ドライブスルーでざんげ、新型コロナの教会閉鎖で　米国

【ブーイＡＦＰ＝時事】米国では、車に乗ったまま利用できる映画やファストフード、薬局、銀行などのドライブインやドライブスルーが長年愛されてきた。そして今、新型コロナウイルスのパンデミック（世界的な大流行）を受け、ドライブスルーで行われるカトリック教会のざんげも登場した。（写真は教会の駐車場で、信徒のざんげを聞きながら十字を切るスコット・ホルマー神父）
　首都ワシントンから約３０キロ離れたメリーランド州の小さな町ブーイにある聖エドワード王証聖者カトリック教会のスコット・ホルマー神父（４０）は、ウイルス流行で教会が閉鎖されたことを受けて車好きの米国で十分に試されてきたこの方法に目を向けた。
　聖職服を身にまとったホルマー神父は、天候が許す限り日曜日を除く毎日、教会の外にある駐車場で木の椅子に腰掛け、身体的な接触をせずにざんげを聞き、祝福する。
　教会の外では、２列に並べられたトラフィックコーンと標識が車を誘導する。運転手は窓を開け、ホルマー神父に自らの罪を告白する。ホルマー神父は神の道に戻るためにいくつか励ましの言葉を掛け、罪の赦（ゆる）しを与える。
　ホルマー神父は韓国でドライブスルーのウイルス検査が行われているのを見てこのアイデアを思い付いた。「教区は感染拡大を封じ込めるためにすべてのミサを禁止した。しかしざんげを聞くことに関してはまだ明確には決まっていない」という。
　ホルマー神父は信徒らと安全な距離を保つよう心掛け、信徒には車から降りないよう求めている。匿名でのざんげを求める人に対しては、神父自身がバンダナで目隠しをする。
　節食とざんげの日とされている金曜日には、車の長い列ができ、神学生らが交通整理に駆り出されたこともあった。ホルマー神父は「他の人のざんげが聞こえないように、車の間隔を空ける必要がある」と説明する。
　ホルマー神父は、信者らはドライブスルーでざんげを受けられることを喜んでいると話す。「信者らは車でやって来て窓からざんげする時、神は今われわれと共にあると感じている」と述べた。
　ホルマー神父は、自分が新型コロナウイルスに感染したとは思っていないと語った。ドライブスルーでのざんげは、教会が再開するまで続ける予定だ。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/03/23-13:10）

The United States has long loved its drive-ins and drive-throughs: for movies, fast food, pharmacies and banking. Now the coronavirus pandemic has added a new one: Catholic confessions.
With his church closed due to the outbreak, Scott Holmer turned to the tried-and-tested method in this nation of car-lovers.
Every day except Sunday, and if the weather permits, he sits on a wooden chair in his priestly robes in the parking lot outside his Maryland chapel and does a contact-free confession and blessing.
Two lines of traffic cones and a sign guide cars outside St Edwards Church in Bowie, a small town around 20 miles (30 kilometers) outside of Washington.
The drivers lower their windows and confess their sins to Father Holmer who, after a few words of encouragement to return to the path of the Lord, grants absolution.
Despite the drive-through's all-American pedigree, Father Holmer came up with the idea last week after seeing South Korea organize drive-through tests for the coronavirus.
The diocese canceled all masses to tamp down the spread of the infection. But the decision about confession was kind of up in the air, he told AFP.
So I said, I'll just get in the parking lot, and that way I can avoid getting it myself and people can avoid any transmission. It's more open air, so there's like air flow and all that good stuff.
Holmer takes care to keep a safe distance from his flock and asks parishioners to stay in their vehicles.
With couples or families, each person takes their turn sitting in the driver's seat. For those wishing an anonymous confession, the priest covers his eyes with a bandana.
- 'God is with us now' -
On the third Friday before Lent, a day of fasting and repentance, the line of cars quickly grows long and a seminary student is pressed into service as a traffic marshal.
It's a weird thing to think about the spiritual and the physical at the same time, admits the priest, who sometimes asks drivers to cut their engines to maintain the secrecy of the confession.
?You don't want people to overhear each other so we've got to keep cars at a certain distance, he said.
He said people had been very grateful to be able to receive the sacrament.
People are so happy to see that we are still able to be on their side even if we are not able to celebrate mass, the priest said.
There's more gratitude than there is fear. When they drive up to the priest at their window they're feeling God is with us now.
Father Holmer says he does not believe he has been infected with the virus that is causing mass lockdowns and social distancing around the world.
Aged 40, he is not in the highest risk group in any case.
If I get it, I'll just quarantine myself, I've been to confession myself last week, so I'm good to go, he said with a smile.
Awaiting his turn at the wheel of his car, Steven Irving praised the priest's great idea.
We have a young and energetic and innovative priest, said Irving, a man in his sixties who had come with his wife.
I had an opportunity today to fulfill my religious obligations during Lent.
The priest plans to carry on with his drive-through confessions until the church reopens.
But he misses the direct connection with his flock. Not being able to be physically present is just brutal, he said.