Having garnered international recognition after appearing on Britain’s Got Talent and more recently Dancing With The Stars, Fr Ray Kelly has had to dig deep to another set of skills as he continues with his role as priest in Co Meath during lockdown.
Fr Kelly has over 27,000 people tuning into his online Masses from the church in Oldcastle. But there are more difficult challenges for him going about his duties during the outbreak of Covid-19.
On a more personal, more emotional level, he has interactions with parishioners that require something different from a local priest.
Like telling a bereaved family they can only have 10 people at their loved one’s funeral.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with the Irish Examiner, Fr Kelly described how the lockdown is affected those trying to remember loved ones who have passed away.
“When the man died I contacted another parish to see what the regulations were,” he explained.
“They said we could have 20 people in the church and around the graveside but with social distancing in place, so the family is scattered around the church.
The priest doesn’t give out anything, there’s no sign of peace, no homily, no eulogy, just commending the departed to the mercy of God and the Mass.
“So the family were to be in the church but totally not involved,” Fr Kelly explained.
“Then on the eve of the funeral, I got word that the number attending had to be cut down to 10 people and I had to get the list of the 10 people permitted to come into the church for the funeral of their loved one.”
This led to a surreal experience, he said.
“And it was so weird because I couldn’t even meet the family, we had to talk at a distance so it was difficult to tell what level of grief was going on because I wasn’t communicating with them in the way you normally would for preparing for the funeral of a loved one.”
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