Mapusa: For the second successive year, Mapusa’s Milagres Saibinn feast will be devoid of devotees in the church.
Just about 48 hours before the dawn of the feast, the parish priest issued a brief message stating that the public masses had been cancelled due to the pandemic and the new restriction imposed by the government.
“With the rise in COVID cases and in view of the latest restrictions imposed by the government authorities, the public Feast Day Masses of Milagres have been cancelled,” Parish Priest Fr Deniz Fernandes in a notice to the people stated.
He added that the Solemn Feast Mass will be streamed on YouTube so that people in their homes could participate.
This will be the second consecutive year people will be unable to attend the masses physically. Last year due to pandemic lockdown that was in force, the feast masses had been held behind the closed doors o the church while the fair outside had not been set up.
The devotees of Milagres Saibinn have taken the decision stoically. “Taking into consideration the rising number of COVID cases, it is a good decision. The government has also imposed strict restrictions to control COVID,” local resident Johny Fernandes said.
Another, Glen D’Souza said, “For the safety of people, especially the aged who are at home, they need to stay away for fear of getting infected. It’s better to stay at home and attend the mass online since people from all over visit the church to attend mass and by any chance even if a single person has COVID then all the people attending the mass will be infected.”
