One person recently said, the Virtual Mass was great. “We could lie in bed, go to Mass in London, Florence, Ireland and even Auckland. It would be great if we could keep it”.
Another said, “The first week I stood when I should, the second week I felt comfortable knitting and in the third week I live-paused Mass and went and made a cup of coffee”.
COVID-19 impacted just about every aspect of our living from feeding ourselves, going to the doctor, meeting with friends, work, student education and how we interact with services and businesses.
And as Catholics, it impacted our faith lives.
COVID-19 has filled many people full of the fear of infection and leaving some Catholics preferring the virtual to the real.
Unable to physically gather as communities, Catholics in New Zealand gathered “virtually” to foster their faith.
The suggestion has been repeated that the Church must change and the post-pandemic Catholic Church will be very different from the one that went into this global health crisis.
CathNews NZ along with La Croix International engaged with three liturgists from around the world, from secular and religious cultures.
- Dr Carmel Pilcher lives in Suva, Fiji and teaches at the seminary.
- Dr Joe Grayland is dean and parish priest of the cathedral in Palmerston North.
- Professor Thomas O’Loughlin is professor of historical theology at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
They began by answering the question: so what’s the problem with a virtual Mass anyway?
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News category: Analysis and Comment.
