Archdiocese of Bangalore to resume Masses from June 13 – Is it a right move?

Archdiocese of Bangalore to resume Masses from June 13 – Is it a right move?

The global pandemic

COVID-19 caught the entire world off guard and brought the global economy to a standstill. Governments around the world had to act swiftly and impose a lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. All public gathering including religious gatherings were banned. It is almost three months now since masses in Catholic churches in the diocese were stopped. Many spiritual die-hard churchgoers miss their daily mass and communion. There is something missing in their lives and online services are a solace for some. Many are disappointed that they are not able to go for Mass and there is a sense of frustration. Masses were stopped in Singapore from December 2019 itself and they have no plans of resuming soon.

Unlock 1.0
The ministry of home affairs Govt. of India in its unlock 1.0 has given guidelines for reopening religious congregation from June 8, 2020. The Catholic Church in India has a mixed approach to resume masses. Considering that the community spread is on the rise and many dioceses have opted not to restart the church services immediately.

The Archbishop of Bangalore Dr. Peter Machado has decided to go ahead and reopen the church under his jurisdiction with effect from June 13, 2020, as per a circular from his office.

A substantial number of religious and laity have some very serious concerns and wonder if it is wise to restart church gatherings for public mass when the virus is still spreading.

It must be recalled that churches were closed not fearing any law but it was more out of concern for the lives of the people.

Concern of the laity and religious

Medical professionals in the community are concerned and feel that this decision to resume masses in the churches on June 13 is not a right move. “ I am concerned that the churches are being opened up for celebrating holy Mass at a time when COVID is spreading like wildfire. We will not be able to follow precautions and the entire world will blame us the Christians when cases increase further” says Dr Christi, a medical practitioner at Church of South India Hospital.

“I hope the Archbishop takes a stand that we voluntarily delay services for another month at least,” says Dr Anthony Robert a prominent pediatric surgeon and medical ethicist in the country. He says with our laity used to touching and kissing so many statues in church premises it is not possible for the church to wipe every statue between kisses. Many of our clergy are on the wrong side of 50’s increasing the risk. I earnestly pray that we show leadership and show that even though the government has permitted the resumption of church services, we delay the resumption seeing the horrifying numbers that are increasing every day. We shut down everything when there were merely 100 cases in the whole country, now it is in lakhs and our Karnataka numbers are just beginning to climb. Dr. Anthony Robert appeals to the bishop that he reconsider his decision to resume church services in the Archdiocese in the light of the above facts.

Frank Chateliar a Catholic businessman feels the compliance list to be followed is a long and tortuous one. It is not practical to follow each one of them in the letter and spirit. There are bound to be lapses and if the health inspector has to turn a blind eye to this, it will give him an upper hand to manipulate the parish priest and this creates a scope for corruption. How many of the churches and religious places will be strictly able to follow it? He asks. Touching and kissing of statues will carry on, no matter what you do. It will be done for reasons such as ignorance, spontaneous reflex action, and out of sheer habit, he says. The six feet distancing and wearing of face masks, and temperature checks, no use of hymn books and so on are impractical. Hand sanitizing before entering the churches. How many of the churchgoers can carry their own sanitizers? Even if the churches provide sanitizers, for how long will they be able to do it. It is also mandatory for the churches to sanitize the pews after each service. How many churches have the resources to do all this? Today, COVID or no COVID many of our churches do not have clean toilets. Temperature checks of all people coming to church- do churches have additional trained staff for all this? A thought runs across your mind and you said – volunteers. How many will come forward and what will be their commitment. Consider a “rich catholic” coming to church and is not well, running a temperature. Can he/she be stopped from attending mass? Staunch Catholics having a brawl in parking lots over trivial matters before and after attending mass is a regular scene in our churches. Egos are going to flare up if any “rich catholic” is stopped from attending mass for he/has is having a high temperature.

A prominent priest in the community, who did not want to be named, feels this is not the right time to resume churches and smells a vested interest on the part of the Government and sees this as an attempt to eliminate the minorities. He says that mosques and churches always have huge congregations. It is possible that we are sitting on a powder keg of a community spread that will be triggered and this will result in huge deaths among the minorities. He feels this is a means of “eliminating the minorities”.

Another young priest in the diocese had a different take on this and felt that “public masses should resume and something is better than nothing”.

Another surgeon who is a practicing catholic feels that sometime soon you have to resume public masses, and if the church can strictly implement the guidelines keeping in mind the safety of the people it is okay. He also mentioned that he will not agree to the idea of giving communion in the hand as it is absolutely wrong from a moral and theological perspective, and he has strong objections to it. The Church must not encourage the idea of giving communion in the hand as it will become the norm. He feels that there is no evidence of spread or contamination when the communion is given in the mouth as has been the universal practice for thousands of years. He requested that the bishop seriously consider this and continue the existing norm with regard to the distribution of communion and not succumb to suggestions of any left-leaning liberals within and outside the church.

A qualified medical doctor who is studying for priesthood has some serious doubts about the number of COVID deaths reported by the government today. He wishes that the numbers are true as they are low in Karnataka as compared to other parts of the country and the world. This young enthusiastic to be priest soon feels that it is a “bad idea” to resume masses as most of the people coming to church are elderly, and we do not know who is a carrier and super spreader. Herd immunity will eventually come at the cost of many lives, but every life is precious. He feels that we need to exercise patience and caution and wait for another six months too before reopening the churches. He feels the guidelines are just not “practical”. He asks how do you restrict the footfalls at St. Mary’s Basilica Shivajinagar to just 33% of the regular service?

It is now entirely left to the wisdom of Archbishop of Bangalore His Grace Peter Machado to take an informed decision whether masses should be resumed in the Archdiocese on June 13. I am sure he has done his due diligence on this matter and has had broader consultations with all concerned, but this is the pulse of some people in the community.

The fact of the matter today is that COVID is on a rampage, medical science has not contained it. No one really knows what is happening and what is going to happen. One thing is for sure. Life is not going to be the same again. It is not yet post-COVID. COVID is here to stay for the time being, and we need to live with it by practicing some sense that is not common. Do no harm. Stay safe. On a philosophical note, COVID is a reality check. What is the purpose of life and where are we heading too?