A DUBLIN businessman says he has devised a plan to get around the Holy Water font ban by offering churches touchless dispensers normally used as hand sanitisers.
Peter Vallely, who is a consultant at Hygiene Solutions in Dublin, found his inventive side working overtime when a priest apologised that there was no Holy Water available during a funeral due to health restrictions.
Holy Waters fonts were withdrawn due to concerns over Covid-19 after it was found they could be a source of spreading the infection.
Mr Vallely then thought about how his company's devices could be modified for Holy Water, as they would dispense just the right amount needed and it was found that there is no reason why the water inside a dispenser could not be blessed.
The church at Crumlin Children's Hospital in Dublin could be the first to use the idea.
Mr Vallely told the Sunday Times: "We'd love to be able to put the Holy Water dispensers out there for the community and just let them get on with it.
"Any church that wants to put it in a hand sanitiser unit and take our fluid, we'll give them a Holy Water font as well".
Fr Paddy Moran, Chaplain of St Mary's College, Rathmines, Dublin, said blessing with Holy Water is "a ritual that gives us consolation, a sense of strength and protection.
"If you think about it, the hand sanitiser is a holy thing," he said.
"It's about me keeping myself safe so that you can be safe and we can be safe together".
