Priests have sounded the alarm about the difficulties of organising safe Christmas services – with parishes under "undue and unfair pressure to multiply masses" in the pandemic.
The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has warned that the go-ahead for public masses could see some churches overwhelmed with parishioners.
An ACP spokesperson said: "Many priests and parish pastoral councils are being placed under undue and unfair pressure to multiply masses, to organise a ticket allocation system, to agree unrealistic and dangerously inappropriate measures to sanitise church buildings and to recruit unrealistic numbers of volunteers.
"There are fears this year that the listed arrangements will be overwhelmed by numbers gathering both inside and outside the church, creating a dangerous and unmanageable prospect, as the National Public Health Emergency Team has envisaged and as the science has predicted.
"For parishes and churches there is no one size fits all solution and the worry is that, with the end of COVID in sight now that vaccines are on the way, their particular church and parish may be the scene of a cluster of COVID cases – with devastating consequences."
The ACP asked churchgoers to consider sacrificing their traditional Christmas rituals for "this one year."
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