The bishop of Treviso Michele Tomasi has given the new indications: the boys in the church must be a meter and a half away, the godparents will be able to touch their shoulder instead
TREVISO. The pandemic also dictates new rules for confirmations: a few seconds in front of the bishop, a meter and a half between one boy and another, wads dipped in single-dose oil. Here are some of the indications drawn up by the bishop to regulate the celebration of one of the most important sacraments, which confirms the belonging of the baptized to the mystical body of the Church.
“The current situation of exposure to the Sars-Covid 19 virus that we are facing has forced us to suspend the celebration of Confirmations in recent months”, writes Monsignor Michele Tomasi, indicating in a letter to the parish priests the “necessary conditions” for young people to have in this spring the sacrament of Confirmation, in compliance with current legislation, “safeguarding the dignity and sobriety of the rite”.
First of all, as in any celebration, all participants must wear a mask and the confirmands, approaching the celebrant, must keep a distance between them of at least one and a half meters. Godfather and godmother, before placing their hand on the boy’s shoulder for a moment during Confirmation, are invited to sanitize their hands.
The same must also be done by the bishop who will not mark, as is tradition, the cross on the forehead of the boy or girl with his fingers dipped in oil but will rely on a single-dose disk or cotton ball. Cotton Fioc banned. The cotton will then have to be burned, not thrown away. Also missing in the covid confirmations is the handshake between the bishop and the confirmed.
You will be satisfied with a sign of peace without contact, a nod of the head, a slight bow. All this lasts a few seconds without any direct touch, if not the brief movement of the godfather on the shoulder, strictly with the arm extended to keep the distance. There are no exceptions to the rules and the first “controllers” are the parents, at least those who have agreed to bring their children to church.
The majority seen that the defections are very few, as are the parish priests who have decided to postpone the confirmations further. Another novelty contained in the document of Msgr. Michele Tomasi concerns the possibility for parish priests to confirm their children directly, without the presence of the bishop or his delegate. Possibility due to the doubled or even tripled number of ceremonies in the same parish, given that confirmations canceled in 2020 are added to 2021 confirmations.