HUNTER Catholics will make their confessions on "flexible seating" in open church settings rather than the confessional under new rules described as a "painful sacrifice" in response to the coronavirus threat.
All church services have been suspended until further notice, including Easter services, and weddings and funerals are to be limited to fewer than 100 people in line with a NSW Government banning order on Wednesday.
The announcement came only hours after Newcastle Anglican Bishop Peter Stuart announced Hunter Anglican church services would cease until further notice because of the coronavirus threat.
Funerals should be limited to "those immediately associated with the deceased, especially immediate and close family members" and weddings to "those required (minister and witnesses) and to close family members, so that appropriate precautions can be observed".
Church rites for children including communion and confirmation have been cancelled for 2020, and baptisms can be suspended for the year or numbers restricted to fewer than 100, Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Bishop Bill Wright said in a statement today announcing the new measures.
In an unprecedented move the bishop announced parishioners are dispensed from their obligation to attend Sunday mass and the diocese will not hold Stations of the Cross services to mark Good Friday.
He advised Catholics that confession "should be celebrated with appropriate care and precautions, especially respecting the call for 'social distancing'."
"Accordingly, it is highly recommended that confessionals not be used in the current circumstances; rather, use flexible seating in an appropriate part of the church."
On Sunday Bishop Wright and a senior priest will celebrate mass in the closed Sacred Heart Cathedral, and the diocese is exploring the possibility of live streaming it, he said.
"These provisions may appear, at first glance, to be an extreme response to the crisis facing our nation," the bishop said.
"They are certainly a painful sacrifice of sacred practices that are at the heart of Catholic life. They are accepted, however, as something which we can do in the interests of the common good and our neighbours' health and safety."
In the letter to Hunter Catholics the bishop said parishes "should devise ways to maintain communication with parishioners, perhaps by a form of parish bulletin distributed online or by email or some other method".
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