Pittsburgh Catholics permitted to get confession in church parking lots, eat meat on Fridays in Lent, bishop says

Catholics in the Diocese of Pittsburgh will be able to say confession in church parking lots, receive general absolution in places such as hospitals and nursing homes, and eat meat on Fridays during Lent, except on Good Friday.

The series of directives that Bishop David Zubik issued Friday night, which take effect immediately, are part of the church’s continued response to preventing the spread of the coronavirus that causes covid-19, the diocese said.

Priests can hear confessions in the church parking lots in accordance with guidelines that allow for anonymity and privacy of the parishioner, the diocese said.

“Our faithful need reassurance of God’s mercy now more than ever,” Zubik said.

The general absolution can be given in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities where a priest is not allowed to see patients or staff due to covid-19 restrictions.

The priest’s voice should be able to be heard by those receiving absolution, such as over a public address system. The priest is to tell those receiving absolution that they need to confess serious sins as soon as possible.

Zubik said he contacted the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference to ask Gov. Tom Wolf to exempt clergy from the current ban that prevents priests from anointing the sick in nursing homes and hospitals because of coronavirus.

In dispensing Catholics from the obligation to abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent, Zubik noted he was acting out of necessity because “many of the shelves and cases in our supermarkets are sparse, if not empty.”