Webcam Mass is good but not the ‘real thing’: Derry Bishop

Dr Donal McKeown says adoration without participation in the Mass, receiving Holy Communion outside Mass and following Mass on the webcam are all welcome and can be “rich sources of grace.”.

“But they are incomplete substitutes for the real thing”, he said at the weekend on the Feast of Corpus Christi.

His remarks coincide with moves to re-open churches for public worship as part of Covid-19 lockdown easing.

The Bishop said: “Christians long to be able to be gathered as the Body of Christ around the altar and to do each week what has been happening since the earliest years of the Church. That is why every parish has to be actively planning so that we can be God’s people, really and not just virtually. There are no excuses for not doing everything possible to plan so that God’s people can gather safely.”

Archbishop Eamon Martin, the Derry-born head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, recently revealed that, as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, “millions” of people across the country were gathering virtually for Mass each week.

He said parishes across the island had taken to cyberspace like never before.

“We’ve been flooding the digital highways with Eucharistic celebration and other prayer moments,” he remarked.

However, Catholic parishes across Ireland are now preparing for the transition back to full parish life and celebration of the sacraments.

The Archbishop recently called for volunteers to “step forward” and help manage this process.