These new CDC guidelines are creating some confusion, and I have some thoughts about masks in church.
Thought #1: The CDC says we should continue to wear masks in crowded places, and church is pretty crowded. It is more crowded than Target, more crowded than an art museum, more crowded than the grocery store. And you keep breathing the same people's air the whole time you are there, which is not the norm in any of those other places. A chance encounter by the cherimoyas is unlikely to transmit COVID, but 45 minutes of sitting near a person with pre-symptomatic COVID certainly could.
Thought #2: We engage in higher-risk behavior at church -- we sing. If I could pick between Mass with masks and more singing and Mass without masks and without singing, I'd pick option A 100% of the time. Did you see the study describing the one Australian cantor who gave COVID to at least 12 people sitting nearby in church?
Thought #3: A segment of the population remains unable to take advantage of the vaccines' availability, and another segment may feel the need for additional caution. I would like our church's cancer patients to feel free to come to Mass without worrying about what might be lurking there. Immunosuppressed people remain vulnerable to COVID even after vaccination. Wearing masks is a small way to care for the vulnerable.
Thought #4: There is heavy overlap between people afflicted by scrupulosity, a spiritualized flavor of OCD, and people suffering from disproportionate COVID anxiety due to a more secular flavor of OCD. This is a small slice of the population (~1-2%), but the co-occurrence of these symptoms means that the people who are most likely to feel that they must go to Mass are often the same people who will be unreasonably distressed by COVID fears during and after Mass. Wearing masks is a small visible sign of compassion for this group of people.
Thought #5: All of the preceding thoughts are influenced by the discouraging fact that the traditionalist wing of the church has not, shall we say, covered itself in glory with its response to COVID. Austin Ruse boasted on Twitter about lying to a contact tracer at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; Abby Johnson has decreed that the magisterium has it wrong on vaccines. I don't know how many people are actually cheering for Bishop Strickland when he defies the Pope on vaccines; I don't know how many folks in the pews in my town are agreeing with Abby Johnson that it's better to lie to an airline than to teach a kid to wear a mask, as she proposed in a now-deleted tweet. But I have to say, the pandemic has done a number on my ability to extend the benefit of the doubt. I can't tell you how many of the people who have grumbled on Facebook about wearing masks in church would see it as a form of justifiable resistance to eschew both masks and vaccination. I suspect the number would give me pause.
Thought #6: The whole conversation reminds of St. Paul talking to the Corinthians about eating meat sacrificed to idols. He said, "Be careful that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak." In other words, Christians should be willing to accept small inconveniences and forgo certain pleasures for the sake of the vulnerable in their midst. When I was nursing my little ones, it would have been easier and more comfortable for me to nurse at church in the same relaxed way that we nursed at home. But I would never have done that: out of consideration for the people around me, I always made sure that I wasn't showing any skin. While the drive to get the community vaccinated continues, I can cover my nose for the sake of my neighbor.
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