Phase 2 also to reopen the churches and attend masses? It seems so, from May 18th. At least according to the recent agreements between the Church, in its maximum representation of the Italian bishops, the CEI, and the Government. But is it really so? Or in an Italy where every region seems to have full autonomy, between decrees and ordinances there are several leaks forward? In fact, in recent days the Italian Bishops' Conference has welcomed the dialogue on this issue with the Council of Ministers. In a few days the churches will be reopened to the faithful and it will be possible to attend mass. But there are areas of Italy where it goes further. And this is what is happening in Sardinia. Let's try to tell you about the different positions that are being recorded in our peninsula.
The Mass: believers await with trepidation
In recent months, each city has tried to organize itself. Numerous parishes have measured themselves with modernity. Many videos posted on social networks with priests, some even older, who celebrated the mass live on the web. From Lent to the rites of Easter, not only followed on TV, but also on social networks. This is because Italy is still a country of Catholics, believers and practitioners.
In many, with the lockdown also imposed on the churches, they felt "robbed" of something that belonged to them. Many protests. Then who knows if they are true or just pretexts to complain, given that in times of normality, the churches are not so full of faithful. The fact is that in a period of trial such as the one we are experiencing, prayer is the only way for many to find hope. Above all, the celebration of funerals was missing. Too many deaths without a last farewell from family members and acquaintances. And perhaps this is the saddest side of this whole situation.
Phase 2 and restart also with mass in church
So also between church and government there was the first clash. After the measures of the latest decree announced by the Prime Minister, many protested. And despite the Pope's invitation to obedience, some have even initiated a poisonous confrontation with the institutions - which in fact seems to have produced some results. "I express my satisfaction, that of the bishops and, more generally, of the ecclesial community - says the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti - for having come to share the lines of an agreement".
A sort of protocol agreement agreed with the government. Where the modalities of the celebrations of the funeral. “As a Church - notes Bassetti - we have shared, certainly with pain, the limitations imposed to protect the health of all, without any desire to look for snags or shortcuts, or to support anyone's flight forward. I reiterate the importance of not letting our guard down but, as we have repeated in recent months, health measures should be welcomed with a view to respecting everyone's health, as well as the indications of the time needed to better protect it ".
What is happening in Sardinia
Therefore, an invitation to obedience and waiting. But in the meantime in Sardinia it has gone further. The President of the Region Christian Solinas gave a positive opinion on the opening of the churches. Solinas differentiates between "ceremony" and "religious function". The first remains prohibited because there could be gatherings. The second, not having been explicitly prohibited by the government, would be possible. Obviously respecting the provisions security to prevent contagion. “In harmony with the Dpcm - underlined Solinas - we have suspended civil and religious ceremonies with the exception of funeral ceremonies with the exclusive participation of relatives. Having acknowledged, however, that at the central level the government has prohibited ceremonies but not religious functions, we authorize the carrying out of ordinary Eucharistic functions in the regional territory ".
Therefore ordinary masses with the obligation of distancing between the faithful, prohibitions of gathering and direct contact, obligation of masks. But the first to dislike this ordinance were the Sardinian bishops. They would have preferred involvement: to be consulted first on decisions that "belong - they say - solely to ecclesiastical authority".
We will then see. Meanwhile, with the reopening of the cemeteries, many administrations have equipped themselves: funeral yes, but outdoors, with the presence of no more than fifteen people. This happens for example in Sicily. In the rest of the dictates of Italy we are waiting for what has been put in writing today by the CEI and the Government to be transmitted and implemented. In short, bureaucracy that perhaps, after all, is the true Italian religion.
