Houses of worship take steps to stop flu spread

They rank among the best-recognized practices at Catholic Mass: sipping wine from a chalice, shaking hands while exchanging the "sign of peace," and, in many parishes, holding hands during the Lord's Prayer.

But these meaningful rituals also present opportunities to spread germs, and in a season of rising concern over swine flu, they will be observed by fewer Catholics this fall. Hoping to prevent the flu from spreading through pews, many Catholic dioceses in recent weeks have been alerting parishes to Aware of the growing concern about swine flu, religious leaders are making an effort to protect congregants from contracting the disease at a place of worship.

Last spring, when the H1N1 virus spread in the United States, a nondenominational church in Rahway installed hand-sanitizer dispensers, and a national Muslim group urged that Friday mosque gatherings be canceled if a health risk existed.

Catholic parishes in New Jersey will continue to offer Communion wine from a common chalice. But church authorities are reminding lay people that receiving Communion that way is not essential, and that receiving it in wafer form is sufficient.

Catholics believe that consecrated wafers become the body of Christ, and that consecrated wine becomes the blood of Christ.

"Please remember," Paterson Bishop Arthur Serratelli wrote in the Sept. 17 issue of his diocesan newspaper, "that anyone who receives the Body of Christ (in the form of a consecrated wafer) receives the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ and is in no way deprived by not receiving the Precious Blood from the cup."

How the swine flu will ultimately affect the state this fall is hard to predict. Earlier this month, a public health advocacy group predicted 3 million New Jerseyans could catch it and 42,000 could be hospitalized.

VARYING levels OF PROTECTION

Elsewhere, Catholic bishops, who have autonomy over their own diocese, have come down differently on flu prevention. In Pennsylvania, parishes in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown will not even offer Communion from the chalice through flu season.

Source: http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1255218904321790.xml&coll=1