Covid-19: Dublin priest hears
confessions in church car park
 |
| A Dublin priest hears confessions in the empty car park of his church |
With parishes adapting to new ways of reaching their flock
during the coronavirus pandemic, one Dublin priest is offering confessions in
the car park of his church.
By Lydia O’Kane
This week a photo of a priest hearing confessions in a
church carpark in Dublin, Ireland, went viral on social media.
The priest, Fr Pat McKinley and his colleagues are offering
the Sacrament twice a day for an hour in order to adhere to social distancing
measures.
The Dublin pastor has won praise from Twitter users for
being near to his flock during this time of pandemic.
The parish in question is St Mark’s in Tallaght, South
Dublin which, like other parishes in the city, has been adapting to life during
Covid-19.
All in a day’s work
Speaking to Vatican Radio about the outdoor confessions, Fr
McKinley was keen to play down all the hype of the last few days.
“We’re not doing anything in the car park that we don’t do
under normal circumstances every weekend in our Churches all over the world.
It’s very ordinary, this is what we do, we hear people’s confessions… and the
only difference is we’re on the opposite side of the wall to where we would
normally be hearing confessions.”
Fr McKinley said there were a number of reasons why the
parish decided to offer confessions in the empty church car park: One, he said,
was that it was possible to do it under the current restricted circumstances.
But, he added that what they were really trying to do was to “say to people
that the Church is still here.”
Positive feedback
The Dublin priest noted that they didn’t expect many people
to attend and both he and his colleague brought a book with them to the car
park which in the end they didn’t get to open due to demand.
Since the parish started the outdoor confessions, Fr
McKinley said there have been some beautiful moments.
One women he recall , “hadn’t been to confession since her
First Holy Communion. She saw the sign and said she felt ‘pushed’,… across the
car park to us, and she had stuff that was really weighing her down, so that
was really beautiful, and the priest to be able to experience that with her.”
Fr McKinley described the feedback he has received as being
“really positive”. “We didn’t expect any reaction of any description, that was
the last thing on our mind, we’ve been overwhelmed with the reaction through
social media, through newspapers, radio stations…”
Hunger for God
Since the lockdown came into effect church services in
Ireland and in many other countries have been suspended. Fr McKinley said he
has a number of people coming to him “quite literally crying because they can’t
go to Mass; crying because they can’t receive Holy Communion… Even for myself
as a priest to stand in a church without your usual congregation, that’s
obviously a very different experience to what we’ve been used to, so we’re all
hungering in a sense for that renewal.”
The priest also highlighted that one of the things that has
struck him of the last month is the amount of beautiful conversations he’s had
with people, adding that “people are more open to stopping and having a
conversation – albeit at social distance.”
Asked if he would like to see the car park confessions
taking place in other parishes, Fr McKinley, said he would like to see it
“anywhere where it’s feasible” because “it’s making the sacrament and the Lord
available to people.”
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