How dioceses are tackling 2019 Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19)

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Here are the Diocese of Dallas policies:
  • Please stay home if you are sick or are experiencing symptoms. If you are ill, you are not bound by the obligation to attend Mass, including on Sunday. Out of charity to others, sick individuals should not attend Mass or other liturgical events.
  • Distribution of the Precious Blood from the chalice is suspended until further notice.
  • The Sign of Peace is temporarily suspended . After the Our Father and Prayer of Peace, the Lamb of God will follow immediately.
  • We do not encourage the holding of hands during Mass.
  • If applicable, please strongly consider receiving Communion in your hand rather than on the tongue.
As much as I prefer receiving on the toungue, I will likely start receiving in the hand. I do not believe it makes any difference as to the disease spreading at all, but I suspect most EMHC and priests and deacons disagree with me, so out if respect to them I will change for the time being.
 
My archdiocese
No Holy Water, physical contact sign of peace, CITH only, no precious blood
 
At my parish, sign of peace with handshake is more optional. The priest said for ppl not to take offense, if someone opts out of hand shake. However, lector shakes hands.

I went to another parish, today, for first friday mass. They totally did away with sign of peace. Also, the blood. Same diocese, different interpretation from letter from bishop.

Personally, I would not mind it being removed from mass, permanently.
 
1ke said:
In our diocese we are having communion only under the species of bread, and we are not shaking hands at the peace. And it’s being emphasized that if you are sick, you’re excused from mass and please stay home. But honestly we put this in the bulletin every year during flu season.
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Similar to the guidelines shared here in Omaha, NE. Although they have not been implemented diocese-wide…it is mostly at an individual parish level. Most priests that I have seen are choosing to go ahead and forego hand-shaking and distributing the Precious Blood at this time.
 
Slovak Conference of Bishops was asked by Prime Minister of Slovakia to limit number of Liturgies held with high number of faithful. Since that was today I don’t imagine they have met yet, but Archbishop of Bratislava and Primate of Slovakia, Mons. Stanislav Zvolenský, who presides over our conference of Bishops (which also includes Eastern Catholic Bishops), has issued statement which roughly contains following “recommendations” for the Priests and Laity: (translated by me)

To withhold from giving sign of peace or replace it with respectful bow
To stop gatherings of the faithful in great number other than Liturgical celebrations
To stop all pilgrimages outside or inside the country
To stop using Holy Water fonts
To not attend Mass if someone feels sick, as a duty to fellow Catholics
Priests are asked to uphold highest hygiene and use disinfection before celebrating the Mass
To remove spare Rosaries and Liturgical books from the Churches (as they are shared by people generally)
To hold confessions in old-style confessional rooms and also enforce that wall separating Priest and Penitent by some material which prevents spread of disease
To pray for all infected and all who work to stop the virus

He also asks all faithful to maintain order and to not panic, as well as to heed advice and obey rules stated by Prime Minister, government officials and doctors… and to not cease helping those who need us.

I should also mention that in Slovakia, Communion in the hand is not allowed and hence only Communion on the tongue remains valid options. Precious Blood is almost never distributed to general laity (that being allowed either on specified Feasts or when small number of people are present at the Liturgy). This is not because of the virus, but standard practice of Slovak Church. I imagine that distributing Precious Blood to Deacon and/or Acolytes/EMCHs will be stopped by Priests too.
 
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Alright update to previous post: Communion in the hand was allowed (not enforced) in Archdiocese of capital city. Other dioceses might follow.
 
Titivillus said:
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Gorgias:
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1ke:
In our diocese we are having communion only under the species of bread, and we are not shaking hands at the peace. And it’s being emphasized that if you are sick, you’re excused from mass and please stay home.
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The bishop of my diocese just implemented these measures today, effective immediately.
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Likewise

ETA: I forgot: We have also been directed to drain and clean the holy water fonts at least weekly.
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Huh. Did not dawn on me until Mass this morning : Though I complied with the above guidelines, I also deliberately touched my face – forehead and lips (LIPS! As well as my heart) – just before the Gospel.
 
Masses in Slovakia have been cancelled. So have Greek Catholic Liturgies. Byzantine Rite Priests were even prepared to give communion in the hand to prevent this! Despite that not being norm, nor traditional nor heard of in Byzantine Rite. Yet, nothing helped. Bishops said that they did it not to please secular powers, but to prevent spread of disease. Priests and Laity are split on this, some are apparently going to disobey Bishops and some are begging for everyone to obey Bishops. There is many controversy surrounding this.

Please do pray for us, if you can.
 
The bishops in Pennsylvania have dispensed the faithful from Sunday Mass obligation until further notice. 😲

Locally, regularly scheduled Masses will continue for those who do wish to attend.
And Lenten fish frys are encouraged to operate on a take-out only basis, if they choose to continue at all.
 
Not a Catholic diocese, but my Anglican diocese has recommended suspension of Eucharist for the remainder of Lent in favor of morning prayer. But if Eucharist is to be offered engage in extensive hand sanitization during the offertory, eliminate kneeling, suspend intinction (if not the blood), use high alcohol wines only.

Also no passes collection plate.
 
Because you tend to lean on the altar rail (and kneel on the floor) when kneeling and neither is sanitized between communicants.
 
All dioceses in Quebec: no Saturday or Sunday Mass or Liturgy of the Word until further notice.
1Lord1Faith said:
It seems a little late for that. IDK why so many people are freaking out about this virus. It doesn’t even compare to a regular seasonal flu.
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The fatality rate an order of magnitude greater than the average seasonal flu: 0.1% vs anywhere from 1 to 3% depending on how good one is at tallying the symptomless or with mild symptoms who don’t check with health authorities. Assume that maybe up to 5% end up in intensive care, and another 15% require hospitalization.

Now take a small city of 100k and 30% become infected, a not unreasonable number. In Quebec there’s an average of 11 ICU beds per 100k population. So 30k become infected and 5% need an ICU bed with ventilator. You will need 1500 beds but you only have 11. Even one percent in the ICU will totally overwhelm your resources. And you still have heart attacks to deal with, but no place to care for them.

That’s why this is such a big deal. Even a 10% infection rate will require a minimum 100 ICU beds. Then you end up with collateral deaths, due to lack of capacity, and being obliged to make difficult decisions on who gets treated and who is left to die.

This can totally overwhelm even the best health care system. Cold hard, heartless math.
 
OraLabora said:
The fatality rate an order of magnitude greater than the average seasonal flu: 0.1% vs anywhere from 1 to 3% depending on how good one is at tallying the symptomless or with mild symptoms who don’t check with health authorities.
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I really don’t think anyone knows what the fatality rate is. Here in Ohio, this afternoon, we were told by our governor that at least 1% of the population of Ohio has the virus right now. But there are very few confirmed cases.
 
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The fatality rate comes from other places that have been dealing with widespread outbreaks. South Korea which is hard-hit apparently have the best numbers and lowest death rate:

www.businessinsider.com

One chart shows how the coronavirus is more deadly than the flu even in South Korea, where the COVID-19 death rate is low

South Korea has reported lower coronavirus death rates than other countries. But even those rates indicate COVID-19 is far more deadly than the flu.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com

As you can see in the 65+ age group the death rate from COVID-19 is an order of magnitude greater than the seasonal flu. Even in my age group, 60-64, the death rate is over 1%.

Again, numbers like this can totally overwhelm a health care system.
 
For my area:(wonder how they will handle Easter first communion.)
  • The sick or a member of the Christian faithful who has a compromised immune system are to refrain from attending Mass.
  • Holy water fonts without a filtration system and continual flow of blessed water are to be emptied.
  • Physical contact is suspended before, during, and after Mass and at other liturgies, encouraging the “social distancing” necessary to assist keeping everyone as healthy and safe as possible. The Sign of Peace is to be offered, but without touch.
  • Those administering Holy Communion are to be in good health, free from symptoms of illness and have not been in contact with someone who was ill in the previous 14 days.
  • Distribution of Holy Communion from the chalice – beyond the presider and any concelebrants for a valid Mass – is suspended.
  • As our Masses are less than 1,000 persons, their celebration continues to be offered daily and on weekends. Presently, Masses are not cancelled.
  • Decisions on other liturgical celebrations, for example, the Chrism Mass will be determined at a later date.
  • Contingency plans are in place to respond to this developing situation and further monitoring will allow additional communication of updated guidelines and steps to address this virus while caring for the common good and our most vulnerable persons at this time.
    Dominus vobiscum
 
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OrbisNonSufficit said:
Masses in Slovakia have been cancelled. So have Greek Catholic Liturgies. Byzantine Rite Priests were even prepared to give communion in the hand to prevent this! Despite that not being norm, nor traditional nor heard of in Byzantine Rite.
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How would CITH work in the Byzantine Rite? Administering the Body only? Licit, given the circumstances, to use Latin-style unleavened hosts?
Agnus-Dei said:
For my area:(wonder how they will handle Easter first communion.)
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If need be, Easter first communion could be postponed. That wouldn’t be the end of the world.
 
No sign of peace
No hand holding during the Our Father (our Pastor wants people to stop that anyway)
Eucharistic ministers asked to wash their hands immediately before serving communion. Priests, deacons and altar servers have hand sanitizer and are all using it before and after serving communion.
Priests and deacons are not shaking hands with parishioners as they normally do after Mass.
Hand sanitizer provided for parishioners.
St. Joseph’s feast, St. Patrick’s dinner and Lenten fish fry dinners unfortunately were all cancelled.
Communion with bread only (chalice not usually offered anyway) and only on the tongue (we’re rogue like that…other parishes are only in the hand)
Holy water emptied (individual bottles are available for personal use, suggested donation of $1 to cover the cost of the he bottles.)
Elderly, immune supressed, sick, caretakers, and those who feel anxiety over about coming to mass are excused.
Extra cleaning measures.
Ushers holding doors open for mass.

Our community has a few confirmed cases.

Of note, I had dinner with a priest friend in another diocese this evening and asked what he thought of the Pope’s request that priests minister to the sick. He laughed a bit in frustration over the directive because he is being blocked from doing so. He went to visit, hear confessions and offer communion at a nursing home today and wasn’t allowed entrance. He is phoning his usual people there but said many cannot hear well so he may send weekly letters until he is allowed in again. He is worried about not getting in if annointing of the sick is needed and is concerned that the prisons and hospitals he visits may implement similar policies.
 
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We just had new restrictions imposed (I really would prefer that they didn’t drop these on us on a Friday afternoon!):

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At least one parishioner who receives on the tongue e-mailed me with concerns yesterday (when it was still business as usual) so I’ve said in this Sunday’s newsletter that any one with concerns should feel free to talk to me. Must remember to empty the stoups before Sunday and still have to get to the rest home!
 
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