After 161 days, Aldona faithfuls attend Mass with restrictions

THE GOAN NETWORK | AUGUST 31, 2020, 02:48 AM IST
After 161 days, Aldona faithfuls attend Mass with restrictions

The St Thomas Church at Aldona opened its doors to a limited group of faithful on Sunday after a gap of more than five months and adhering to the standard operating protocols.

After the lockdown, the village’s first on-site Mass was celebrated on the occasion of the first day of Novena of nativity of Mother Mary on August 30.

The selected number of parishioners went through the immaculate screening process of checking the temperature with thermal guns and sanitisation of hands.

Eight from a group of 60 volunteers pre-selected by Parish Priest Fr Tomas Lobo ensured that every single parishioner entered with masks, were thermally checked, maintained social distancing and entered through one door and left from the other.

As part of the guidelines, all the benches of the church were removed and replaced with 48 plastic chairs, ensuring proper social distancing.

Parish Priest Fr Tomas Lobo along with the church co-ordination committee made elaborate arrangement to hold the mass after a gap of 161 days.

All required safety protocols were put in place and the permission of the Bishop was sought to start the mass.

Accordingly, a representative of the Bishop visited the church on Friday and Saturday and inspected the arrangements.

He also made certain recommendations which were implemented by the co-ordination committee.

On Sunday evening, a canopy was erected outside the church so that screening of the parishioners could be carried out in a systematic manner outside the church.

Some priests from other churches called up the Aldona Parish Priest to inquire about the arrangement, so that they could implement it in their respective churches.

When contacted, Parish Priest Fr Tomas Lobo said he was pleased to celebrate Mass with his parishioners.

“After having to celebrate Mass for the past five months to empty pews, it was a joyous experience to celebrate mass with my flock though a limited number,” said Fr Lobo.

In view of the pandemic, all religious places were closed in the country from March 22. The MHA in its first unlocking of the lockdown had allowed opening up of religious places from June 8 onwards.

Despite the relaxation most churches, temples and mosques in the State decided to keep the religious houses closed in account of the rising cases of Covid infection.


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