{"id":3890,"date":"2020-03-05T01:35:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T06:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=3890"},"modified":"2020-03-05T04:38:06","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T09:38:06","slug":"trenton-diocese-announces-tweaks-to-catholic-mass-due-to-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2020\/03\/trenton-diocese-announces-tweaks-to-catholic-mass-due-to-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Trenton Diocese Announces Tweaks to Catholic Mass Due to Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3891\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3891\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3891\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Toms River (Photo: St. Joseph Church)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr-747x420.jpg 747w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr-681x383.jpg 681w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3891\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic Church, Toms River (Photo: St. Joseph Church)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>New Jersey announced that its first resident <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/coronavirus\/2020\/03\/nj-announces-first-presumed-positive-case-of-coronavirus-in-state.html\">tested positive for the novel coronavirus<\/a> Wednesday, just as officials from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton said they would change some customs within the celebration of Mass to keep parishioners healthy.<\/p>\n<p>The resident who tested positive is from Bergen County, officials said. The Trenton Diocese covers portions of Ocean, Burlington, Mercer and Monmouth counties.<\/p>\n<p>Rayanne Bennett, spokeswoman for the diocese, said Bishop David M. O\u2019Connell issued orders Wednesday asking people who were experiencing flu-like symptoms or any other sickness to avoid attending Mass. The consumption of sacramental wine, believed to be the blood of Christ, will be suspended, as will the tradition of shaking hands with those seated near you as a sign of neighborly peace during the Mass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe practice of exchanging the sign of peace by any physical contact (handshake, embrace, kissing) is suspended,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Connell also ordered priests, deacons and Eucharistic ministers \u2013 those who distribute communion wafers to parishioners \u2013 \u201cpractice good hygiene, washing hands with soap and water or anti-bacterial hand sanitizer, before and after distributing Holy Communion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the faithful are being advised against practicing an old tradition of receiving communion directly on the tongue. Rather, O\u2019Connell said, those receiving communion should do so under the current practice of \u201creverent reception by hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2020\/03\/trenton-diocese-announces-tweaks-to-catholic-mass-due-to-coronavirus\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Jersey announced that its first resident tested positive for the novel coronavirus Wednesday, just as officials from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton said they would change some customs within the celebration of Mass to keep parishioners healthy. The resident who tested positive is from Bergen County, officials said. The Trenton Diocese covers portions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[971,11],"class_list":["post-3890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ocean-county-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/st_joseph_tr.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}