With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, the faithful are encouraged to physically attend the Masses in churches on Sundays. | File Photo (courtesy of Basilica del Sto. Niño)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — With the easing of the COVID-induced community restrictions and protocols, a conference of Catholic diocesan bishops has called on the faithful to physically attend Mass inside churches.
In a circular addressed to all the bishops and diocesan administrators on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President Pablo Virgilio David, D.D. and bishop of Caloocan, encouraged the faithful to return to Sunday Masses in churches.
“With gratitude to God, the pandemic has weakened, and our official health experts have placed the country into more relaxed health protocols. This has made our people move freely and return to their normal life and business with ease, but still following some basic health protocols,” David said.
“These circumstances permit and oblige us to return to the normality of Christian life, which has the Church building as its home of the celebration of the liturgy, especially the Eucharist,” he added.
The CBCP president maintained that as much as the online availability and attendance to Liturgical and Eucharistic celebrations “have valued service” to those who are sick and cannot personally go to church, no broadcast is comparable to nor can replace personal participation in Mass celebrations.
The CBCP has also encouraged its member dioceses to ensure that all health protocols are still implemented inside parish churches and make sure that their parishioners are convinced that they are safe inside churches.
It was in March 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s stricter measures, that the CBCP issued a circular informing the local ordinaries that they may exercise their prerogative to dispense the faithful from the Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation.
In the same circular the CBCP pushed for providing the celebration of the Eucharist through virtual means online, radio, and television.
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