Cold & Flu Redux

A reader writes:

I recently found your site and have thoroghly enjoyed
reading it.  Your websites awsome!   I wanted to comment on
your article Cold and Flu People at Mass.  Thank you for pointing out
that sick people should be content with recieving Him under the
appearance of bread -rather then share their germs on the chalice.
Also, holding hands during the Our Father or shaking hands during the
kiss of peace should not be done if someone has a catching sickness.  Children, and as you pointed out adults, need to cover their
mouths when the cough and not coughing on someone else is always a good
thing.

 

One comment in your article concerned me however.  I
was surprised to read that having a contagious disease is a valid
excuse to miss Mass.  While in the case of small pox or something of
that sort I would agree, are you sure that a cold validly excuses a
person from their sunday obligation?  Worshiping at Mass is the  most
important thing any of us will ever do.  We do have an obligation not
to spread disease, but this can be done by following a few common sense
steps (which you mention in your article).  Also, if one is severely
ill and absolutly cannot make it to Mass they should have someone bring
them communion.

 

I only mention this because people can be inclined to
take the ‘easy way out’.  A mere case of the sniffles (or the
perception that they are going to get sick) will offer enough excuse to
stay in bed on a Sunday morning under the pretext that it is better to
miss Mass then spread their germs. 

 

Please don’t be angry with this note.  I respect that
you sacrifice your time to promote the Catholic Church in your website
and will keep your ministry in my prayers.  Like I said above, I’ve
thoroughly enjoyed what I have read on your site.

Several thoughts:

1. Don’t worry. I’m not a bit angry. I operate on the principle that not everybody has to agree with me.
2. Also, thank you for the kind words about my blog! I hope you’ll keep coming back and be a regular part of the group!
3. If anybody at Mass actually had small pox then he not only should be not be at Mass, he should be reported to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Small pox is considered to be a disease that is extinct in the wild, with only a few cold storage stocks of it kept on hand by governments. An actual case of small pox in the population would be a likely sign of a terrorist attack. That being said, I know you were just using small pox as a more serious disease and that I’m being overly literal. 🙂
4. I’m quite sure that people who have contagious diseases should stay home and not go to Mass.
5. First, it is not practically possible for a great mass of people to be together and have cold and flu sufferes without these diseases jumping from person to person. The stopgap measures I mentioned for preventing its spread are not infallible and will not be used by many people. People will forget and make slips. They will cough in their hands and then–even omitting shaking hands at the sign of peace–they will forget and put their hand on the seat or on the back of the pew in front of them and the cold virus will remain there and able to infect others for up to two weeks.
6. Colds and flu make people miserable and force them to take time off from work or to go to work and infect other people. If a person is elderly or in frail health (like many at Mass), a cold or flu can kill them. That’s why they try to get all the elderly to have flu shots every year. Influenza kills 20,000 people in the U.S. alone every year on average.
7. It is, in my opinion, an act objectively contrary to the virtue of charity to show up at Mass (or work) with a contagious case of cold or flu or any other similar illness (e.g., strep throat) unless there is a specific, counterbalancing factor of proportionate weight (like, "I’m supposed to get married at this Mass" or "I’ll get fired if I don’t clock in today").
8. Because it is objectively contrary to the virtue of charity if done without a proportionate reason, in my opinion showing up at Mass with a contagious disease of this nature is sinful, with the gravity of the sin being proportionate to the likelihood of communicating it to others and the likely health effects in the people who would catch it. (Thus it would be worse to show up with a contagious disease at a Mass held in an old folks home than in a college young adult center.)
9. We most certainly are not bound to show up at Mass with contagious diseases. While I people should not lightly excuse themselves from Mass, having a contagious disease is an instance in which they should. This applies even to the first phases of a the disease, when they may be most contagious.

Having said all that, I want to assure you that the attitude motivating your question is quite commendable, especially in a day when so many people fail to show up at Mass.

Americans have a tendency to take rules of this much more strictly than Rome intends, and they don’t realize how many exceptions Rome sees in the law. Thus they end up dragging themselves to Mass and infecting those around them, which is not Rome’s intention. Indeed, if you read older moralists, they name all kind of reasons as valid excuses for missing Mass that seem quite light to Americans–e.g., Alphonsus Ligouri considered it a valid excuse not to go if you would have to ride a donkey for more than fifteen minutes.

While worship is the most important thing we do in life, one can worship at home when one is sick. Indeed, if done for a motive of charity, staying home and not infecting others is itself an act of worship toward God. Thus, for God’s sake (in the literal sense), one should stay home.

Hope this helps, and God bless!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin