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Although eastern Austria will be closed for Easter, believers can gather for religious services during Holy Week and Easter.
With Holy Week and Holy Week, important Christian holidays are just around the corner. In the run-up to today’s Ostgipfel press conference, there was a long debate about whether believers can continue to hold services in Austria’s churches these days. Now, the bishops of the dioceses of Eisenstadt, St. Pölten and Vienna have announced positive news for their religious community: public services will be held during Easter.
The premise for this, however, is a strict safety concept: trade fairs must be able to be held only “under the strictest preventive measures and with the greatest care”, as briefly as possible and, if possible, in the open air.
Minimum distance and mask requirement
The three bishops have “insistently pointed out” to parish officials that liturgies should be as short as possible and that Masses should be celebrated outdoors whenever possible and sensible. It is also particularly important that at the end of each service believers are asked not to stand together in front of the church. The general rules of Corona apply to church services (also outdoors), that is, at a distance of two meters and FFP2 masks.
“Controllable” transmission risk
The bishops’ decision was preceded by consultations with political leaders. They had shown that, under the conditions mentioned, “the risk of transmission is controllable and the joint celebration in the church is justifiable”. “We are very happy about that,” emphasized Michael Prüller, press spokesman for the Archdiocese of Vienna, on Wednesday night in a Kathpress broadcast.
