Fifteen Catholic priests who share a community home in Northwest D.C. entered their ninth day of quarantine on Monday, after one of them tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Rev. Stephen Planning, SJ, president of Gonzaga College High School, was found to have the virus March 15, leading him and his 14 Jesuit priest-housemates to self-isolate inside their community home, located at First and I streets NW, near North Capitol Street.
“We had to go into lockdown mode. We have been quarantined, have not left the house,” said the Rev. Tom Reese, SJ, senior analyst with Religion News Service who resides at the Jesuit D.C. community home.
Planning has avoided hospitalization so far.
“He’s still doing ok … he’s keeping isolated in his room and so we’re praying for him and taking care of him,” said Reese.
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Reese said he’s been regularly scrubbing down surfaces with antiseptic wipes as he and his fellow priests, accustomed to sharing meals and prayers, keep their distance from each other.
“So far, the rest of the community is doing fine,” Reese said, “this is something that’s going to be part of a lot of people’s lives and I’m most worried about all those people who are homeless or in shelters.”
The priests believe their home quarantine should serve as an example to others to follow public health directives.
“People of faith have an absolute responsibility to pay attention to what public health experts are telling us to do,” Reese said.
“To get infected and then pass that infection on to someone else because of our carelessness, because of our selfishness, because we think we know better than anyone else, that’s what we call sin.”
