Additional Diocesan Guidelines in response to COVID-19 Pandemic – Friday 20 March 2020
Monsignor Liam Kelly, Diocesan Administrator, has today (Friday 20 March 2020) issued the following additional guidelines in response to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic:
- All public Masses, except Funeral Masses, are suspended in the Diocese of Kilmore until further notice from tomorrow, Saturday 21 March 2020.
- Churches will remain open for people to visit and pray.
- Spiritual communion is encouraged by participation in Mass and other liturgies by radio television, webcam etc.
- Pope John Paul II called the Family Home ‘The Domestic Church’. Families are encouraged to promote daily family prayer and where possible provide them with suitable prayers. Parishioners are invited to make sacred spaces in their homes, to read the Holy Bible, to recite personal and/or family prayers, to support the volunteer groups who outreach to the elderly, the vulnerable and the poor. A suggested prayer, written by Fr. Kevin O’Gorman SMA, is attached.
- Sample prayers and other resources are available on line at catholicbishops.ie and on other websites including the diocesan website, www.kilmorediocese.ie, and the Pastoral Centre website, www.kilmoredpc.ie.
- Eucharistic adoration will continue in churches though those attending should adhere to social distancing guidelines and other best practice while in the church.
- The Sacrament of Reconciliation will remain available to individuals in parishes provided that priest and penitent can remain the required distance apart.
- Priests will continue to respond to requests to visit the sick or elderly, having first consulted their families.
