Religious orders have expressed a “cautious optimism” since the reception of the first jab in many of the congregated settings around the island.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, provincials and representatives of various orders told of their “relief” and gratitude following the reception of the vaccine.
“Given our age profile you can imagine, it’s very reassuring,” Provincial of the Augustinians, Fr John Hennebry OSA, said.
“I would say it was effective in two ways. First of all, it has lead to a more positive attitude in the friars around the country.
“Many of our locations are city centre locations, and in fact we’ve two locations where they have no place they could even leave the house to walk in a garden or in a carpark or whatever, so they have been cocooned really for most of the time, most of the year. It has lead to, I would say, a cautious optimism about just circulating that bit more and looking towards the future,” he said.
His second point was to commend the HSE, describing their work and co-operation with the religious orders as “fabulous”.
Meanwhile in Cork, Fr Colm O’Shea SMA told of their relief after “a long year”:
“When it did come, I suppose it came quickly in the end, we weren’t expecting it this soon, so it was a great relief. We would be conscience there’s still lots of people out there who haven’t received it so we still have to be careful.”
Many of the largest religious settings have received their vaccinations at this point in time, with smaller religious congregations in the process of being vaccinated.
The Mill Hill Missionaries in St Joseph’s House in Rathgar suffered two deaths from coronavirus last year, so the rollout of the vaccine in their community came as a great relief.
“We had lost two members in March and April,” Fr Philip O’Halloran MHM, said. “The majority here would be in retirement, active retirement.”
“It (being vaccinated) gives a greater sense of freedom for everybody. There’s more possibilities now. You’re not as walled in, even though we’re still walled in. You don’t have the feeling of being walled in,” he said.