Some Christian leaders at houses of worship around the globe began the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday with tweaked rituals and caution in the wake of the deadly coronavirus while others remained shuttered in areas where cases have been diagnosed.
At the Vatican in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis held his general audience Wednesday as thousands of people gathered with face masks to hear him pray for coronavirus sufferers mask-free.
“I want to again express my closeness to those suffering from the coronavirus and the health care workers who are treating them, as well as the civil authorities and all those who are working to help patients and stop the contagion,” Francis said.
A number of masses in northern Italy were reportedly canceled due to coronavirus fears.
In the Philippines — one of two majority Catholic countries in Asia, the other being East Timor – instead of making the traditional mark of the cross of the foreheads of the faithful, priests sprinkled ashes on their heads to avoid physical contact.
“Wherever the ash is placed, on the forehead or on the head, the feeling is the same, it’s uplifting,” Editha Lorenzo, a 49-year-old mother of two who was wearing a face mask, told The Associated Press in Manila.
Teer Hardy, an associate pastor at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia, which has about 350 people on an average Sunday, described the Ash Wednesday ritual as “a very intimate moment.”
“You’re a couple of inches from someone’s face,” Hardy told The Washington Post.
Pastors at his church planned to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer before conducting the ritual.
SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair
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