Roman Catholic Bishop gives churches advice on holy water and discourages handshaking

The Roman Catholic Bishop has told Perthshire churches in the Diocese of Dunkeld to take away containers of holy water and to discourage the practice of shaking hands as some of a number of measures to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Stephen Robson, Bishop of Dunkeld, who is based in Dundee, put out recommendations for

Catholic church goers on March 2.

The focus is to promote good hand hygiene during mass and parish gatherings.

He said:“The best way of protecting us from spread is for everyone to use universal good hygiene - particularly effective hand washing - which will effectively disrupt spread of the virus. We should be doing this all the time for ‘flu’and colds in any case.

The bishop’s advice is for ministers to sanitise their hands before and after distributing Holy Communion.

“This can be done by washing hands discreetly before proceeding to the sanctuary or using good quality hand gel or warm water and soap. The holy water stoops for blessing at the entrance to the Church ought to be emptied (as on Good Friday and Holy Saturday). We can still bless ourselves as we enter the church, but without using holy water.

“The Sign of Peace [shaking hands throughout the congregation] ought to be suspended until further notice to avoid unnecessary contact.

“Encourage communicants to receive Holy Communion in the hand rather than on the tongue Communication from the chalice ought to be suspended until further notice.”