Diocese on hepatitis scare: No change at Mass
Rose and John Fredricks leave Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa Park after waiting in line for more than an hour for a hepatitis vaccine. (Jan. 4, 2011) Credit: Joel Cairo
As dozens more parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes Church received shots Wednesday to protect them against hepatitis A, Catholic Church officials on Long Island said they were satisfied their current practices during Masses were keeping the faithful as safe as possible.
About 160 parishioners filed into a makeshift clinic at the Massapequa Park church Wednesday to get preventive shots, bringing to about 575 the total receiving treatments that started on Tuesday, said Mary Ellen Laurain, a spokeswoman for the Nassau Health Department.
About 1,300 people attended the two Christmas Day Masses in which a person involved in administering Communion was later found to be infected with hepatitis A, Laurain said. Citing privacy laws, health and church officials are declining to name the infected person.
Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, said Wednesday the Catholic Church on Long Island has no plans to alter practices during Masses to try to prevent outbreaks of hepatitis A or any other diseases. He said that was partly because Holy Communion is deeply rooted in Catholic tradition and needs complex liturgical review to change.
He also said the diocese already recommends to priests and eucharistic ministers that they wash and sanitize their hands before distributing Communion, especially during the winter cold and flu season.
"This is an isolated situation," Dolan said. He added that the church has rejected suggestions such as requiring Communion distributors to wear latex gloves.
Other religions take different approaches to the issue, said the Rev. Thomas Goodhue, executive director of the Long Island Council of Churches. In some Protestant churches, Communion wafers are poured from a box onto a tray, and the faithful pick them up, he said.
In contrast to most Catholic churches, where parishioners usually drink wine from a common chalice, in some Protestant churches each person drinks from his or her own disposable plastic cup, he said.
The Rev. Canon Kris Lee, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, said that diocese generally follows the same practice as the Catholic Church when it comes to Communion.
"This method of distribution is quite historical," he said. "We're talking about 2,000 years of history."
