While orders for Eucharistic breads dried up, the nuns of Glencairn found themselves helping parishes in a new way by fielding calls from “lonely and isolated” priests who “miss their flock”.
Normally tending to the bread production at St Mary’s Abbey, Sr Fiachra found herself providing much-needed conversation to priests who had been deprived of their congregations.
What she describes as “a large number of priests” have been calling for nothing more than a chat, she said.
Under normal circumstances, these priests would call to place their order of altar breads, but the Covid-19 pandemic has afforded Sr Fiachra the opportunity to “get to know some of the customers,” she laughs.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Ireland in March, the elderly and the vulnerable have been advised to restrict their social contacts through ‘cocooning’. While ensuring the safety of those most susceptible to the coronavirus, some have warned that it is also heightening loneliness and a sense of isolation among those who separate themselves.
Many priests found themselves subject to the advice to cocoon, and so were separated from their parishioners for the duration of the lockdown.
While lockdown has begun to lift around the country, the advice to restrict social contacts remains in place for those with heightened risk.