Pandemic Religion: A Digital Archive

How COVID-19 has affected my family

The pandemic has affected my family in ways that we never expected. While I am not religious myself, my family is devoutly Catholic. Prior to COVID-19, they would attend church every weekend without fail. Starting at the end of March 2020, the church stopped having in person mass, and my family began to watch the service on TV during the same scheduled time. I noticed that they also began to participate in religious activities more often than prior. My family has been watching live streams of other religious talks and internet content of the same vein, as well as just praying more often and as a group. As someone who is personally agnostic, the coronavirus situation hasn't affected my own beliefs, but it seems to me that those who were already very religious have only had their beliefs strengthened.
A recent development in the situation is that the church my family goes to just re-opened this weekend at a limited capacity. The protocol included having those in the front of the church wearing masks, but interestingly enough, those in the pews weren't wearing masks. Further, only 25% of the normal capacity was allowed in and the building filled up quickly, which showed me that a significant amount of people in my town were eager to go back to church in person.

March 2020

Texas