"Theologically confusing": Why a socially distanced Easter is leaving some Catholics adrift

The Catholic Church, like most institutions, was not prepared for a pandemic. When coronavirus first became a serious concern, many Catholic churches around the world simply replaced the sign of peace handshake during Mass—symbolising respect and community among Catholics—with a nod or bow, and holy water was removed from fonts at the entrance to churches, as it was during the swine flu or SARS epidemics.

However, as government restrictions were enforced—particularly in majority-Catholic countries like Spain, Italy, and Ireland, which have some of the harshest lockdown measures in the world—churches began to close and Catholics became isolated from their communities in the all-important season of Lent and the lead-up to Easter. As a result, the Church has had to find new ways of reaching its members to maintain the feeling of a religious community despite physical restrictions. These have included tweets of scripture passages and livestreamed masses, but for many, these cannot replace a more traditional celebration.

Being unable to properly celebrate Easter feels theologically confusing. In the Catholic faith, Jesus’s birth at Christmas is mirrored by his death for our sins at Easter, completing the cycle of the church’s year and the fasting periods of Lent and Advent, which end in Easter and Christmas respectively. Catholic concepts of forgiveness and repentance—crucial aspects of fasting—focus heavily on rituals and ceremonies such as communion and confession. Being unable to use these during a fasting period means preparation for and celebration of the risen Christ is liturgically complicated and can almost feel like cheating.

However, the liturgical issue of a diminished Easter goes deeper than an incomplete church year, an issue affecting most Christian denominations. The pandemic is proving particularly problematic for Catholics because the Catholic Church, perhaps more so than any other Christian denomination, thrives on collective worship and ritual, unlike some Protestant denominations which prefer a more informal, unstructured form of individual prayer. One of the biggest selling points, if you like, of the Catholic Church is the community structure it offers, which can prove as attractive to devout believers as it is to those who were perhaps raised Catholic but have personal issues with church doctrine. There are services, familiar prayers, and feast days for almost all possible eventualities: grief, love, guilt.

The coronavirus pandemic, however, has interrupted these services, cutting short the catharsis and familiarity that comes with completing them. The ritualised guilt of Ash Wednesday, where Catholics enter the season of fasting by repenting their sins and receiving ashes on their foreheads as a reminder that “dust they are and to dust they shall return,” is usually bearable and even welcome because after Lent, the celebratory ritual of Easter—the ritual of forgiveness—completes its cycle; as Saint Augustine noted, for Catholics “repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.” Without proper Easter celebrations, the rituals of the Church are left in limbo, and do not provide closure to Catholics all over the world who seek it as an integral part of the liturgical year.

Now in Holy Week, the traditional church rituals are unavailable. Re-enactments of the Last Supper at parish churches, Stations of the Cross services on Good Friday, and public celebration of Easter Sunday Mass have been cancelled. For the first time, the Pope is celebrating Mass alone in the Vatican, and some Catholics have called for Easter to be postponed, claiming that because it is already a moveable feast, it won’t affect the liturgical year. However, postponing Easter seems to cause more problems than it would solve: would the Lent period be extended, leaving Catholics in a limbo of extended fasting that no longer mirrors Jesus’s 40 days in the desert, or would there be a break? If so, the purpose of Easter as a celebration after fasting would be confused. It would also run into the rest of the church year, so that the holy day of Pentecost (sometimes called Whitsun) would have to be postponed too.

And all this doesn’t even consider how long the coronavirus pandemic could last. There’s no guarantee that churches will be open again in two or three months, when a postponed Easter would presumably take place. Perhaps most importantly, postponing Easter would deprive many Catholics of the familiarity and comfort of celebrating Easter this week, even if it is without masses or community celebration.

Against all this, the Church has made impressive efforts to remain in community connection with its people. Pope Francis has offered virtual sermons and quoted relevant Bible passages on his Twitter, focusing on praying for those in need and remembering that at the crux of Easter is a message of forgiveness. Local churches have live-streamed masses and many are still celebrating virtually for Easter Sunday, allowing Catholics to join in from their homes. Prayer groups and scripture readings have been organised by Catholics on social media platforms, and for many, the Easter celebrations provide an opportunity for hope in a confusing world where now, particularly, God can feel silent.