Health Organisation, the leadership of the Nigeria Catholic church has
ordered the return of handshakes as a sign of peace during masses.
According to Thisday¸ the Nigerian Catholic Bishops Conference at the
weekend also ordered all its priests and the faithful to revert to the
normal practices of receiving Holy Communion through the tongue, a
practice that was stopped before because of the threat of the Ebola
Virus. The Bishops also directed that holy water founts at the
entrance of churches be filled again with holy water and never to be
allowed to go dry any more.
All these practices were stopped after the outbreak of the Ebola Virus
Disease in July when the Bishop's Conference met and issued a circular
banning all these practice in a bid to curb the spread the deadly
virus.
Now in a new circular that was signed by the Archbishop of the
Catholic Diocese of, Alfred Adewale Matins, the Bishop's Conference
has instructed all Catholic churches in Nigeria to revert to the
normal practices.
"I refer to our special circular of August, 2014 on the outbreak of
Ebola Virus in which we directed that the 'sign of peace' through
pastoral handshake be omitted, and the holy water fonts be left dry
and permitted in the interim, the reception of Holy Communion in the
hand, as an extraordinary practice while the Ebola alert was on. We
thank God that the steps we took to contain the spread of the Ebola
Virus, have been most helpful as Nigeria is now declared an Ebola free
nation. To this end, we hereby direct that the church reverts to the
normal and ordinary practices prior to the Ebola disease saga," the
statement reads.
The Bishops also praised God for the zero case status of the Ebola
Virus Disease in Nigeria and urged Nigerians to pray for the countries
is still battling the virus.
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