As coronavirus spreads, churches outside China take preventive measures
- Catholic News ServiceJan 28, 2020
Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand are the worst affected outside the mainland, and the Diocese of Hong Kong issued guidelines that included all priests and Eucharistic ministers wearing surgical masks while distributing Communion.
In a Jan. 23 statement, the diocese noted the epidemic was only considered “serious.” “In the event that the epidemic is raised to the ’emergency’ category, our pastoral guidelines will be revised accordingly,” the statement said.
The diocese noted that hospitals had suspended day-to-day visits and said Eucharistic ministers and visitors should abstain from visiting or giving Communion to sick people in hospitals. If a priest is needed for the sacrament of the sick, “he should comply with the directions of the hospital, consult the matron of the ward concerned, and wear a surgical mask. Before leaving the ward, he must wash his hands.”
Diocesan guidelines included cleaning directions - including microphones used by lectors - and instructed people to bow their heads instead of shaking hands during the sign of peace.
16 comments:
Caption contest:
“Beijing bishops strictly enforce ban of communion on the tongue.”
Bee here:
Fr. Kavanaugh's head must be exploding....
God bless.
Bee
Nope. No exploding heads here.
Isolation is the way to stop the spread of a virus, a step that should be taken when the circumstances warrant.
What we've seen with the flu in this area doesn't warrant such measures. Fr. McDonald, due to his germ paranoia, wants to end communion in the cup under normal circumstances, and uses the local flu season or the Chinese coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, 7,986 miles from Savannah as the crow flies, to support his assertion.
I don't share his irrational fears, and for good reasons.
Just keep in mind, China is linked to Atlanta and Atlanta’s international airport, the busiest in the nation, is 60 miles from our diocese.. faith and reason walk hand in hand and so does fear and courage, both a bit irrational but oh so necessary for human survival.
Yes, Hartsfield-Jackson is a busy place for international flights. So are other US airports.
Hence, "For the past week, the agency has been actively checking travelers from Wuhan for symptoms at five airports: San Francisco International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. There are no longer any direct flights leaving Wuhan, but the CDC will still be monitoring any people who passed through Wuhan during travel and are still in the process of returning to the US.
The 20 airports that are now part of screening efforts are the US’s existing quarantine stations — ports of entry into the country that are always staffed with public health officials who watch for any sick international travelers. “We’re building on our regular day to day activities,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during the press conference."
Faith, the supernatural kind, will do little or nothing to prevent contagious individuals from landing in Atlanta. Reason, as expressed in the screening being carried out, will be our best precautionary measure. There's nothing irrational about screening travelers who may have been exposed.
Wherein Fr. Z actually makes sense for a change: "A little anxiety can create clear thinking. A lot of anxiety can cause paralysis."
Yes, Fr. Z is right and evidently you have a lot of anxiety causing you paralysis even to the point of doing nothing until is is way too late. Commonsense things right now would be the elimination of the common chalice and perhaps the handshake or kiss of peace. Later might mean masks and surgical gloves to distribute Holy Communion or the priest only receiving Holy Communion on behalf a the congregation.After all Church law says we need only receive once a year and at Eastertide. If a pandemic occurs, we need to have some steps, not all at once but incrementally and maybe we can head off what has happened in China. For years they ate animals no human should eat and lived with these animals and now they are catching the diseases that once only the animals spread to other animals. We've been doing the common chalice in the most unsanitary way possible, which would get a restaurant closed down by the health department, and the days are coming that this will bite us in the butt.
"Commonsense things right now would be the elimination of the common chalice..."
Not really. Unless you also ban the use of shaking hands as people arrive outside church, unless you install automatic opening doors to eliminate doorknobs, unless you suspend accepting cash in your collection baskets, and somehow control the coughing, sneezing, nose wiping, baby drooling, eye scratching, hiccupping, and, at some point, the very breathing of the folks in your church, you won't achieve your goal.
"If a pandemic occurs" is a good phrase - keep it in mind. Right now, we have no pandemic and appropriate steps are being taken to control the spread of the disease where it is present.
"For years they ate animals no human should eat..." What the heck does that mean? Just because YOU don't eat animals that people in other cultures eat doesn't mean they shouldn't be eaten.
From my perspective, no human should eat an oyster. For Pete's sake, it's snot in a shell. And God didn't put it in the mud under the water so we'd see it and say, "Oh! That looks delicious!" But I don't go on to say "These are animals no human should ever eat."
Want to get some REAL anxiety going? Did you know the FDA allows:
1,175 insect fragments per 10 grams of marjoram?
300 insect fragments per 10 grams of oregano?
9 rodent poop pellets per kilogram of wheat?
13 insect heads per 100 grams of fig paste?
60 mites per 100 grams of frozen broccoli?
20 maggots per 100 grams of mushrooms?
And rodent hair is also allowed in peanut butter, popcorn, apple butter, chocolate, cocoa powder, corn meal and macaroni.
Enjoy your day.
New Coronavirus Facts and Misinformation - https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/new-coronavirus-facts-and-misinformation/?fbclid=IwAR1tbcIq7n9ZBTNUghxqiWmP1IG3kHdlzD72kGEciMwbfcQGHrr_y7RGDSA
It is a simple decision each of us communicants must make: Do I receive from the common Chalice (both in and out of flu season)? For years now, I have chosen not to do so. Instead I bow my head as I pass by the Chalice, acknowledging that He is there.
I try not to disrespect anyone else’s personal decision about such important matters.
If cases of the Coronavirus appear locally, much careful thought must be given to receiving the Eucharistic Body. The real problem, as CDC director Dr. Fauci has reported, is that this virus can be spread by someone who has no signs or symptoms of infection. An infected but asymptomatic Communion Minister or Communicant is therefore a possibility one has to consider without anxiety/panic, but rather with prayerful deliberation. As FRAJM points out here, there is no penalty in not receiving, nor should one be shamed for this decision.
Anonymous 10:58 - Very well said.
"If" the virus were to appear locally is something to keep in mind.
A@10:44, if it’s well cooked or pasteurized ,it is edible and any bacteria is killed.
Raw oysters are dangerous to eat and restaurants now offer disclaimers? Cooked oysters pose no problem. Eating a raw oyster might kill you, but it isn’t contagious. Why has an animal virus once only contagious between animals now spread from animal to humans and easily so now from human to human?
Eating anything is "dangerous."
Eat too many M&M's and you'll die. Should there be a disclaimer? E.Coli on lettuce can make eating that dangerous. Oysters are no more dangerous than many other shellfish. Many of them are filter-feeders - they eat most anything, including bacteria, that are carried in the water that they ingest.
"Why has an animal virus once only contagious between animals now spread from animal to humans and easily so now from human to human?"
That's an easy one. Mutation.
"The virus has already likely mutated to acquire the capacity to “jump” from animals to humans and to be transmitted person-to-person. Since this is an RNA virus, it will continue to mutate as long as it continues to circulate in humans. Additional mutations as the virus adapts to the human host may make the virus less severe or more severe, or less or more efficient in spreading. It’s too early to tell what will happen, which is why ongoing surveillance by sequencing virus genomes is so important." (www.uscf.edu)
Coronavirus is an RNA virus, as opposed to something like smallpox which is a DNA virus. "RNA viruses, on the other hand, replicate without a similar proofreading activity, and as a result, errors in the genetic coding occur. Its these errors that allow RNA viruses, such as influenza and HIV, to mutate rapidly from host cell to host cell, and make it difficult for vaccines and natural immunities to keep up and prepare for new strains of the virus." (www.cbc.ca)
Science.
Anonymous @ 10:58
Ten or so years ago I regularly worshipped at a cathedral which offered Communion in both kinds and having received the Host had to pass in front of a woman holding a chalice. I wondered whether or not to genuflect, but received the following advice: 'No, she should genuflect to you, since you are holding the Body of Christ on your tongue.'
Although somewhat facetious, it made the valid point that strictly speaking there is no requirement for any gesture, although there is nothing wrong with doing so.
Latest news from that area is them banning reception of the Sacrament on tongue and reception now only in-hand...
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Church-issues-directives-to-avoid-coronavirus-contagion--49169.html
I agree with Father in a practiced person is safer in not touching communicants via reception on tongue, but I also know many priests, deacons and "extraordinary" ministers have a terrible time with on the tongue, and likely safer in the hand...but SAFEST would be intinction or only the bread if folk were trained better.
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