The St. Mary’s Church is now gearing up for reopening the sacred place of worship for Roman Catholics in Dubai as they’re waiting for the approval from the local authorities.
In an interview with Father Chito Bartolo over Filipino Institute’s Kamusta Ka Friend on Monday, July 20, he said that currently, they haven’t received the approval yet from the authorities to hold official mass yet probably because of the ‘form of worship’ that Catholics do.
“Ang pinakamaikli ay 25 to 30 minutes na pinaka-misa natin. Maikli na [yun] at wala pang homily. Patuloy ang ating paghahanda pero kung kailan magbubukas, sa kasalukuyan [tayo] ay nag-aantay na lang ng official approval coming from the government,” he added.
Once they get the approval, a social distancing of at least three metres will be imposed in the church and kids 12 years below and adults 60 years and above will not be permitted to attend the physical mass.
An appointment system will also be introduced to worshippers to monitor the number of attendees every mass and prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
“Yung mga nag-register ay i-notify sila through SMS kung kailan sila puwedeng sumimba or kung anong araw o oras,” he added.
Once the application is downloaded and provided all the necessary information, the worshippers will also be required to download the Al Hosn app which was introduced by the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) to help Covid-19 contact tracing.
