(Fr. Mousinho de Ataide is a Professor of Latin at the Seminary of Our Lady, Saligao)