Goa Church urges those with coronavirus not to attend prayer services, public functions

Hours after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant urged religious leaders in the state to appeal to their flock to not participate in mass gatherings, the Goa Church on Saturday issued an advisory in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

While Goa has not registered a single positive coronavirus case yet, the advisory has urged those Catholics infected with coronavirus to not attend mass or religious prayers and directed priests to increase hygiene levels at Church premises.

“If anyone has had contact with a person who has been diagnosed with coronavirus, please ask them to temporarily avoid coming to public functions where many congregate, for at least two weeks,” says the advisory, which is valid under Easter Sunday (April 12).

“Encourage our people to receive Holy Communion in the hand. Before the distribution of Holy Communion, the priest or minister could purify their hands in a bowl of water sanitiser. Holy water stoops may be kept dry,” the advisory instructs Catholic priests.

The advisory which has been endorsed by Goa’s Archbishop Fr. Filipe Neri Ferrao, also asks Catholics to avoid shaking hands and offer a ‘namaste’ as a greeting and requests them not to kiss the Cross, a symbolic exercise, during Good Friday proceedings.

“On Good Friday, at the veneration of the Cross, discourage people from kissing the Cross. The blessing with a raised cross would be adequate. Those who desire could come in a queue, make reverence with a bow and go,” the advisory states.

Earlier on Saturday, the Goa government ordered the closure of all educational institutes, cinema halls, pubs, night clubs, casinos, swimming pools, etc as a precautionary measure against the possible spread of coronavirus.