The Ministry of Health endorsed a change in the rules for the celebration of religious activities, for example, it was authorized to expand the capacity to 50 percent in the temples, establishing a maximum number of attendance of 300 people. In addition, from now on, it is allowed to queue to receive communion, maintaining the distance of 1.8 meters.
The changes that are applied to the activities were notified to the Episcopal Conference at the end of the previous week and are given after “several requests made by the bishops in the framework of the reactivation and openings that the Executive Power has instructed.”
With the new directive issued by the Health Ministry, people will be able to attend church without needing to register previously and, in addition, now the temples will be able to be open during the day and not only during the celebrations as long as “current sanitary hour restrictions are complied with; that is, after 5:00 a.m. and until 11:00 p.m.”.
Old and young not in-person
The new measures announced by the church authorities were communicated this Tuesday through a press release where it was added that the recommendation is maintained that older adults and minors younger than 12 years old do not attend religious activities and rather follow them through the different digital media enabled. For its part, the “Holy Hour” is authorized to be celebrated in its normal hours, as well as the opening of the Chapels of Eucharistic Adoration at 7:00 a.m. at 7:00 p.m.
“The bishops of Costa Rica reiterate the need to follow the guidelines that allow this controlled reopening and that help us continue to take care of ourselves in the midst of a Pandemic that has not yet ended. It is everyone’s duty to continue taking care”, said the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San José, Daniel Francisco Blanco.
Religous singing
The new directive issued by Health to the Episcopal Conference includes guidelines related to music in different religious activities. The possibility of having musical accompaniment with percussion instruments and strings is maintained and it is added that in the case of live music “with a separate or different space from where the public is located when the presentation involves wind or singing instruments”.
It is specified that there must be a minimum distance of five meters between the musicians and the public and that the distance rule of 1.8 meters must be respected between the musicians.
