A chara, – Some bishops have a short memory. It was not the Government that shut the churches for Holy Week and Easter 2020, but us the clergy, each bishop in consultation with his priests. The Government had offered church services with a maximum of 100 attending.
We decided, diocese by diocese, not to avail of that offer, as the maximum of 100 might not be able to be adhered to in all circumstances.
Then, when the first lockdown ended, the Government offered church services with a maximum of 50 attending, and the bishops, this time as a body without consulting the clergy, accepted it, although it was only half of what had been available throughout the previous lockdown!
Was there any thought about how it was going to be implemented?
As it turned out, in a small country parish such as this one, with three churches, with some extra Masses laid on, and with the reduced number of parishioners brave enough to attend anyway, we had little or no problem.
Some parishes continued in lockdown mode, for a time at least. The bigger parishes that did open had to issue tickets and devise systems of allotting them.
Later the bishops negotiated the pod system of having multiples of 50 in discrete sections of the bigger churches.
What if they had thought of that when the 100 was on offer! Using four doors, 400 in four pods, as against 200. Still small by the capacity of large churches, but an improvement. – Is mise,
An tAthair SEÁN Ó COINN,
Maothail,
Co Liatroma.