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Post date: 13-Jun-2020 20:18:01
Father Damien came round for our first "support bubble" meeting this afternoon. He looked very drained. I think his chaplaincy work at hte hospital has been taking its toll as well as the larger than usual number of funerals that he's had to conduct recently. He's been celebrating Mass online every Sunday and, now that meetings are permitted in private outdoor spaces, taking confessions in the garden at the back of the church. He's been trying to encourage people to take advantage of the Pope's instruction to people to ask for forgiveness directly from God, instead of trying to access the Sacrament of Reconciliation from a priest, but there are a few of his parishioners for whom weekly acts of penance with a priest are so ingrained that they can't imagine doign without them.
We tried to give him a bit of a break from worrying about his parish and parishioners and where the money is going to come from to keep up the church building by showing him what we've been doing in the garden. Then Jonah read him the first few chapters of his book about his first murder case, back in 1982. He was interested that some of the key platers had been members of St Cyprians, albeit well before his time.