Rick Stansberry said Catholic churches in many places have distributed the ashes through sprinkling for many years. We won't be used to it but we've had to change a lot." "Just to be able to have the ashes in some form will be accepted. "COVID has changed so many things that I believe that our parishioners will be so grateful to receive them (ashes) either way because we can have in-person services, with many precautions," Rogalsky. James the Greater Catholic Church, said she thought most Catholics in the Oklahoma City archdiocese would be fine with the elimination of the cross symbol for the imposition of ashes. The sprinkling of ashes is the way the ritual was initially observed, she said and it is the way it is currently done in Europe.Īrchdiocesan churches will be among Catholic houses of worship around the country and the world that will alter the ceremonial distribution of ashes in some form or fashion due to the global pandemic.īeverly Rogalsky, a parishioner at St.
"They won't do a cross on the forehead just because you don't want to have one person touch someone's head, and then the next person and then the next person," Clay said. This, she said, is in keeping with COVID safety precautions. Priests will sprinkle a small amount of ashes on top of each attendee's head, near their hairline. The smudging of crosses on parishioners' foreheads won't be part of it, said Diane Clay, communications director for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.Ĭlay said the imposition of ashes will take place on Wednesday at archdiocese churches. That ritual will change this year to limit the spread of COVID-19. These ashes from palm branches, moistened with holy water, are placed on congregants' foreheads in the most recognized symbol of Christianity to symbolize penance and contrition. During a solemn Ash Wednesday ritual, local Catholic priests rub ashes on the foreheads of the faithful to create a sign of the cross.
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