COVID-19 reality: Palm Sunday Mass without the crowd in CDO
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — There was no huge crowd of palm-waving parishioners at the St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral here this morning.
Archbishop Antonio Ledesma and a handful of priests from the Cagayan de Oro Archdiocese celebrated Palm Sunday Mass sans the big crowd of devout parishioners that used to mob the start of the Holy Week Celebration.
Instead Ledesma celebrated Palm Sunday Mass in front of the TV cameras and mobile phones that occupied the front row of empty pews at the St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral.
Only a few parishioners stood in front of the closed doors of the cathedral.
Many of the parishioners opted to stay in their homes fearful of being infected by the deadly COVID-19.
Fr. Der John Faborada, head of the archdiocese Social Action Center, said the Archdiocese decided not to hold Palm Sunday Mass and the rest of the Church’s rites with the faithful gathered in Church after the cases of COVID-19 mounted.
“We have to make a lot of sacrifices so that we can prevent the spread of the virus,” Faborada said.
The situation in Cagayan de Oro is also the scene in all the Catholic churches in the country such as in Cebu where the celebration of the Holy Week activities are going online — churches are closed and the celebration of the Masses are livestreamed through TV, radio or social media.
For Palm Sunday, Faborada said they encouraged parishioners to hear the Mass in the safety of their homes with fronds on their side.
He said the parishioners should consider their fronds already blessed despite the absence of sprinkling holy water.
Other parishes in Cagayan de Oro have priests riding on top of pick-up vehicles sprinkling holy water around the community.
In Barangay Patag, tanods went to individual houses to get the palm fronds for delivery to their parish church where a priest would bless them. The tanods would later bring back the palm fronds to their owners.
“Laborious but it is safer,” a resident said./dbs
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