On a call with the faithful, Archbishop of Denver Samuel J. Aquila said on Sunday that priests still have substantial workloads amid the coronavirus pandemic, and that contemporary Catholics are “more blessed” compared to those who suffered through previous crises.

“We are much better off today than the plagues that hit the world throughout the centuries,” said Aquila. Referencing the Spanish Flu of 1918, swine flu and polio, the archbishop explained that “today we are more blessed in terms of being able to shelter in our homes. And we know how to protect ourselves to the extent possible by washing our hands, by distancing, by not going out and not going to other people’s homes and all of that.”

Also on the call was Rob Lanciotti, a church deacon in Fort Collins who spent 29 years working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lanciotti, who has a doctoral degree in microbiology, was not speaking on behalf of the health agency.

“The challenge is we’re facing a respiratory virus, a highly transmissible virus, that’s been introduced into a population that has essentially no immunity at all,” said Lanciotti. “That’s the foundation for a pandemic.”

He said that a large percentage of the population will naturally survive the pandemic, which will create immunity. Otherwise, the only recourse is a vaccination, the development of which is still in progress.

Lanciotti described efforts to reduce transmissions as much as possible as measures not designed to prevent infections, but to spread them out over time.

“If you took all of the crimes that occurred in Denver in a year’s period and condensed it into one night, what would happen?” he asked. Hospitals and other first responders would be overwhelmed, the same as in a pandemic.

Sunday also marked the second week of in-person Masses being canceled across all three of Colorado’s Catholic dioceses. Aquila said that during the Spanish Flu, there was a similar shutdown that lasted for approximately one month. Nevertheless, priests were still conducting virtual Masses, telephoning parishioners, taking confessions, going to hospitals in limited cases, and “staying quite active,” he said.

The archbishop clarified that confessions must take place in person, and priests would observe six to nine feet of separation. “The church has always taught that confession must be person to person,” said Aquila. Phones, FaceTime or Skype are not permitted, in part to ensure that no one can record the conversation and partly to preserve “the sanctity of confession.”

Aquila closed the phone call by praying for healthcare providers, scientists, and members of Congress. He said that, as Congress struggled to pass a multi-trillion-dollar economic rescue bill over the weekend, “people on both sides of the aisle are not putting the common good first. It shows the dysfunctionalism of our society at this point in time and of our government that ideologies are coming before the common good.”