As a clinical virologist involved in the fight against SARS coronavirus 2 in South Africa, I advised 2 Catholic groups in Cape Town on how to manage groups of people (at Mass and otherwise) during the local epidemic. The Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Town shut down 12 days before the country shut down, and went online with video streams of congregationless Masses. Some in the SSPX congregation then advertised their chapel as the only Catholic church that was open, then crammed “very close to 100 people” into a chapel that seats 70-80 at most, and then made plans to continue underground Mass throughout lockdown, thereby recklessly disregarding the safety of the community.
