Chai Brady
An Irish missionary priest who has served in Africa for more than 40 years has said that people are hopeful as churches in South Africa, which had been badly hit by Covid-19, begin to re-open.
Fr Seán Mullin CSSp, originally from Kilconly near Tuam in Co. Galway, is a school and hospital chaplain but is also involved in pastoral ministry.
Writing to The Irish Catholic, he said that most of the cases in South Africa are in several areas including Durban, where he is based. He said that initially both Cape provinces “were hardest hit, with health services struggling”.
“Although permission has been given for places of worship to re-open, with strict protocols in place and with numbers capped at 50, most churches are moving very cautiously,” Fr Mullin said.
“Quite a number of parishes continue to livestream their Masses; like services in other parts of the world, these can be seen from across the globe. I recently met a family who told me that the Mass they now enjoy on a Sunday morning comes all the way from Portlaoise!
“The re-opening of schools was a hotly debated issue here as elsewhere; eventually most schools have re-opened on a phased, class-by-class basis,” he said.
There was well over half a million cases of Covid-19 in South Africa and almost 12,000 deaths as this newspaper went to print.
The pandemic has hit many South Africans – already struggling to make ends meet – particularly hard. Fr Mullin said: “In a country with 30% unemployment, President Cyril Ramaphosa has formally addressed the nation, seeking to strike a delicate balance between the health of the people and the phased re-opening of the economy.
“A delegation visiting from the World Health Organization (WHO), led by Irishman Dr Michael Ryan, seems happy with how government has been handling the pandemic particularly the fact that it started screening and testing at least one week before some other countries did. At the outset, the government had imposed a very strict lockdown which was enforced by the police and army, a very difficult task especially in the many overcrowded townships where social distancing and the shortage of water for handwashing were very challenging.”
He added: “Let us hope and pray for better times ahead as we try to come to terms with the ‘new normal’.”