A year of COVID-19 and the spiritual well-being of the people.

The global impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has caused innumerable damages to the total well-being of the people. In previous studies, spirituality has shown positive effect to the well-being of the people. As the Catholic Church continuously provide religious and spiritual nourishment through online or virtual celebration of the liturgy, the ideal and lived experience of the select Catholic faithful shows no dissonance. The online and virtual celebrations give hope and to the people post-pandemic, as we enter to the new normal.

To the Editor

The coronavirus disease 2019 has caused innumerable damages in various aspects of life, wherein, as of 19 February 2021, 109 million people have been infected and almost 2.5 million have died, affecting 219 countries and territories. In the Philippines alone, 555 163 were infected and 11 673 have lost their lives. It has been a year since the pandemic broke out and different countries have just started vaccinating their people to at least reach the level of herd immunity to prevent further infections and deaths. Despite the danger of catching this disease in large gatherings, people keep holding on to their faith as the spiritual aspect of their lives keeps them sane and hopeful for something good to happen post-pandemic.

In the Philippines, where 81% of the country’s population belongs to Christianity, the people’s spiritual well-being is being taken care of by the Church through online or virtual Eucharistic celebrations and spiritual nourishments. When the strict community quarantine began in the Philippines in 2020, the Church was in the season of Lent and already preparing for the start of the most important celebrations of the Filipino Catholics the Holy Week and Easter. Now, the Church had just begun the Lent season for this year and people are hopeful that this year’s celebration will be as normal as possible despite the lingering threat of the pandemic. The religious and spiritual interventions of the Catholic Church play an essential role in assisting the faithful during this time of crisis.

Despite the pandemic’s ravaging effect, the spiritual well-being of the people, as part of the overall well-being and health, showed no dissonance between their personal, communal, environmental and transcendental spirituality before and during the pandemic based on a survey made in the Batangas Province, Philippines. This may be attributed to the purposive and massive effect of the online or virtual Eucharistic celebrations live-streamed by various parishes through Facebook Live. For almost a year now, the Filipino Catholics show great importance to their spiritual aspect as they continue their lives in the new normal.

The Philippine Catholic Church continuously provides religious and spiritual nourishment for the people. Their call for spiritual upkeep, despite the pandemic’s effect, still aims for the common good—resounding the importance of following health protocols side by side with the promotion of physical, social, mental and spiritual well-being of all.

Conflict of interest

No funding was received for this paper. The author declares that he has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.