Bengaluru: The bells in the churches across India pealed and the Sunday service was suspended to comply with the Janata Curfew, called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 March 2020.
Christians in India joined the nation-wide self imposed curfew from 7 am to 9 pm, which the Prime Minister termed ‘Janata Curfew’ to tackle the challenges of pandemic Novel Coronavirus.
The streets mostly wore a deserted look and the usual Sunday morning worship scene was missing with most of the people staying indoors, having their prayers in their respective homes.
The ringing of the bells on Sunday, 22nd March, was recommended by Oswald Cardinal Gracias, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), in his broadcast message on Thursday, 19th March.
Cardinal Oswald urged people to cooperate with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a 14-hour people’s curfew from 7 am on March 22. The cardinal has suspended Masses and church services in his archdiocese until April 4 and requested church bells to be pealed at 5 pm for five minutes.
In Delhi, Latin rite Archbishop Anil JT Couto suspended Sunday and weekday Masses until March 31. He had urged his faithful to spend at least an hour of prayer with family on March 22 and 29. He also wanted them to set aside some time every day with the family and recite Rosary, Way of the Cross and read the Bible for at least 15 minutes.
“The Church bells are rung to invite people to divine services. They also are rung to announce our moments of joys and sorrows, emergencies as well to manifest our appreciation and to express our solidarity with the members of the community,” said Most Rev (Dr) Peter Machado, Archbishop of Bangalore.
“The 14-hour self-imposed curfew is an important step taken by the Prime Minister in this critical time to contain the spread of the deadly virus,” said Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao Diocese in Arunachal Pradesh. “We must totally comply with the direction of the PM and the guidelines of the local government to support every measure to come out of this critical time,” said Bishop George, suspending all the Sunday services across the eight districts under his spiritual care.
Expressing solidarity and appreciating the selfless efforts of the health workers, medical teams, government employees and all those involved in tackling this critical time, the Church bells, wherever possible, will peal at 5 pm on March 22, as suggested by the PM, said Archbishop John Moolachira, the President of the North East India Regional Bishops’ Council and the Archbishop of Guwahati.
As of today, the North East India is the only region unaffected by pandemic, with the retest of the 4-year old from Jorhat, Assam, who was suspected to be the first covid19 patient, came out to be negative.
However, we cannot take any chance, said Archbishop John. “We have closed all our schools and institutions and avoided all large gatherings. The big event of the Silver Jubilee of the Episcopal Ordination of Bishop of Dibrugarh Diocese, Joseph SDB on 19 March was kept low-key in order to comply with the Government’s directives”, he stressed.
The next two weeks are going to be crucial for all of us as India will enter into the second stage of this pandemic and with the Holy Week, the most holy period for the Christians, coinciding almost with the same period, said Bishop George. “We pray and hope that the whole world comes out of this deadly virus soon and we will be able to celebrate the Holy Week”, he said, sounding concerned.
With the sharp increase in the number of the cases in India and with no respite in site, one can only pray but at home.
Most of the Syro-Malabar churches across India too participated in March 22 lockdown.
In Kerala, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, issued guidelines for his people to follow during the time of corona shut down. “Pray to God for mercy as a solution to the coronavirus,” the cardinal said in his March 11 appeal to the people. He urged people to pray frequently the Rosary, meditate on Psalm 51 and conduct intercessory prayers.
With inputs and pictures from Felix Antony