The priest couldn’t administer communion today. He felt so weak, he couldn’t hold the chalice. His doctor says it’s because of the mask mandate. The priest is over 70 and has to sing into a mask for two hours 3 times a week. Because apparently the vaccine isn’t enough to protect him. He became deathly pale, lethargic, it was terrible to see.
The priest is a Democrat, by the way. In case anybody thinks he’s faking it for political purposes.
I thought there is an exemption from mask mandate for people who do public speaking (like a priest). Where I live, mask wearing by priests (Catholic) varies from no mask at all to mask on at all times with grades in between (i.e., mask off when they are speaking, on otherwise). From what I can tell they are the ones who are in the end making a choice on whether to mask or not.
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Very disturbing. Very sad.
I would hope your Bishop will explore some solutions.
Perhaps your priest might be encouraged to take some oxygen bottle breaks during services?
Assuming there is no deacon there to distribute the Gifts, perhaps one from another parish might volunteer his time to step in temporarily?
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“He was told the church will be shut down if anybody inside is unmasked.”
This speaks directly to the more profound issue – wokesterism seeks to replace Christianity as a religion and so is hostile to its practice.
Despite little or no evidence that church services spread Covid, they have enthusiastically/gleefully restricted/closed churches since the beginning of the Covid panic. Christians who have defied these lockouts have in too many cases been fined and imprisoned.
Our province, beginning at 12am this western Easter morning 2021, with almost no advance warning, instituted one of its strictest stay-at-home lockdowns. In so doing, they completely disrespected the many tens of thousands of faithful who had previously signed up to attend their already number-restricted Easter morning services. Provincial authorities could have begun their lockdown at say 2pm western Easter afternoon to give their Christians an opportunity to observe their holiest day of the year… (but ‘who cares about those people anyway.’) Despicable bullies.
Lord have mercy!
The poor man!
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On the plus side, our church lifted all restrictions this weekend since the seasonal flux is done with in our area (it’ll move north now, I guess). So we were able to go without masks for the first time in… I can’t remember how long. And I got to sing with the choir. And there was coffee hour!
NB mask is to protect others, not the wearer. (I’m not saying I think he needs one, isn’t he 6 feet away from others, etc.? But: exactitude.)
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But everybody else is masked, too. We have a blanket indoor mask mandate for everybody over 2.
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He could probably get away without wearing it. I mean, is there going to be an inspection / is someone going to call the police? (In once of my classes we’ve dropped the masks. It’s a small group and we know each other, know we won’t report each other. In larger classes I wouldn’t do that)
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“I mean, is there going to be an inspection / is someone going to call the police?”
“a state mandate or an archdiocese mandate…”
Yes, exactly. I would think it highly unlikely that an Orthodox priest would defy state regulations in full view of his parish without his Bishop’s blessing. Just not how they roll.
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A good friend of ours of a similar age caught a pneumonia from breathing into a mask during long periods of time. The doctor recommended changing the mask much more often, as here in Spain it is still mandatory while indoors.
Another friend had her sibling go through heart surgery and they pretended no family member stayed with the patient. My friend said she was staying with her sister and if the hospital opposed, security would have to drag her out.
Oh, but if you wanted to go into a bar, you could do that (summer 2021), b/c they had thought out a plan for bars.
The inhumanity shown treating the most vulnerable is the worst aspect of this pandemic.
Perhaps suggest to the priest that he purchase an oxygen concentrator and purchase a mask that has an inlet valve that can be modified to accept a small tube.
If the oxygen concentrator is located in an adjacent room and a long tube used – which are cheap and readily available by the way – then the machine would relieve him of doing the harder work of breathing in. Breathing out should be no problem even at his age since the elasticity of his tissues and still-strong abdominals do most of the work.
Doing the above shouldn’t change any risk for anyone since all outgoing air from his breathing organs would be filtered. O2 concentrators are cheap and readily available.
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My husband and I haven’t been to mass since March of 2020. Our church shut down for almost a year, and when it reopened, it was with a strict mask mandate in place. After vaccines became universally available, they relaxed the rule for the vaccinated, but not for the unvaccinated. My husband and I have refused to take the jab and we won’t go to church in a mask, so we’re out of luck. Meanwhile, some churches in our area had gotten rid of mask mandates AND social distancing requirements, and they’re doing just fine — no outbreaks of deadly diseases. Sort of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
A conservative literary critic and college professor
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