Rome Newsroom, Nov 23, 2021 / 13:00 pm
Austria’s Catholic bishops’ conference has tightened rules for attending Mass and other celebrations as the country went into full national lockdown on Monday.
The country’s bishops have said that they will not exclude anyone from Mass, but they will follow the government’s restrictions, which order those who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 to remain in their homes except to get food or medicine, or for “basic religious needs.”
Officials ordered the whole country into lockdown starting Nov. 22, a week after they had implemented a lockdown only for unvaccinated residents. The lockdown followed other partial restrictions that targeted only the unvaccinated, barring them from restaurants and most cultural or social areas.
The current measures go through Dec. 13, though authorities said they will be reassessed in the middle of next week and may end sooner. Restrictions on the unvaccinated are expected to continue even after the national lockdown ends.