Preaching Goes Viral

Pandemic and the Right to the Sacraments

Sacrament of confession, when COVID-adapted

[don't use] In-person communal gatherings (adapted)

Technological and organizational changes

the confessional, the adoption of a suitable distance, the use of protective masks, without prejudice to absolute attention to the safeguarding of the sacramental seal and the necessary discretion.”2 But what about vulnerable individuals who are unable to travel: those in hospitals, hospices, or nursing homes without a Catholic chaplain? Creative alternatives are proposed. In cases of grave necessity, the diocesan bishop may determine that it is lawful to impart general absolution, as described by the Apostolic Penitentiary, “for example, at the entrance to hospital wards, where the infected faithful in danger of death are hospitalised, using as far as possible and with the appropriate precautions the means of amplifying the voice so that absolution may be heard.”3 One priest indicated that his local bishop has approved his use of a bull horn outside of a nursing home to impart general absolution. Perhaps with the permission of the diocesan bishop, this could even be followed by the Apostolic pardon.

2022-12-16

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Marie T. Hilliard