Thread

"Grocery stores are open, pharmacies are open, why not churches???"
I agree fundamentally. We should be able to have them open, but I have seen no church that has gone the lengths these stores have gone to in order to be safe. 1/12

You come inside. Instead of a font of holy water, there's a bottle of holy water (which every1 touches) that you take from. This is much worse than from a font. You go to pray in a pew where other people have prayed (because you know, as long as it’s cleaned once a day. 2/12

You kneel to pray and your hand touches the pew in front of you. You make the sign of the Cross and touch your forehead. But hey, you’re “““6 ft away””” from someone else who’s praying, so you’re being careful. You go to stand in line for confession. 3/12

Oh, how nice, the penitents are socially distanced; they even put chairs 6 feet apart. You sit in the last chair where the penitent in front of u was seated before. You touch the side of the chair. You scratch ur nose. The line moves and you sit in the next chair. 4/12

The next person sits where you were. They touch the chair and a minute later rub their eye. Finally, it’s your turn. You kneel at the screen where 20 penitents before you have kneeled. You make the sign of the Cross and touch your forehead. 5/12

After confessing, you say ur penance in deep prayer, hands folded, rested on your lips. In the back of the church there’s a bottle of hand sanitizer. “Oh good, they’re being careful.” You go clean your hands & touch the bottle of holy water to bless yourself on the way out. 6/12

You touch the same door knob to leave that everyone else has since the last time it was cleaned. You leave the church. You touch your face.

Yet, When you enter the stores, the door opens automatically or is now propped open, There are wipes and hand sanitizer everywhere. 7/12

There’s a trash can where you can switch out your gloves. You only touch the things you’re buying. You are not resting your hands on your face, and you shouldn’t have a reason to touch your forehead. There’s hand sanitizer everywhere in case you feel like you need to use it. 8/12

Once we start putting in the necessary work to keep each other safe, then we can back up this proposition. It requires educating priests about this level of hygiene & even encouraging people to pray either standing or kneeling on the floor in a nave or alcove of the church. 9/12

It requires sectioning off a hallway or closing off an entryway to hear confessions there instead of an enclosed area or, better yet, hearing confessions outside. Outside devotionals/Exposition while we’re at it. Put hand sanitizersSSSS at various locations in the church. 10/12

Clean multiple times a day. We have to understand that the virus doesn’t care about our “not wanting to seem OCD or overkill” about cleanliness. It will take the chance it gets. Maybe you just get a sore throat. But that guy behind you in confession had asthma, so he died. 11/12

This is not forever, but this IS REAL. So let’s get as serious as the grocery stores have about it because we could be in for the long haul. 12/12
@catholicmed @PalmBeachCMA @CathMedStudents @CMAResidents @CLE_CMA @faithfulMDcoach @RICatholicMed @GChristiemd @PontAcadLife

@FrDylanSchrader @DioJeffCity @archstl @ICKSP @FrDaveNix @VudatNation @frajds @frjohnhollowell @padrebrendon @BradBradsweet @StFdSOratory @StJosephShrineD @ShrineLandmark @GuadalupeShrine

And while we're at it. We need #PPEforPriests to ensure safe & available Extreme Unction!

Also, while I have people’s attention, maybe we should rethink having pews at all. They’re a Protestant invention and are a pain to keep clean. Stand or kneel like our Byzantine brethren still do. Simple as.

#SocialDistancing #KeepChurchesOpen #KeepChurchesClean #PPEforPriests