Fort Worth diocese is near Dallas, where three Ebola cases have been diagnosed.

The guidelines include not taking the Blood of Christ at Mass and the faithful not holding hands while praying the Our Father.

The Sign of Peace should not involve physical contact, but some other gesture, the guidelines added.

Priests should use an alcohol-based solution on their hands before and after distributing Holy Communion.

Priests should not distribute Communion if they feel ill, and should discourage parishioners who feel sick from coming to church.

Such restrictions are common during flu season, the diocese emphasised.

But the guidelines did make mention of Ebola.

The US federal government is trying to include faith communities in its efforts to prevent the spread of Ebola, inviting them to join in a conference call on Saturday with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Diocese of Dallas has not issued similar guidelines to Fort Worth's, but Ebola is much on Bishop Kevin Farrell's mind.

He offered prayers for the health care workers grappling with Ebola, expressed confidence in local health care authorities and wrote that "this is a time for our community to respond with calmness and compassion".

Meanwhile, Catholic nurse Nina Pham, the first person to contract Ebola within the US, has received blood serum from a survivor.

A priest at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Fort Worth said Ms Pham's mother told him she has seen and spoken to her daughter using Skype, and that she is in good spirits.

Authorities do not know how Ms Pham contracted the disease, as she is believed to have followed hospital protocols in treating an Ebola patient, who since died.

Sources

• Religion News Service
• Star Telegram
• Image: Real Clear

Bishop Anthony Borwah of GBarnga diocese in Liberia has sent a written intervention to the synod instead.

In August, Bishop Borwah discovered that neighbouring Ivory Coast had restricted airline travel and closed its borders.

So he couldn't get to Abidjan where he would have been able to apply for a visa to enter the European Union.

Bishop Borwah's intervention described the challenges facing the family in Liberia today.

These include Ebola, polygamy, migration, unemployment, the lack of a father-figures, domestic violence, child trafficking, and sexual tourism.

"Existential questions from the poor, prevalent during the civil war, are been asked again: Where is God? What wrong have we (Liberians) done again?

"How come we have once again become the abandoned and scum of the earth?"

The bishop has called for daily prayer gatherings in his diocese in the wake of the Ebola outbreak.

At these gatherings, strict hygiene restrictions are being observed and updates are given of the latest Ebola situation.

More than 80 per cent of Liberia's population live in poverty and food prices have skyrocketed due to recent port and border closures.

Bishop Borwah is grateful for global aid groups and donors, including Catholic agencies, but more support is needed.

Survivors of Ebola also need support because they are being stigmatised, he said.

The death toll in West Africa has reached more than 4000 people, mainly from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

There have been more than 8000 suspected cases in the current outbreak.

But Pope Francis has not forgotten the Liberian people, Bishop Borwah said.

"The Holy Father prays for Ebola stricken people every day, even as the synod goes on," the bishop said.

"He is very close to our suffering."

Sources

• Time
• The Independent
• Image: The Journal

Fr Miguel Pajares, 75, died on August 12 after being evacuated from West Africa by Spain.

He was reportedly being given the experimental ZMapp drug.

Fr Pajares had been working with Ebola patients at the San Jose de Monrovia Hospital when he became infected.

He was part of the Spain-based San Juan de Dios order, which runs hospitals around the world.

More than 1000 people have died in the latest Ebola outbreak, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.

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West Africa is faces a worsening crisis from the disease.

Nigerian priests in some dioceses have also been advised to refrain from giving Communion on the tongue, unless the communicant insists.

But priests have been warned not to let their hands touch the tongues of communicants.

Nigeria's bishops are expected to discuss these measures again next week.

Ebola is spread by contact with human body fluids.

Archbishop Adewale Martins of Lagos told priests that the Sign of Peace is optional, a point re-iterated by a recent circular from the Vatican.

The archbishop also ordered that holy water fonts be discontinued.

Priests were advised to exercise extreme care when visiting patients and to clean their hands with a hand sanitiser after anointing the sick.

Those counting the collection at Mass have been asked to wear protective gloves.

Special intercessory prayers to be said for the sick at Mass have also been distributed.

There have been 10 Ebola cases in Nigeria recently, with at least two deaths.

Nearby Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have had nearly 1000 deaths.

All these nations have declared a state of emergency to authorise additional funds to combat the crisis.

The current Ebola outbreak is on pace to infect more people than all previous outbreaks of the virus combined.

The disease has no known cure or vaccine.

A recent fatality was a Congolese nun, who contracted Ebola while working with Spanish Catholic missionaries in Liberia.

The Spanish government says a Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, will be treated with an experimental drug, Zmapp, in a hospital in Madrid.

The drug has been used in the US on two aid workers who have shown signs of improvement.

The World Health Organisation has declared an international health emergency.

Sources

• Premium Times
• Sun News
• Voice of America
• BBC
• The Guardian
• Image: New York Times