Quiapo Church resumes 1st Friday mass service with 10 devotees

After nearly three months, the public celebration of masses finally resumed at the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene (Quiapo Church) in Manila, on Friday, June 5.

The number of people allowed to attend the mass, however, was limited to 10 in keeping with the rules of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

“Every time there is a mass, we allow 10 people only,” Father Douglas Badong, parochial vicar of Quiapo Church said.

If there is no mass, he said, they will allow people who want to pray to go inside the church but by batches.

“Those who want to pray, we will allow them to go inside the church but batch by batch,” said Fr. Badong.

The IATF-EID earlier allowed religious gatherings but it limited the attendees to a maximum of 10 in the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) areas and 50 percent capacity in Modified GCQ areas.

It was last March when a number of dioceses suspended the public celebration of masses after the government imposed the enhanced community quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Priests celebrated Mass in private and made available to the faithful via livestreaming or television and radio.

Aside from limiting the number of people during mass, Quiapo Church also followed the different guidelines laid out by the Archdiocese of Manila to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus such as the wearing of face masks, temperature check, placing of footbath containers, and hand sanitizers among others.

Quiapo Church houses the image of the Black Nazarene, a life-sized, dark-colored, wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ that was brought to Manila by Augustinian priests in 1607.