Posted on 03/01/2020 5:48:48 PM PST by ebb tide
THIENE, Vicenza, Italy, February 27, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― Catholics are being turned away from even the sacrament of penance in at least one Italian town.
Several dioceses in Italy, including Bologna, Milan, and Padua, cancelled Ash Wednesday liturgies and have suspended all public Masses, thanks to the outbreak of coronavirus in the northern regions of Italy.
But the parish of the Madonna of Olmo in Thiene has gone even further, advising Catholics that they may not receive the sacrament of Confession. In a Facebook message, one of the Capuchin friars serving the community stated that, because of diocesan orders, “all the activities of the Sanctuary, Masses and Confessions, including the Ash Wednesday rite, Lauds and Vespers, the Way of the Cross, [and] Lectio Divina” are suspended.
Local Catholic Andrea Zanato photographed one of the placards affixed to the church stating “Confession isn’t possible.” On Facebook, he lamented that the Diocese of Vicenza had merely repeated the closures ordered by the Patriarchate (also Archdiocese) of Venice.
“It seems to me that these rules very much exceed common sense,” he wrote. “Not being available to hear confessions is really something incomprehensible.”
The church, like other churches affected by the suspension, is open for private prayers at certain hours of the day.
The cessation of Masses in these dioceses has been at the request of the Italian state. However, some Catholics have been questioning the cancellation of Ash Wednesday services and the suspension of other Masses in Northern Italy when shops, restaurants, and bars are still open.
Mauro Faverzani of Corrispondenza Romana reported that in Cremona, whose bishop has suspended all Masses, and whose mayor has suspended schools, the public market, sports, and other public events remain open and people throng in bars, restaurants, pharmacies, and shopping centers.
“Paradoxically [in Cremona] you can have an aperitif with friends, find yourself in a pizzeria and go to the shopping center, but you can’t receive the Eucharist, or pray together in Church to ask for protection against the coronavirus,” he wrote.
A Polish woman living in Italy complained to Fr. Dariusz Kowalczyk that it is not coronavirus, but Satan, that is attacking the country.
“How else to explain the situation when in almost all dioceses of northern Italy all Masses and liturgies in churches are banned, and bars, restaurants and shopping centers are full of people?” asked Wioletta Wroblewska of Mantua.
“I called the curia of the diocese in which I live, and the person on the other end of the phone couldn’t tell me how the virus from the bar differs from the virus from church. Is the virus from the bar okay, and only the one from church infects people?”
Wroblewska said that she had searched a 100-kilometer radius from her home to find somewhere to attend Ash Wednesday Mass without finding one.
But it seems that Catholics’ disappointments with the Italian Church’s measures have been heard. The Patriarch of Venice, Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, told Vatican News today that he will be representing the bishops of Italy in talks with the state.
“I do not question the decisions taken by the authorities,” he said.
“However, I see that other gatherings, e.g. in gyms, swimming pools, shopping malls and market halls, do not have the same restrictions as churches.”
Moraglia, 66, said that as chairman of the episcopal conference of the Triveneto region, he had spoken to 15 bishops by phone and would explain to the civil authorities on their behalf that the Church would like to find a solution “that would be acceptable to all, so that our communities can meet, especially for the Eucharist.”
The Patriarch will assure the authorities that the bishops will “of course” make sure that these gatherings are done in a careful manner, with a code of hygiene they will work out with the state.
“I think that we can come to an agreement to respect the requirements of the common good, but at the same time be able to participate in the Eucharist, especially now during Lent,” he said.
“Yesterday I remembered the faithful example of the martyrs of Abitena who risked their lives because, as they confessed, they could not live without the Sunday Eucharist. Today it is just as important for us as it was then for them.”
The Italian bishops’ willingness to suspend public worship was in contrast to the response of the Diocese of Hong Kong, where public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been organized, so that the faithful may pray for an end to the coronavirus epidemic. It is also in contrast to the response of their predecessors, who believed that such plagues were divine chastisements, calling for more public prayer, not less.
“Paradoxically [in Cremona] you can have an aperitif with friends, find yourself in a pizzeria and go to the shopping center, but you can’t receive the Eucharist, or pray together in Church to ask for protection against the coronavirus,” he wrote.
Ping
I think this is the “please don’t sue us” mentality. If somebody thought they caught coronavirus at church, they might sue. This way, no worries. The diocesan bank account is safe.
Not necessarily what Jesus cares about, but these days clergy listen to lawyers, not the Saviour.
One could make the same argument for sueing the bars, sporting events, stores, pizzerias, etc.
But they aren’t closing.
My understanding is that it is actually the government of Italy outlawing the publicmasses- but the dioceses are going along with it. The SSPX put out a statement complaining that the government was allowing sporting events but not masses.
I am embarrassed to say I posted before reading the article. At least I am probably not the first Freeper ever to have done so!
So, never mind my post. Sorry to waste people’s time.
.
Perfect depiction of modernism - the Eucharist and Confession, the best protection against spiritual death, cancelled due to a micro-chance of natural death.
Exactly!
But, consuming the wine, the BLOOD of Christ has temporarily been suspended.
There is always intinction.
I go to Mass six days a week and EVERY one of those days I've been receiving the BODY of Christ. The BLOOD of Christ has been temporarily suspended.
I've been doing this non-stop for some thirty years.
Of course I did get the Asian flu EONS ago and was SICK AS A DOG for over two weeks. It was HORRIBLE. I obviously survived and I haven't had the flu or a cold since then.
A couple of years later, after the Asian flu had run its course, the HONG KONG flu appeared. I didn't get sick from that one.
Years later the SWINE flu appeared. My husband and I had a horrible fight. I WOULDN'T get the vaccine, as I had already had the Asian flu. Husband got the vaccination and I didn't.
Guess who got the flu and who didn't. Husband had the vaccination and STILL got the flu. Me? No shot and no flu.
Google
The 1968 flu pandemic was a category 2 flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one million people worldwide. It was caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, descended from H2N2 through antigenic shift, a genetic process in which genes from multiple subtypes reassorted to form a new virus. Because it originated in Hong Kong, the pandemic is also referred to as Hong Kong flu.
Some Catholics don’t realize that both the Body and Blood of Christ are in both the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Blood.
That was NEVER allowed wherever I've been. I did try it once when it was still allowed to be done. But that didn't last long where I go to Church.
When we lived in the Middle East and in all our travels I took Communion the usual way...consumed both the Blood and Blood...and there was NEVER any intinction.
Not true.
The captioned dioceses have suspend all public Masses, including Holy Communion of both Precious Species.
The those "some" are either idiots, morons...or liars about attending Mass and consuming the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus.
HOW on EARTH could they ever call themselves CATHOLIC? Holy Communion is the ESSENCE of Mass. Always was; is now; always will be.
I had a holy diocesan priest who offered the TLM once on Sundays, but the rest of his Masses on Sundays and weekdays were all novus ordo Masses. And he kept the altar rail in his church.
At the novus ordo Masses, he would only offer Holy Communion, by intinction, to people kneeling (those physically able to kneel) at the altar rail; thus everybody received on the tongue.
What I find hypocritical is that intinction (Body and Blood of Christ) is only permitted on the tongue, yet the Body of Christ, alone, is slapped on the hand.
Is the Blood more precious than the Body?
The article is about dioceses in northern Italy.
Did you miss that?
I did.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I'm getting tired. Time to shut off the computer.
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