Amid the growing COVID-19 outbreak, Catholic churches in Italy and the Philippines took steps to protect the faithful.
, including canceling meetings and asking parents not to bring children to church if they’ve recently traveled to Asia.Filipino Catholics wearing protective masks touch an image of Jesus Christ during Ash Wednesday services at a church in Paranaque city, Metro Manila, Philippines.taken steps to combat COVID-19
. The country’s bishops have asked people to receive the Eucharist with their hands, instead of having it placed in their mouths, and to avoid holding fellow parishioners’ hands during prayer. On Ash Wednesday, some priests chose to sprinkle ashes on parishioners’ heads instead of drawing a cross with the ashes on their foreheads. And looking ahead to the end of Lent, the bishops have advised Catholics not to kiss or touch the cross, which is a common act of veneration on Good Friday.
“Instead, the faithful are requested to genuflect or make a profound bow as they venerate the cross,” said Archbishop Romulo Valles, leader of the Philippine bishops’ conference, according to AP. Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Bo, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, cautioned that the outbreak “is not a time for mutual blame” but for “universal brotherhood.”
“Disasters and Virus pandemic periodically remind humanity that we all have only one planet: We either stand together or fall together. Lessons need to be learned, transcending parochial interests,” he said in a statement on Tuesday, according to the
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