R.P.Ts.
CALLS
PRIESTS' REJECTION OF SANITARY MEASURES DURING CORONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC
"CRIMINAL"
Interfax-Religiia,
23
March 2020
The head
of the
synod's Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan
Ilarion,
expressed harsh criticism of clergy who, despite the threat of
spreading the
coronavirus, refuse stricter sanitary measures in churches.
Previously
Patriarch
Kirill issued instructions that require tightening the sanitary
standards in
parishes. In particular, it is required to treat with alcohol
the spoon after
each communicant, to use disposable cups for zapivka, and not to
kiss the cross
and the hand of the priest.
"If
somewhere
some people, rectors of churches or monks, are spreading all
sorts of messages
to the effect that things are all the same as we had them before
and no kinds
of measures of precaution will be applied because we are
believers and we rely
on God, then all these statements are, at least, irresponsible,
and if one uses
church language, they are crimes. Because they demonstrate,
first, disregard
for the will of the hierarchy, and second, disregard for
people," the
metropolitan said after the service in the church of the icon of
the Mother of
God "Joy of all the Sorrowful" on Bolshaia Ordynka.
He said
that the
church has no doubt that "God himself is present" in the
sacrament of
communion, although "holy sacraments are offered to believers in
vessels
that are not completely protected from transferring some kind of
infection
through them." So it is for this reason, the representative of
the RPTs
added, that measures for the disinfection of sacred vessels are
used and
special measures of precaution are applied during communion.
(tr. by PDS,
posted 23 March 2020)
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