Mumbai: Churches throughout the country have voluntarily limited midnight masses on New Year’s Eve, due to new restrictions on the country in the Public Assembly.
Some have canceled physical services and choose streaming online.
The others have spread parishes in various places, and change the time to complete before the night at 9:00 p.m.
Large parishes such as Salvation Church, Dadar, and Lady of Lourdes, Orlem, Malad, have canceled the physical mass.
Ol Lourdes has a power of 20,000 Catholics, and even though there is the best effort from the Parish Priest FR Michael Pinto, a crowd of spacious people arriving to attend Christmas Eve Mass on Christmas Eve.
He said, “We have three mobs, still the amount is difficult to control.
So we make a voluntary decision to cancel the physical mass and instead streaming online.
We will only have Thanksgiving services, which are attended by no more than 100 people.” Church of Lady of Salvation (Portuguese Church), omelet, with a strength of 6,000, has also called midnight mass.
Priest Parish FR Calistus Fernandes, “We don’t want to oppose state guidelines.
Omicron is a real threat.
But I hope Christmas rules are allowed to continue.
We are permitted to have 50% of our indoor capacity.
Our church has a capacity of 1,500, so we have around 500 people Those who sit far.
But now we are only allowed 100 people.
So it’s better to flow online.
“FR Dennis Gonsalves, Pastor Parish Gloria Church, Byculla, will not hold a mass in the church but on three monasteries nearby.
“Larger churches feel it easier to host the masses in separate places since they run educational institutions nearby.
However, smaller churches may not have that choice.
Their parish might come to us, adding to us, adding to Our busy life.
The changing rules also tend to cause confusion.
“FR Ashwin Castellino from St Michael’s Church, Mahim, said the priest team they would fanned in four different locations to do mass at 7:30 a.m.
St Anne’s Church, Pali Bukit, Bandra, will begin mass at 7pm and end at 8:30 a.m., said the priest parish fr John Lobo.