The Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC) may come up with specific health instructions for its faithful and the bishops to follow in the wake of fresh cases of COVID-19 infection being reported.
The KCBC had earlier issued a circular on March 3 alerting the faithful to follow the government instructions for preventing the spread of disease.
Later, it had circulated a letter by Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, on March 6, listing out the steps to be followed.
In his letter to the parish priests, priests-in-charge and head of institutions in the Archdioceses of Bombay, the Cardinal had asked them to dissuade people from kissing the Cross and to say namaste with folded hands instead of handshakes as a precautionary measure against the spread of the pathogen.
Cardinal Oswald had also suggested the priests and the Ministers to purify their hands in a bowl of water or with a sanitizer before the distribution of the Holy Communion.
Cardinal Oswald had also directed them to keep the Holy water stoops dry and to temporarily suspend the meetings of cells, sodalities and associations if infections are reported in the community.
The Church, said Fr. Varghese Vallikkat, the Deputy Secretary General of the KCBC, has already put on hold a few religious functions in districts like Pathanamthitta where people gather in large numbers.
