JAKARTA - The Holy Spirit Cathedral Church in Denpasar, Bali negates the excitement of the Christmas tree and the Christmas cage. This is to minimize the occurrence of crowds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"All the joys of Christmas are not measured outwardly, namely flowers, Christmas cages and trees, external favors, but later on, we will take pictures, because we are in the midst of our concerns, so the magnificent Christmas tree and nativity scene is eliminated, because we want to unite with our concerns. "If the presence of a Christmas tree and a nativity scene makes a lot of people come and stop taking photos, it will create a crowd," said RD Cathedral Church Parish Priest. Herman Yoseph Babev in Denpasar, reported by Antara, Thursday, December 24.
He said the elimination of the Christmas tree and nativity scene was carried out as a form of preventing crowds and the spread of COVID-19.
"We prevent it from causing problems because of external causes. People gather at night who wants to guard, not to mention if those who gather there are COVID, it could even spread," he said.
On the previous Christmas, the Cathedral Church made a Christmas tree from coconut leaves as high as 11 meters and has Balinese nuances. However, this year only featured a small Christmas tree inside the church.
He said, the Cathedral Church is the main church, which is often visited by many people. For this reason, his party tries to avoid crowds.
In addition, Romo appealed to the situation in dealing with COVID-19 so that all people should be aware of those who try to pit religious people against each other.
According to him, Bali is a comfortable place for all religions, with a very harmonious atmosphere.
"In many Catholic churches, those who help arrange parking are pecalang (Balinese security) friends. At the same time it shows that there is good coordination between one religion and another, there is respect for one another, there are activities in Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhists, Protestants and Confucians. All participate in maintaining comfort in worship, "he said.
He also asked the public not to be influenced by the negative hoax issue on social media.
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