Preparing for the post-Covid19 Church

This is part of the text of an online talk given  by Prof Twomey to a group of priests in May, 2020.

---

By means of the coronavirus pandemic, God has granted us clerics above all a time of rest, a time to reflect, a time to enjoy the silence, to see it as an opportunity to have more time for the Lord, but also a time for some real re-creation in mind, spirit and body. But also, He has given us an opportunity to ponder on how best we as clerics can respond to the situation after the pandemic is no longer such an immediate threat – something, admittedly, that may be months or even years ahead – but it will still be a situation marked by considerable psychological, economic and other fallout. In a word, we must ask ourselves, how can we engender hope, a hope that is not deceptive, namely a hope that only God can grant.

The long-term question is: how should we best respond to the newly awakened sense of God, of the fragility of life, of the anxiety about the future, engendered by the deadly virus. How should we best respond to the reawakened outpouring of humanitas we witness every day, to the apparent adjustment that seems to be under way re one’s priorities re family, work, ambition and recreation. But also, how can we best respond to what seems to be a new awareness of the need to pray, to repent, to worship in private and in a congregation. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, it is said, but also fonder for God – while the enforced “eucharistic fast” has for many people deepened their hunger for the Bread of Life.

But also, in the face of what seems to be a very uncertain future, and the possible occurrence of a second wave of the coronavirus even more deadly than this one, how can we help the faithful face to a depression that might far exceed the Great Depression of the 1930s? In a word, how can we engender hope? Or better, how can we help people rediscover authentic Hope, that divine virtue which is needed to face the future?

The immediate question to be asked at this stage is: what should priests do when the enforced isolation and lockdown is gradually relaxed and more leeway be given to the celebration of the sacraments?  There is a danger that a real time of opportunity created by the Covid 19 pandemic might be lost through our being unprepared. Priests will, for example, be swept away by the demand for Masses for those who died during the lockdown. God is giving us an opportunity to sit back and reflect and see what can we do to respond to the huge challenges – better, the great opportunities – which the present crisis offers us to draw people closer to God, to discover the source of all joy: the encounter with our Crucified and Risen Lord. All I can offer at this stage are pointers:

1) We can best respond, if we ourselves are mentally prepared though prayer and study and recreation. With regard to study, I would suggest taking one of the Gospels and meditating on it verse for verse – but also using a commentary, such as one Fr Michael Mullins’s fine commentaries. Listening to His Word and encountering his Real presence in adoration is the first step.

2) I think that real thought must be given as to how to deal sensitively, but prudently with the huge demand for Masses for the dead after restrictions have been lifted in addition to Baptisms, First Holy Communions, visits to sick, etc. Here, it seems to me, priests must know the limits of their time and energy – and the faithful must respect these limits, which they will, if they are properly informed.

3) Each priest must decide how he is going to respond in a creative way that goes beyond the customary priestly duties. This, I suggest, he can best do by allowing himself be stimulated by good theology. Two works I would suggest are Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi and his trilogy, Jesus of Nazareth, but also by reading up on what is happening in other countries at the pastoral level.

4) The future will call for creative initiatives, not just solo-runs but as team efforts, with fellow clerics at the deanery or diocesan level and with dedicated and trained laity at parish level. Here the focus should be on training laity to undertake pastoral and evangelising initiatives. This may demand a radically new mindset that will allow the laity real leeway for their own creativity.

5) Among the initiatives, I would suggest above all a greater emphasis on thanksgiving and festivity. Indeed, this should be the main emphasis: May Devotions, Advent Devotions, Pattern Days, walking pilgrimages to Holy Wells and ancient sacred sites as well as to the Cathedral. The celebration of the Liturgy – all the Sacraments – has to become truly celebratory as befits their sacred solemnity, with the emphasis on beauty, fine choral singing, etc. More thought might be given to creating an annual major festival for one’s own parish – the patronal feast perhaps – that would not be confined to Church ceremonies but would spill over into a street festival or a family feast that would include sport, games, music, dancing, food and drink.

6) Some consideration of how to reach out to those who had drifted away from – or even consciously turned their backs on – Church practice but have been “brought to their knees” – to quote a young woman I was told about – by the present pandemic. How about training young parishioners to go from door to door (like the politicians when they are canvassing for election) to welcome people to Sunday Mass or to a special Devotion? Another suggestion I read about in a German Catholic newspaper was setting up stands in the local supermarket to hand-out information about the faith, prayer cards, bottles of holy water, etc. I think that we must become more aggressively missionary – as Pope Francis and his predecessors have constantly urged us to do, namely engage in re-evangelisation. I am impressed by what is being done here by such movements as NET Ministries, Focolare, Communion and Liberation, the Maryvale Course in the New Catechism, and the Grandparents Association.

7) The cocooning of families could be an opportunity to develop more what Vatican II calls the domestic Church, with the emphasis on family prayers, including the Rosary or other prayers, and setting up shines at home with the Crucifix or Icon or other sacred image plus a lighted candle, with the emphasis on the father as the one who should take the lead, as St Joseph presumably did in the Holy Family.