Church schedules more dawn masses

GASTRONOMIC DELIGHT A vendor whips up “puto bumbong” outside the Las Piñas Bamboo Organ Church during the first day of nine-day dawn Masses in this Dec. 16, 2017, file photo. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — There will be more dawn Masses (“simbang gabi”) other than the usual schedule starting Dec. 16 this year, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said on Monday.

Quiapo Church parochial vicar Douglas Badong said, “These are nine days and the churchgoers all have wishes. It’s better that they include in their prayer list that the virus will be gone soon because this is also a preparation for the celebration of ‘traslacion’ (the Black Nazarene procession on Jan. 9). The more people who will pray, the more prayers will be heard.”

Regulations by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will be strictly implemented, said Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP’s public affairs committee.

Each church will have one entrance and one exit, body temperatures will be checked, and wearing of masks is required.

Badong said it hoped to increase seating capacity in churches from the current 30 percent to 50 percent by December.

At Quiapo Church, or the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, Masses will be held at 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m., 4 a.m., 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., Badong said.

“We were told the new curfew hour will be [up to] 3:30 a.m., [from the previous 12 a.m. to 3 a.m.], so the people will have time to go to church,” he said.

The city government of Manila will hold 8 p.m. Masses at the Liwasang Bonifacio to accommodate those who would not be able to enter Quiapo Church.

Masses will be livestreamed on Facebook and other social media sites, for churchgoers who are too vulnerable to leave their homes amid the coronavirus pandemic. INQ