4 ms·

Finally - vigorous, coordinated action. That's exactly what's needed right now and I'm glad to see countries stepping up to the challenge.

mrleiter 7y ago
Yes, I'm glad. Currently we have 246 confirmed cases and with those measures they may rise slower than otherwise.
StavrosK 7y ago
Isn't this happening in many places? In Greece, schools are closing for two weeks, all gatherings are prohibited, and celebrations for various holidays have been canceled. Notably, the Church of Greece has announced that "the virus cannot be spread through Communion" (where everyone drinks wine from the same cup). You can imagine how angry this self-serving move made most people.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Same in Poland. Schools, kindergartens, universities all closed starting Monday (Thursday and Friday are "if you must" to give people time to cope), but from what I hear from people, the Church considers itself to be a "hospital for the soul", and "you wouldn't close hospitals during a pandemic". smh. > "the virus cannot be spread through Communion" I assume Greece is Catholic, right? Because pope himself told people to take the "spiritual communion" instead of the actual one, and yet the Church in Poland doesn't seem to care. EDIT: sorry. Somehow I thought Orthodox is mainly in Russia. But my rant against Polish Catholic Church still stands. Pope himself shows people what to do, but in Poland, we're going to do the opposite.
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    Greece is Orthodox, but I imagine each franchise has some leeway in its marketing. It seems that ours are just excessively greedy.
  - bluGill 7y ago
    Greeze is probably orthodox not catholic. There is a difference, but I'm not sure what other than they don't report to the Pope, and they do recognize the pope (and vise versa)
    - StavrosK 7y ago
      There are dogmatic differences such as the Filioque, where one Church says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only, whereas the other claims that it also proceeds from the son. It's kind of like the systemd rageforks, only for sillier (unless you're religious, I guess) reasons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism
      - disgruntledphd2 7y ago
        I dunno, the details of Christian theology and doctrine and systemd doctrinal differences seem equally silly to me.
        manquer 7y ago
        Until you get burnt by a bug/limitation which systemd team consider as feature.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
  - nerfhammer 7y ago
    it's Greek Orthodox Catholic, which is not a part of the Roman Catholic church.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- philsnow 7y ago
  > Notably, the Church of Greece has announced that "the virus cannot be spread through Communion" (where everyone drinks wine from the same cup). Catholics in Greece are overwhelmingly Orthodox. The Orthodox Catholic church distributes holy communion differently, with a spoon (there is a particular term for it, but I don't know it) that doesn't touch the communicant's mouth. So, they're not drinking from a communal cup. It's entirely possible for the communicant to exhale / cough / sneeze on the spoon. I don't know what the priest would do if this were to happen. As an aside, it's widespread right now (but maybe not universal) in Catholic dioceses to not even provide the cup to the congregation during Communion (which is perfectly fine according to Catholic theology btw). edit: additionally, I recently heard about a dispensation in at least one diocese for people who are in any of the COVID-19 risk categories that they don't need to receive Communion for now. I don't know whether this also dispenses them from attending Mass on Sundays (which is otherwise an obligation for all Catholics).
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    Do you mean "Christians"? There are very few Catholics here. The spoon very much touches the communicant's mouth, and the priest dips it back in the cup afterwards. You're getting spoon-fed wine, essentially, with a whole lot of contact.
    - philsnow 7y ago
      I'll take your word for it, I've been to Divine Liturgy exactly once. Do Orthodox folks not use the term "Catholic" for themselves? I just don't know very many.
      - StavrosK 7y ago
        No, it's "Orthodox Christian" and "Catholic Christian", to differentiate.
        philsnow 7y ago
        Conversely, the Catholics I know prefer (if they have a preference, many don't) the bare term "Catholic" rather than "Catholic Christian". This is likely because I live in the US.

mrleiter 7y ago

Yes, I'm glad. Currently we have 246 confirmed cases and with those measures they may rise slower than otherwise.

StavrosK 7y ago

Isn't this happening in many places? In Greece, schools are closing for two weeks, all gatherings are prohibited, and celebrations for various holidays have been canceled. Notably, the Church of Greece has announced that "the virus cannot be spread through Communion" (where everyone drinks wine from the same cup). You can imagine how angry this self-serving move made most people.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
Same in Poland. Schools, kindergartens, universities all closed starting Monday (Thursday and Friday are "if you must" to give people time to cope), but from what I hear from people, the Church considers itself to be a "hospital for the soul", and "you wouldn't close hospitals during a pandemic". smh. > "the virus cannot be spread through Communion" I assume Greece is Catholic, right? Because pope himself told people to take the "spiritual communion" instead of the actual one, and yet the Church in Poland doesn't seem to care. EDIT: sorry. Somehow I thought Orthodox is mainly in Russia. But my rant against Polish Catholic Church still stands. Pope himself shows people what to do, but in Poland, we're going to do the opposite.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  Greece is Orthodox, but I imagine each franchise has some leeway in its marketing. It seems that ours are just excessively greedy.
- bluGill 7y ago
  Greeze is probably orthodox not catholic. There is a difference, but I'm not sure what other than they don't report to the Pope, and they do recognize the pope (and vise versa)
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    There are dogmatic differences such as the Filioque, where one Church says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only, whereas the other claims that it also proceeds from the son. It's kind of like the systemd rageforks, only for sillier (unless you're religious, I guess) reasons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism
    - disgruntledphd2 7y ago
      I dunno, the details of Christian theology and doctrine and systemd doctrinal differences seem equally silly to me.
      - manquer 7y ago
        Until you get burnt by a bug/limitation which systemd team consider as feature.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- nerfhammer 7y ago
  it's Greek Orthodox Catholic, which is not a part of the Roman Catholic church.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
philsnow 7y ago
> Notably, the Church of Greece has announced that "the virus cannot be spread through Communion" (where everyone drinks wine from the same cup). Catholics in Greece are overwhelmingly Orthodox. The Orthodox Catholic church distributes holy communion differently, with a spoon (there is a particular term for it, but I don't know it) that doesn't touch the communicant's mouth. So, they're not drinking from a communal cup. It's entirely possible for the communicant to exhale / cough / sneeze on the spoon. I don't know what the priest would do if this were to happen. As an aside, it's widespread right now (but maybe not universal) in Catholic dioceses to not even provide the cup to the congregation during Communion (which is perfectly fine according to Catholic theology btw). edit: additionally, I recently heard about a dispensation in at least one diocese for people who are in any of the COVID-19 risk categories that they don't need to receive Communion for now. I don't know whether this also dispenses them from attending Mass on Sundays (which is otherwise an obligation for all Catholics).
- StavrosK 7y ago
  Do you mean "Christians"? There are very few Catholics here. The spoon very much touches the communicant's mouth, and the priest dips it back in the cup afterwards. You're getting spoon-fed wine, essentially, with a whole lot of contact.
  - philsnow 7y ago
    I'll take your word for it, I've been to Divine Liturgy exactly once. Do Orthodox folks not use the term "Catholic" for themselves? I just don't know very many.
    - StavrosK 7y ago
      No, it's "Orthodox Christian" and "Catholic Christian", to differentiate.
      - philsnow 7y ago
        Conversely, the Catholics I know prefer (if they have a preference, many don't) the bare term "Catholic" rather than "Catholic Christian". This is likely because I live in the US.