Public Health
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    there will still be funerals

    Maybe. We were supposed to have a funeral Mass today, but the family called up yesterday to cancel. Just a graveside with the priest and a couple family-members. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a growing trend---actually it was already a growing trend; even daily Mass goers often had only grave-side services.
  • TCJ
    Posts: 986
    ...

    We've just been asked NOT to attend a funeral... >:-(
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,165
    I just got notified that the Diocese of Tyler has canceled all public Masses and prayer services. Baptisms - just parents & godparents. Weddings - only family and witnesses. Funerals - family only.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    That seems to be the standard most places. Our diocese has done the same.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    As of 3/17, about 90% of the dioceses appear to have stopped public Masses; this map doesn't reflect all the latest closures.
    image
    outage-map.jpg
    960 x 624 - 51K
    Thanked by 3CharlesW CHGiffen Chrism
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 1,023
    Posted these signs today. The map is out of date.
    20200318_145240.jpg
    2592 x 1944 - 2M
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    England&Wales
    The Bishops’Conference has today agreed that all public acts of worship in churches will cease as of the evening of Friday 20thMarch.
    .
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Nihil,

    Which diocese is now newly shrouded in black?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Here is CNA's list:
    https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/do-we-have-mass-coronavirus-closures-and-dispensations-in-us-dioceses-96801

    But in the past day (March 18), these dioceses announced closures:
    Raleigh, Kalamazoo, Corpus Christi, Superior, Little Rock, Tulsa, Erie, Boise, Saint Paul, Fort Worth, Lubbock, El Paso

    Leaving these:
    Charlotte (10 or fewer people)
    Brownsville
    Altoona-Johnstown (?)
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 1,023
    I'm in New Ulm, Minn.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    @ a_f_hawkins
    The Bishops’Conference has today agreed that all public acts of worship in churches will cease as of the evening of Friday 20thMarch.
    .

    But we can still go to the pub for a drink, walk in the park (recommended), and queue up in our local supermarket! etc.

    Some interesting reading,
    The bad news,
    https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf

    The good news,
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/03/16/diamond-princess-mysteries/

    The they don’t know what they are doing news,
    https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/
    Thanked by 2a_f_hawkins CharlesW
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    Absent testing we will never even find out what we were doing.
    At 81 I have, or should have, an about 10% expectation of dying within a year anyway. It's more important to be spiritually prepared than to evade the doubling of the risk.
    Thanked by 3tomjaw Chrism Elmar
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/nyregion/new-jersey-family-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,191
    Today, St. Joseph, was our last public mass in Palm Beach,Fl. I was happy that we sang it well and there was a huge crowd. And now we go into hibernation. My staff singers are out of a job and I have lots of practice time (not a bad thing). The sadness was palpable though in the congregation. We do not expect any change until May.....
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    Ubi duo vel tres congregati (sed non excessum decem)...
    Thanked by 6Drake a_f_hawkins chonak CHGiffen Chrism Elmar
  • Chrism
    Posts: 872
    Funeral Masses are being cancelled in some places - just graveside services.

    One church is livestreaming live religious/sacred music each day on Facebook to lift up the spirits of the faithful. Perhaps that could catch on.
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    Well, if graveside services, why not outdoor Masses, even if only the priest receives?
    Thanked by 4CharlesW tomjaw CHGiffen Elmar
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    That's not a bad idea. This idea that one has to receive communion at every mass is kind of a recent novelty. Outdoor masses would be good if a large enough pavilion could be rented. It has rained every day in East TN for weeks and shows no signs of ending.
    Thanked by 1Elmar
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    I think the contrary would be good. Indoor Masses followed by widespread distribution.
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,165
    Kathy, is that so we can kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible?
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    Kathy, is that so we can kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible?


    Let me get my list together of people to invite.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    Lol no. With precautions I believe the danger of transmission is nearly zero.

    1. Minister scrubs up like a surgeon.
    2. Minister wears a mask.
    3. Recipients keep distance from one another.
    4. If any contact occurs Minister re-scrubs.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Kathy,

    May I encourage a substitution of vocabulary?

    Everywhere you have "Minister" could you happily insert "priest"?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    It could be minister if EMHC are present. What about Deacons?

    I am a minister of pastoral music - if you ever call me that to my face I will slug you. LOL.
    .
    Thanked by 2WGS CHGiffen
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Charles,

    If the purpose of all the health restrictions is to reduce potential transmission, surely the fewer people distributing the better?
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,165
    Kathy, what about those in the congregation that are already infected but don't know it? They can spread Covid-19 to the rest of the congregation.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    I only use the word Minister to refer to clerics.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    We are not allowed to assemble enough people for it to matter. There was to be a funeral that had to be postponed because the entire family would exceed the ten people limit.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 872
    If the purpose of all the health restrictions is to reduce potential transmission, surely the fewer people distributing the better?


    I think it's the opposite. If you're close enough for Communion, then either minister or communicant can infect the other. If this is a repetitive thing, eventually the minister will become infected. Reducing the communicant to minister ratio will increase the time before the minister becomes infected, and reduce the impact when he or she does become contagious. Either way, it's a grim math. We should strive for zero-spread.

    What you could do is what they are doing for food delivery: leave a pyx at the door. Wait for the communicant to retrieve the pyx. Of course the pyx could have virus particles on it, so the communicant would have to pick it up with disposable gloves and leave it out for 3 days until opening the pyx and self-communicating (or, in households with several adults, each could administer to the other).
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    Well, they just closed all the bars. There'll be no joy in Mudville this Easter.

    Restaurants are closed except for takeout and the gyms are closed.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    UK too
    Here, not UK, the Governor declared a state of Emergency from 23:59 Tuesday, and took powers not used since WWII. One person has been arrested for breaching an order to self-quarantine for 14 days. We had a new assistant priest arrive on Wednesday, he has been required to self-quarantine for 14 days. And all public acts of worship in Catholic churches cease from this evening.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Where's "here", Hawkins?
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    The Isle of Man, central in the Atlantic Archipelago (formerly British Isles). 54°20'N 4°24'W
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen tomjaw
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Hawkins,

    You do know, don't you, that Europe is an island off the coast of Kent?
    Thanked by 2tomjaw Elmar
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    Oh yes, as a native of the County of Middlesex [which nurtured London for over a millenium, but was in 1965 consumed by its own child] I well know the complex of confusions about insular/insulated/isolated. It is embedded deep in the human psyche, we regarded Kent as terra incognita australis.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    So.... those of you on the mainland ....will you be invoking the aid of St Bede, or Our Lady of Walsingham, or St David or St. Andrew, or St. Benedict, or St Thomas More and St John Fisher?

    In my house, we've been invoking the protection of St. Patrick, by praying his Lorica as a novena.
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,100
    All saints through their litany
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    Does anyone else invoke St. Roch?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,827
    I am invoking the entire heavenly host including St. Roch. :)
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
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