The Diocese of Novaliches has so far responded to 300 requests for online pray over through their E-Pray project, as of April 9.
"300 cases received online 'pray over' from our volunteer priests," the diocese said in a Facebook post on Saturday, April 10.
"For online pray over request: Please register https://tinyurl.com/e-prayerdionova or message fb.com/epraydioceseofnovaliches / 0995-041-7199," it added.
E-Pray is an online prayer request initiative of the Novaliches diocese’s social communications ministry that allows a patient to connect to a priest for spiritual counseling and prayer.
The project uses Google Form, a free web-based application, where people can type in their contact details such as mobile number or Facebook messenger account so that a priest could get in touch with them.
Fr. Luciano Felloni, the social communications director, said the pandemic has prevented patients from accessing their priests in the midst of stressful and end-to-life situations.
“The problem is there’s no direct contact because priests are not allowed to enter in hospitals, in ICUs, and in quarantine facilities,” he said in a CBCP News post.
“We can’t offer at this point in time the anointing of the sick, we can’t offer confession. What we can offer is a priest to pray over them,” he added.
Felloni said the platform will be manned by a number of volunteers who will match any sick person with a priest available.
He said about 30 priests from across the country and one from New York have so far volunteered “to listen and pray with the COVID-19 patients”.
“Let’s not allow any single patient to go on without prayer, to go on without being blessed by a priest,” he said. “Let’s help in our little and very simple way. Let us help with the grace of prayer.”