By Sarah Pelaji
Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) has issued guidelines on Coronavirus to the faithful of the Catholic Church in Tanzania in order to combat its spread.
The Bishops issued this during the installation of Bishop Joseph Ludovick Mindeto who became the Bishop of Moshi Catholic Diocese in northern Tanzania.
The President of Tanzania Episcopal Conference Most Rev. Gervas Nyaisonga said that the Catholic Church in Tanzania is joining the world in the fight against COVID-19.
He has prayed that God heals all those suffering from the disease and asked Him to receive in his Heaven all who have died of the pandemic Corona worldwide.
“I pray that God will our specialists the knowledge that can provide a medicine against the virus. And in this we your bishops set aside two special days of prayer for our nation so that efforts to fight the disease will be successful, patients will recover and be able to control the disease,” he said.
“We your bishops, based on the Government's definitive statement through the Prime Minister Kasim Majaliwa which he issued on March 17 this year to prevent the spread of corona virus across the country, give the instructions to all believers regarding our Catholic Pastoral services.”
On prayer the bishops statement reads, “We ask all believers to pray a special prayer to ask God to protect us from the Corona virus infection. Ask God to continue to protect us. Prayer is the responsibility of everyone and our collective responsibility as a Church. There will be a special prayer offered by the bishops but each of us can pray the appropriate prayer as directed by the Bishop of particular diocese.
“We instruct every Catholic to comply with Coronavirus protection measures as required by the government. Use clean water and wash your hands with soap every time you are at home, where and when you go to join others in worship services,” the statement continues.
The bishops have also temporarily suspended placing of blessing water at the entrance of the church until further notice.
Other guidelines included no shaking hands or hold hands during sign of peace; during administration of Sacrament of Anointing the patients will be anointed by using cotton and that the priest will be accompanied by a health care provider when they visit patients;when receiving the Sacrament of Repentance, the confessing priest and the believer should not face each other and that the Confession Box will no longer be used but that confession be made in the open place in accordance with the confessional secrecy.
All prayer group meetings and apostolic meetings are temporarily closed.
“We your bishops will continue to provide guidance as our government continues to provide guidelines on how to control infection in our country,” concludes the statement.