Ash Wednesday: Pandemic-driven changes won’t impact meaning

Ash Wednesday might look different this year, in the midst of a global pandemic that is rounding the clock to year two. But the message remains the same: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

In the United States, ashes, a symbol of penance and mortality, have traditionally been applied to the foreheads of the faithful during Mass. This year on Feb. 17, to help prevent spread of the coronavirus in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and across the globe, ashes may instead be sprinkled on top of people’s heads.

In the archdiocese, ashes may also be applied to penitents’ foreheads with a Q-tip or cotton swab, or traced on the forehead with a thumb (the usual way) provided that the priest, deacon or other minister sanitizes hands each time. Everyone will wear a face covering.

Rather than address people individually as they receive ashes, priests may address the entire congregation once with the words “Repent and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

With social distancing and health concerns limiting the size of congregations, many parishes are likely to livestream Ash Wednesday Masses, as they do Sunday Masses, said Father Tom Margevicius, the archdiocese’s director of worship, who wrote a Feb. 4 memo to parish leaders about Ash Wednesday in light of COVID-19.

The changes might be unfamiliar, but they do not impact the essential nature of Ash Wednesday and Lent as preparation for the Easter celebration of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, Father Margevicius told The Catholic Spirit.

“Conversion is first and foremost a matter of the heart,” he said. “If it is real in the depths of our hearts, it will naturally find external expression. But mere external expression doesn’t produce internal conversion.”

Catholics “could accept a certain method of distributing ashes as a way to protect one’s brother or sister, so as not to spread the pandemic,” he added.

If the different practices seem uncomfortable because they’re unfamiliar, they might be offered up as another dying to self, a sacrifice for the good of others, Father Margevicius said.

During last year’s Ash Wednesday, Feb. 26, churches were filled with the faithful; it was observed days before the pandemic began to spread across the United States. Then came the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Minnesota March 6, followed by a suspension in the archdiocese of the obligation to attend Sunday Mass March 12, and then suspension of all public Masses from March 18 until May 18.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda has continued the temporary suspension of all Mass obligations, while encouraging precautions against the spread of COVID-19, such as wearing masks and social distancing.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published a notice in January on the “Distribution of ashes in time of pandemic,” encouraging priests to bless the ashes with holy water at the altar, address the entire congregation with the words of repentance, and sprinkle ashes on individual heads of penitents. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops followed with a similar note. Sprinkling of ashes on the head is a common practice in Italy and many other parts of Europe.

But the Vatican and the USCCB did not prohibit other methods of distributing ashes, and Archbishop Hebda wants to give pastors an opportunity to observe Ash Wednesday in the manner best fitting the circumstances of their parish. Even so, he prefers sprinkling of ashes out of an abundance of caution, Father Margevicius said.

“The archbishop is very pastoral,” Father Margevicius said about recognizing that some parish circumstances might be different than others.