Frontliners, street dwellers find solace in chapels during pandemic
DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan, Philippines — Like a shepherd to its flock, the Catholic Church has opened its doors to the needy while the world grapples with a health crisis that continues to plague communities.
The St. John Cathedral in this city has put up temporary lodgings for medical workers who cannot go home after working in hospitals or in areas with known new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections.
Church officials converted three air-conditioned chapels into bedrooms, furnishing them with beds, blankets and pillows for the hospital workers, mostly nurses, after their duty.
“This is our contribution to the government’s fight against COVID-19. We are offering the rooms so they can get some comfortable rest after a hard day’s work,” Fr. Manny Bravo, parish priest, told the Inquirer.
Each room has beds for five or six people, arranged in a way as to observe social or physical distancing as precautionary measure against possible virus transmission, Bravo said.
The parish also provided the toilet and bathrooms, complete with amenities.
Treated as guests
“We know that the medical personnel want to immediately take a shower upon arriving here so we provided what they need like bath soap and shampoo,” Bravo said.
Frontliners who take refuge in these temporary shelters are treated as guests, he said. They are also allowed to get some snack items placed on tables.
Those in need of the accommodation may just approach the parish guards, Bravo said. “Just tell the guards you are medical workers. No need for identification cards. No questions asked. You will be ushered inside,” he said.
Eight nurses from the city health office (CHO) were the first ones to avail themselves of the free rooming, staying there for 17 days after weeks of assisting suspected COVID-19 patients in hospitals.
They had already returned home and tested negative for the virus based on results from rapid test kits, said Aurora Cuison, the acting CHO head.
“Their families have prepared rooms where they can stay with limited interactions with other family members,” she said.
Food packs
Apart from the temporary shelters, the Catholic Church in Pangasinan has been reaching out to communities affected by the extended enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.
On Sunday, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas accepted 1,000 food packs donated as part of the humanitarian efforts of Swatch Philippines, in coordination with actor Matteo Guidicelli, who is an Army reservist, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Two military trucks transported the food packs, which included rice, canned goods and noodles.
In Pampanga province, the Eucharistic Chapel of the Holy Rosary Parish church has been turned into a temporary shelter for street dwellers in Angeles City.
According to Fr. Nolasco Fernandez, the parish priest, 20 street dwellers were accommodated at the chapel and provided with sets of bedding, toiletries and food.
Fernandez opened the shelter on April 1 after seeing homeless people on the streets. He told them that they could sleep at the chapel.
Cabanatuan aid
“If you help the poor and welcome them to your place, it’s Jesus Christ you are helping,” Fernandez said, adding that another room could be prepared once the number of street dwellers increased.
In Nueva Ecija province, the Diocese of Cabanatuan has delivered relief packs to 23,685 families as its way of aiding quarantined households.
The packages contained food items, maintenance medicines and vitamins.
The diocese has donated 7,663 meal packs to the front-liners, who included doctors, nurses and policemen.
Many of the reported COVID-19 cases in Nueva Ecija are health workers who were infected while attending to patients, according to a report from the province’s interagency task force. —REPORTS FROM YOLANDA SOTELO, MARIA ADELAIDA CALAYAG AND ARMAND GALANG
