Dakar, 12 July, 2020 / 8:34 pm (ACI Africa).
Catholic Bishops in Senegal have announced their collective decision to keep churches closed even after the government eased COVID-19 restrictions and urged the faithful “to be patient in faith and in hope.”
“Despite our common thirst to find our way back to our churches, we, your Bishops, urge you to be patient in faith and in Hope,” the Bishops say in their collective statement issued July 10.
They explain, “The present situation, from the opinions we have been able to gather, does not militate in favour of an immediate opening of our churches for worship.”
In the statement signed by the Archbishop of Dakar, Benjamin Ndiaye, the Bishops highlight the background of their decision saying, “The representatives of the Ecclesiastical Province of Dakar beforehand, gathered the opinion of doctors and health personnel of the community.”
They continue, “The daily communication of the Ministry of Health and Social Action reports a persistence of new cases of COVID-19. It also points out two phenomena: on the one hand, the spread of the pandemic in areas and regions initially spared and, on the other hand, the steady rate of the curve around 9 percent to 10 percent of the subjects tested, a rate that could increase in the days or weeks to come.”
