GRAND RAPIDS, Mich-They want their members to come to church, they don’t want to get them sick. Father Mark Przybysz is a pastor at St. Anthony of Padua in Grand Rapids and made the decision to stop passing the communion cup during their Sunday mass.
Many church members have been sick with the flu and he doesn’t want to help spread it around.
“It’s not so much the actual drinking from the cup that’s the problem, because there is alcohol in the wine, and we wipe the cup, but it’s more the handling of back and forth,” Przybysz said.
Margaret Deveraaux has been a member of the church for the last 50 years. She says a few years ago the church had a similar problem to this, but this time around, it’s worse.
“The kids are coughing and you can hear them. A lot of kids are staying out of school,” Margaret Deveraaux said.
They are still giving the body of Christ to their members, but the people who are handing it out are using hand sanitizer.
“We are showing that we have to do what’s right and it gets people to think more about passing the flu bug to other people. If it raises awareness, that’s another reason you should be doing it in a church,” Father Mark Przybysz said.
Father Mark say they’re not sure when they will start passing around the cup again, but it will be sometime after the flu season is over.
