In a message to the priests of his diocese, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin told them they must prepare a detailed plan for their parishes so that they will be ready when restrictions on public worship begin to ease.
Under the Government’s five stage road map, churches south of the border are expected to be allowed to reopen for Mass, with restricted numbers, from 20 July onwards.
In his message, Archbishop Martin set out a checklist of questions that each parish should be asking as it prepares its plan and reflects on its needs ahead of reopening for Mass.
At the moment, many churches in Dublin are open for private prayer, though elsewhere around the country, churches are completely shut. In Northern Ireland all churches were shut by the government.
In the Dublin guidance, Archbishop Martin has stressed that social distancing is not simply a question of marking out places on Church benches. Questions also arise about entrance and exiting, about those with physical disabilities, of access to Holy Communion, of toilet and washing facilities, of cleansing or sanitising of Churches.
The checklist says that for Holy Communion the preferred option is for communion to be brought to people rather than by a procession to the altar and that Communion should be distributed in the hand only and the Communion Minister should not touch the hand of the communicant.
On the cleansing of churches, the advice notes that places of worship, including sacristies, are to be regularly sanitised after each celebration by cleaning with suitable antiseptic cleaning material and that at the end of each celebration, sacred Vessels, cruets and other objects, including microphones are to be carefully disinfected. Holy Water fonts are to remain empty.
On church capacity, the Dublin advice recommends that once a seating plan has been decided, each parish should clearly define the maximum number of people that the Church can hold. Noting that Swiss authorities suggest that this will be about one third of the normal attendance, Archbishop Martin has highlighted that parishes must also consider how to deal with possible larger attendance.
Speaking to RTE Radio’s Today with Sarah McInerney on Wednesday Archbishop Martin warned that the scale of the “reopening of churches for worship has serious public health concerns and we have to make sure that we are ready for them.”
He highlighted that on an ordinary Sunday before the Covid-19 restrictions about 200,000 people attended Mass in Ireland’s largest diocese. “That is a huge movement of population.”
He stressed that parishes must responsibly ensure that anybody who comes to Mass when the restrictions are lifted feels safe in church.
On the necessity for reduced congregations to ensure social distancing, the Archbishop of Dublin said one way to deal with this would be to remove the Sunday obligation so that people could go to Mass on any day during the week.
Another way would be to hold a second Mass in a particular church but that would involve sanitising the church fully between the two services.
He also highlighted that every church is different. “We have some very large churches and we have very small churches. The first thing that has to be done is to measure your church and see what would be a safe number of people that would be able to come on a particular Sunday.”
“Some people will say that is simply a matter of putting numbers on benches, but people have to get to the church. You would have to have separate entrances, you would have to have hand sanitising at every entrance and that will take time, so you will maybe have queues forming outside churches.”
Dr Martin said that churches in other countries which are scheduled to reopen have introduced “very strict and very rigid” measures. In Italy everybody has to wear a facemask in church and microphones and benches and other surfaces are sanitised before services.
Asked if the Irish faithful would be expected to wear facemasks in church, he responded, “If facemasks are becoming obligatory in closed spaces, I think you may be also looking at that in churches.”
“The question is, if a church is open, who can come in?” Archbishop Martin acknowledged that, there will be a lot of people who will not come back to Mass in the beginning because they are afraid or cocooned.
While admitting that online Masses have been “very important” in keeping the faithful in contact with the Church during the lockdown, Archbishop Martin added, “The church is about people coming together. The danger about the virtual is it can be very passive.”
Speaking about the challenges of funerals, Dr Martin said he was “really saddened by the tragic situation” that grieving families have had to contend with where people can’t come together. He also expressed solidarity with couples getting married in empty churches: “who would like to get married in a church like that”.
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