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Cardinal Dolan on coronavirus' impact on Holy Week: 'Remember the essence of Easter'
By Victor Garcia
Published April 03, 2020
Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York City, joined "Bill Hemmer Reports" to talk about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the churches.
"The ordinary things we relish in human contact and embrace. A handshake, a kiss on the cheek. We can't do any more," Dolan said Friday. "For us as Catholics, it's tough because we're very tactile religion."
"We're into signs of peace. We're in the holy water. We're into bread and wine," Dolan added. "We're ... into being together next to each other in worship. So it is a very difficult time."
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The Catholic leader, who had been streaming services from inside an empty St. Patrick's Cathedral, said the idea of an empty church during Easter Sunday is "tough" but that he reflects on the holiday's message.
"Remember the essence of Passover? Remember the essence of Easter is that transition from darkness to light. You've got the people of Israel who were in oppression, darkness, slavery down in Egypt, pass, passing over to new life and hope. You got Jesus in the midst of darkness and Good Friday, raw evil that seems to have conquered passing over to new life, resurrection on Easter, which he shares with us," Dolan said. "So in some ways, the climate that we're in ... with this dreadful virus is in a way providing us a bit of an ambience to express our faith in the message the Passover and Easter is all about."
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Dolan said like other's he's "bristling" and "chafing" to get back to work.
"I'm just bristling to get out there. I'm bristling to visit the sick. I'm chafing to be with my people. I'm eager to see them all in front of me and with me at Mass on Sunday. So there is that frustration," Dolan said. "And most of all, there's that deep abiding concern for those who are suffering. Those who are attending to them so generously and those who are worried about it."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/cardinal-dolan-coronavirus-impact-easter