The nine-day novenas leading to the feast day of St Joseph Vaz on January 16 commences from today (January 7) at the usual site of the old church of Our Lady of Health, Sancoale. In the past hundreds of devotees used to attend the novena mass every day. This year we are in the midst of the third wave of Covid-19. To make matters worse, the new highly-infectious variant Omicron is also active in the state. All Covid-19 related protocols like 50% attendance at the novena and feast mass, wearing of masks by the faithful, social distancing, hand sanitization, necessary pandemic related protocol while distributing the communion need to be strictly adhered to. It would be desirable for the faithful not to crowd at Sancoale but rather to follow the novena masses and feast mass which will be live-streamed on YouTube as also the Diocesan website namely CCRTV and GCTV. Various churches in the state could also have the novena masses and celebrate the feast at the local parishes. This will reduce the number of devotees at Sancoale and help to stop the spread of the virus.
