THE traditional nine-day dawn masses that lead to Christmas cannot be cancelled in the same way Sunday masses did not stop, but decisions have to be made to hold them in-person or online.
There is an online survey being conducted that showed, based on initial results, respondents favoring that no in-person Misa de Gallo be allowed to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. They want to play it safe and stick to hearing masses online, regular or the dawn kind. They have become used to the movement restrictions and have adopted the new arrangement of staying home and hearing mass on television or on their computers.
There are others who do not want the dawn masses cancelled because it would be like cancelling Christmas. Masses can continue, they said, with the usual safety protocols of requiring the wearing of masks and face shields, physical distancing and limiting the number of people attending.
The survey question on the SunStar website at www.sunstar.com.ph was, “Should your local government allow the holding of (in-person) Misa de Gallo? This was asked after presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Friday the holding of Misa de Gallo will be up to the local government units as the Inter-Agency Task Force has yet to issue guidelines on it.
The Misa de Gallo, a Christmas season tradition, will run from Dec. 16 to 24. Some are held as early as 3 a.m. and there are churches that allow the selling of the season’s favorite such as bibingka and puto.
For Cebu City, Mayor Edgardo Labella already said he will allow the holding of dawn masses in churches but not in the market or the park. But, he added, since the City’s curfew ends every 5 a.m. then churches would have to adjust their mass schedules or the curfew would have to be revised. Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. has postponed deciding on the matter saying he would meet first with health, law enforcement and Catholic Church officials. If it were up to him, he said, he would prefer that residents heard masses in their homes to prevent transmission of the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Other mayors would also have to decide.
The question is not whether there will be Misa de Gallo because there will be these dawn masses in the same way that Sunday masses were not stopped even at the start of the pandemic when quarantine rules were at their strictest.
What is to be resolved is if people will be allowed inside the churches or if these masses will be limited to online. Local government units cannot stop the Church from holding masses but can discourage the allowing of in-person dawn masses.
The curfew does not have to be changed or lifted. Churches can hold anticipated Misa de Gallo in church every 5 p.m. on those nine days (not a new thing, really) and the actual dawn masses will be done online.