Coronavirus Scare: Avoid kissing holy cross, on Good Friday, Church adopts precautionary steps

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), has written to parish priests, priests-in-charge, and head of institutions in the Archdiocese of Bombay to follow necessary precautionary measures against coronavirus. The cardinal, also the Archbishop of Bombay, asked the priests to discourage people from kissing the cross on Good Friday at the veneration of the cross. 

“The blessing with a raised cross will be adequate. Those who desire, they could come in a queue, make reverence with a bow and go back,” suggested the Cardinal in his letter. Meanwhile, the churches has asked the faithful to say namaste with folded hands instead of handshakes and avoid kissing the cross as precautionary measures. These temporary arrangements will be in force till Easter, which falls on April 12. The arrangements will be reviewed time to time. Cardinal Gracias also issued a prayer for victims, their families, doctors, and researches working to find a vaccine for the disease as well as government authorities to helm the affair.The priests and ministers should clean their hands in a bowl of water or with a sanitiser before the distribution of the Holy Communion. He also directed them to keep the holy water stoops dry. The Cardinal also asked the priests to temporarily suspend the meetings of cells, sodalities, and associations if there are indications that an individual of the community has been infected.